List of Famous people who died in 1981

Princess Marina Petrovna of Russia was a daughter of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia and his wife, Grand Duchess Militza Nicholaevna, born Princess of Montenegro. A great-granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, she was born in Nice and grew up in the last period of Imperial Russia, mostly in Znamenka, her father's summer palace near Peterhof.

Ziaur Rahman, was a Bangladesh Army officer and later turned statesman who served as the President of Bangladesh during 1977–1981. He was assassinated on 30 May 1981 in Chittagong in an army coup d'état.

Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was commonly called Bontade but the actual surname is Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the Principe di Villagrazia − the area of Palermo he controlled − and Il Falco. He had links with several powerful politicians in Sicily with links to former prime minister Giulio Andreotti. In 1981 he was killed by the rival faction within Cosa Nostra, the Corleonesi. His death sparked a brutal Mafia War that left several hundred mafiosi dead.

Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy was a Soviet writer. He is the author of the book Story of a Real Man about Soviet World War II fighter pilot Aleksey Maresev.