List of Famous people who died in 1981

Vladimir Alexandrovich Sudets was a Soviet air commander during World War II, commanding the 17th Air Army, and later became Marshal of the aviation after the war.

Val Henry Gielgud was an English actor, writer, director and broadcaster. He was a pioneer of radio drama for the BBC, and also directed the first ever drama to be produced in the newer medium of television.

Giuseppe Pella was an Italian Christian Democratic politician who served as the 31st Prime Minister of Italy from 1953 to 1954. He was also Minister of Treasury, Budget and of Foreign Affairs during the 1950s and early 1960s. Pella served as President of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956 after the death of Alcide De Gasperi.

William Seward Burroughs III was an American novelist, also known as William S. Burroughs Jr. and Billy Burroughs. He bears the name of both his father and his great-grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, the original inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. He wrote three novels, two of which were published as Speed (1970) and Kentucky Ham (1973). His third novel, Prakriti Junction, begun in 1977, was never completed, although extracts from it were included in his third and final published work Cursed From Birth.