List of Famous people who died in 1981

Mounir Mourad, born Maurice Zaki Mourad Mordechai was an Egyptian artist, singer, actor, and distinguished composer of lighthearted songs. His compositions included duets for Shadia and Abdel Halim Hafez.

Paul Hörbiger was an Austrian theatre and film actor.

Dorothy Louise Eady, also known as Omm Sety or Om Seti, was keeper of the Abydos Temple of Seti I and draughtswoman for the Department of Egyptian Antiquities. She is especially well known for her belief that in a previous life she had been a priestess in ancient Egypt, as well as her considerable historical research at Abydos. Her life and work has been the subject of many articles, television documentaries, and biographies.

Samuel Bartram was an English professional footballer and manager. He played as a goalkeeper and holds the record for most appearances for Charlton Athletic, his only club at the professional level.

Anna Hedvig Büll was a Baltic German missionary from Estonia, who helped to save the lives of several thousand Armenian orphans during the Armenian genocide.

Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah, better known by the pen name Hamka was an Indonesian ʿālim, philosopher, writer, lecturer, politician and journalist.

Lotte Lenya was an Austrian-American singer, diseuse, and actress, long based in the United States. In the German-speaking and classical music world, she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her first husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language cinema, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a jaded aristocrat in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). She also played the murderous and sadistic Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963).

Thor Nis Christiansen was a Danish-American serial killer from Solvang, California. He committed his first three murders in late 1976 and early 1977, killing young women of similar appearance from nearby Isla Vista. His crimes motivated large demonstrations opposed to violence against women, and in favor of better transportation for the young people residing in Isla Vista. In 1979, he killed a young woman from Los Angeles. A fifth intended victim escaped with a bullet in her head, and later identified him in a Los Angeles bar.

Zoya Alekseyevna Fyodorova was a Russian film star who had an affair with American Navy captain Jackson Tate in 1945 and bore a child, Victoria Fyodorova in January 1946. Having rejected the advances of NKVD police head Lavrentiy Beria, the affair was exposed resulting, initially, in a death sentence later reprieved to work camp imprisonment in Siberia; she was released after eight years. She was murdered in her Moscow apartment in 1981.

Harold Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter and philanthropist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s and became one of the most popular artists and highest-paid performers. Chapin is also one of the best charting musical artists in the United States. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide. He has been described as one of the most beloved performers in music history.