List of Famous people who died in 1981

Robert H. Harris was an American character actor.

Derick Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Viscount Amory,, was a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords.

Mehmet Ismail Shehu was an Albanian communist politician who served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Albania from 1954 to 1981. As an acknowledged military tactician, without whose leadership the communist partisans may well have failed in their battle to win Albania for the Marxist-Leninist cause, Shehu exhibited an ideological understanding and work ethic that singled him out for rapid promotion in the communist party. Mehmet Shehu shared power with Enver Hoxha from the end of the Second World War. According to official Albanian government sources, he committed suicide on December 17, 1981, after which the entire Shehu clan were arrested and imprisoned while Mehmet Shehu himself was denounced as "one of the most dangerous traitors and enemies of his country". Persistent rumors remain, however, that Shehu was actually murdered on orders from Hoxha.

Ole Sarvig was a Danish author and poet, known for his participation in the literary journal heretica. In 1967 he received the grand prize of the Danish Academy. In 2004 his 1943 work Regnmaaleren was included in the Danish Culture Canon. He was a friend and mentor to the poet Michael Strunge, whose poem "December" remembers Sarvig's death by suicide in December 1981. Like Sarvig, Strunge took his life by jumping from a building.

Helmut Andreas Paul Grieshaber or HAP Grieshaber was a German artist. His preferred medium was large format woodcuts.

Oscar Frederic Moore was an American jazz guitarist with the Nat King Cole Trio.