List of Famous people who died in 1981

Charles Barton was an American film and vaudeville actor and film director. He won an Oscar for best assistant director in 1933. His first film as a director was the Zane Grey feature Wagon Wheels, starring Randolph Scott, in 1934.

Denys Neil Coop was an English camera operator and cinematographer. He was a president of the British Society of Cinematographers from 1973 to 1975.

Margaret Craig McNamara was the founder of the nonprofit children's literacy organization Reading is Fundamental and the wife of the United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Stephen Reginald Bosustow was a Canadian-born American film producer from 1943 until his retirement in 1979. He was one of the founders of United Productions of America (UPA) and produced nearly 600 cartoon and live-action shorts. He is chiefly remembered for producing a string of Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing-Boing cartoons in the 1950s, three of which earned Academy Awards. He is the only film producer in history who received all the Oscar nominations in one category (1957), guaranteeing him the winning Oscar. Magoo's Puddle Jumper was the eventual winner.