List of Famous people who died in 1981

Yonatan Ratosh was the literary pseudonym of Uriel Shelach, a Polish-born Israeli poet and journalist who founded the Canaanite movement.

Dame Enid Muriel Lyons was an Australian politician who was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and the first woman to serve in federal cabinet. Prior to her own political career, she was best known as the wife of Joseph Lyons, who was Prime Minister of Australia (1932–1939) and Premier of Tasmania (1923–1928).

Ahmad Toukan was a Jordanian political leader of Palestinian descent who was the Prime Minister of Jordan from 26 September 1970 to 28 October 1970.

Prince Karl Gero Albrecht Joseph Wilhelm Anton Maria of Urach, Count of Württemberg, 3rd Duke of Urach was the head of the morganatic Urach branch of the House of Württemberg.

Jules C. Stein was an American physician and businessman who co-founded Music Corporation of America (MCA).

Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of popular attitudes toward modern art; for example, his arranging of the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition of 1935, in the words of author Bernice Kert, was "a precursor to the hold Van Gogh has to this day on the contemporary imagination."

Fritiof Gunnar Blix was a Swedish chemist and Professor of Medical and Physiological chemistry at the University of Uppsala. He was the son of Professor Magnus Blix, father of politician Hans Blix, and grandfather of journalist Erik Blix.