List of Famous people who died in 1985

Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in Havana, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961.

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, also known as Ustaz Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, was a Sudanese religious thinker, leader, and trained engineer. He developed what he called the "Second Message of Islam", which postulated that the verses of the Qur'an revealed in Medina were appropriate in their time as the basis of Islamic law, (Sharia), but that the verses revealed in Mecca represented the ideal religion, would be revived when humanity had reached a stage of development capable of accepting them, ushering in a renewed Islam based on freedom and equality. He was executed for apostasy for his religious preaching at the age of 76 by the regime of Gaafar Nimeiry.

Werner Hinz was a German film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1935 and 1984.

Siti Oetari Tjokroaminoto (1905-1986), was the daughter of H. O. S. Tjokroaminoto and was briefly married to Sukarno, first president of Indonesia.

Anagarika Govinda was the founder of the order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala and an expositor of Tibetan Buddhism, Abhidharma, and Buddhist meditation as well as other aspects of Buddhism. He was also a painter and poet.

Vladimir Konstantinovich Kokkinaki was a test pilot in the Soviet Union, notable for setting twenty-two world records and serving as president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

René Barjavel was a French author, journalist and critic who may have been the first to think of the grandfather paradox in time travel. He was born in Nyons, a town in the Drôme department in southeastern France. He is best known as a science fiction author, whose work often involved the fall of civilisation due to technocratic hubris and the madness of war, but who also favoured themes emphasising the durability of love.

Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia, was a French art critic and writer, linked to the dada movement. She was the first wife of artist Francis Picabia.

Sergei Appolinarievich Gerasimov was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. The oldest film school in the world, the VGIK, bears his name.

Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel was a German Jewish microbiologist and a founder of mycoplasma bacterial research. She performed most of her research at the Lister Institute in London, England, after having been expelled from Germany by the Nazis.