List of Famous people who died in 1980

John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono. After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Lennon continued a career as a solo artist and as Ono's collaborator.

Terrence Stephen McQueen, nicknamed the "King of Cool", was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw during the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Cincinnati Kid, Love With the Proper Stranger, The Thomas Crown Affair, Le Mans, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillon, as well as the all-star ensemble films The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Towering Inferno.

Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often humorous street jargon. He was also a prominent stage and screen actor. Though his work was largely ignored by the official Soviet cultural establishment, he achieved remarkable fame during his lifetime, and to this day exerts significant influence on many of Russia's popular musicians and actors years after his death.

Romain Gary, born Roman Kacew, was a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator of Jewish origin. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two names.

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympic Games.

Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and prominent socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.

Bette Nesmith Graham was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of the correction fluid Liquid Paper. She was the mother of musician and producer Michael Nesmith of The Monkees.

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet was a British politician who rose to fame in the 1920s as a Member of Parliament and later in the 1930s, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, became the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Mosley had not been knighted, but he was the sixth baronet, with a title that had been in his family for more than a century at his father's death on 21 September 1928.

Colonel Harland David Sanders was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken and later acting as the company's brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company. The title "colonel" was honorary – a Kentucky Colonel – not the military rank.

Peter Sellers CBE was an English film actor, comedian and singer. He performed in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series of films.