List of Famous people who died in 1981

Samuel Osmond Barber II was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator. One of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century; music critic Donal Henahan stated, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." Principally influenced by nine years of composition studies with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute and more than twenty-five years of study with his uncle, the composer Sidney Homer, Barber's music usually eschewed the experimental trends of musical modernism in favor of utilizing traditional 19th-century harmonic language and formal structure that embraced lyricism and emotional expression. However, elements of modernism were adopted by Barber after 1940 in a limited number of his compositions, such as an increased use of dissonance and chromaticism in the Cello Concerto (1945) and Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1955), and the use of tonal ambiguity and a narrow use of serialism in his Piano Sonata (1949), Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), and Nocturne (1959).

Hugo Wilhelm Friedhofer was an American composer and cellist best known for his motion picture scores.

Lydia Simoneschi was an Italian actress and voice actress. During her career, she gave her voice to actresses mainly during the Golden Ages.

Katharine Alexander was an American actress of stage and screen. She appeared in 44 films between 1930 and 1951.Her first name was sometimes spelled Katherine in billing.