List of Famous people who died in 1985

Alí Rafael Primera Rosell was a Venezuelan musician, composer, poet, and political activist. He was born in Coro, Falcón State, Venezuela and died in Caracas. He was one of the best known representatives of Nueva canción in Venezuela – his songs "condemning exploitation and repression, and celebrating resistance, struck a chord among a wide public," and he is popularly known in Venezuela as El Cantor del Pueblo. In 2005, the government of Venezuela declared his music to be an example of the national heritage of Venezuela.

Daniel James White was an American politician who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall. In a controversial verdict that led to the coining of the legal slang "Twinkie defense", White was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder in the deaths of Milk and Moscone. White served five years of a seven-year prison sentence. Less than two years after his release he returned to San Francisco, where he ultimately committed suicide.

Paul Michel Audiard was a French screenwriter and film director, known for his witty, irreverent and slang-laden dialogues which made him a prominent figure on the French cultural scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He was the father of French film director Jacques Audiard.

Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeannine" Deckers, better known as Sœur Sourire and often called The Singing Nun in English-speaking countries, was a Belgian singer-songwriter and a member of the Dominican Order in Belgium as Sister Luc Gabriel. She acquired widespread fame in 1963 with the release of the Belgian French song "Dominique", which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and other charts. Owing to confusion over the terms of the recording contract, she was reduced to poverty, and also experienced a crisis of faith, quitting the order, though still remaining a Catholic. She committed suicide with her lifelong partner Annie Pécher.

Jirō Shirasu was a Japanese bureaucrat and businessman.

Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov was a high-ranking KGB spy during the Cold War who decided to covertly release valuable information to France and NATO on the Soviet Union's clandestine program aimed at stealing technology from the West.

Ettore Boiardi, better known by the Anglicized name Hector Boyardee, was an Italian-American chef, famous for his eponymous brand of food products, named Chef Boyardee.

Kyu Sakamoto was a Japanese singer and actor, best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō", which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies. It reached number one in the United States Billboard Hot 100 in June 1963, making Sakamoto the first Asian recording artist to have a number one song on the chart. Sakamoto died, along with 519 others on board the flight, in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 on 12 August 1985; the deadliest single-aircraft accident to date.

Mary Louise Brooks, known professionally as Louise Brooks, was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as a Jazz Age icon and as a flapper sex symbol due to her bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.

Julie Pearl Apostol Postigo, better known by her stage name Julie Vega, was a Filipina child actress, singer and commercial model. She remains very popular in her native Philippines, years after her death at the peak of her career at age of 16. She won two FAMAS Awards for Best Child Actress during her brief showbiz career.