List of Famous people who died in 1981

Perry Johanson was a Seattle architect and one of the founders of the architectural firm NBBJ.

Irmgard Bartenieff was a dance theorist, dancer, choreographer, physical therapist, and a leading pioneer of dance therapy. A student of Rudolf Laban, she pursued cross-cultural dance analysis, and generated a new vision of possibilities for human movement and movement training. From her experiences applying Laban’s concepts of dynamism, three-dimensional movement and mobilization to the rehabilitation of people affected by polio in the 1940s, she went on to develop her own set of movement methods and exercises, known as Bartenieff Fundamentals.

Glenn Anders was an American actor, most notable for his work on the stage.

Margarete Lanner (1896–1981) was a German stage and film actress. She appeared in around 30 films during the silent and early sound eras in a mixture of leading and supporting roles. She had a small part in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.

Conrad Warmund Christian Maria Fink was a German librarian and politician who represented the Bavaria Party and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria. He was district administrator for Pfarrkirchen and from 1949 to 1953 a Member of the Deutscher Bundestag.

Johan Wigmore Fabricius was a Dutch writer, journalist and adventurer.

William Edmunds was an Italian stage and screen character actor, typically playing roles with heavy accents, most notable as Mr. Giuseppe Martini in It's a Wonderful Life.