List of Famous people who died in 1985

Ruth Gordon Jones was an American actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, Gordon gained international recognition and critical acclaim for film roles that continued into her 70s and 80s. Her later work included performances in Rosemary's Baby (1968), Where's Poppa? (1970), Harold and Maude (1971), Every Which Way but Loose (1978), and Any Which Way You Can (1980).

Emílio Garrastazu Médici was a Brazilian military leader and politician who was President of Brazil from 1969 to 1974. His authoritarian rule marked the apex of the Brazilian military government.

Stefan Bellof was a West German racing driver. Bellof was the winner of the Drivers' Championship in the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for the factory Rothmans Porsche team. His lap record on the Nordschleife configuration at the Nürburgring, set while qualifying for the 1000 km race in 1983, stood for 35 years, when it was beaten by Timo Bernhard in 2018. He also competed with the Tyrrell Formula One team during 1984 and 1985. Bellof was killed in an accident during the 1985 1000 km of Spa, a round of the World Endurance Championship.

Meret Elisabeth Oppenheim was a German-born Swiss Surrealist artist and photographer.

Dmitry Konstantinovich Belyayev was a Russian geneticist and academician who served as director of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics (IC&G) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, from 1959 to 1985. His decades-long effort to breed domesticated silver foxes was described by The New York Times as “arguably the most extraordinary breeding experiment ever conducted.” A 2010 article in Scientific American stated that Belyayev “may be the man most responsible for our understanding of the process by which wolves were domesticated into our canine companions.”

Ayşe Afet İnan was a Turkish historian and sociologist. She was one of the eight adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. She was known to be involved in the practice of physical anthropology, as she measured over sixty thousands skulls in Anatolia, which was aimed to support the Turkish History Thesis.

Jean-Pierre Rassam (1942–1985) was a French film producer of the 1970s. He was found dead, age 43, in his suite at the Plaza Athénée, the cause of death being barbiturate overdose, in 1985. He was in a relationship with actress Carole Bouquet, with whom he has one son, film producer Dimitri Rassam. Bouquet has called him the love of her life.

John Paul Austin was Chairman, President and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. From 1962 to 1981 Austin oversaw the growth of the company from $567 million in sales to a $5.9 billion global force.

Richard Haydn was an English comedy actor. Some of his better known performances include his roles as Professor Oddley in Ball of Fire (1941), Roger in No Time for Love (1943), Thomas Rogers in And Then There Were None (1945), Emperor Franz Joseph in The Emperor Waltz (1948), the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Baron Popoff in The Merry Widow (1952), William Brown in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music (1965).

Clive A. Sullivan MBE was a Welsh rugby league player. A Great Britain and Wales international winger, he played for both Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers in his career, and also for Oldham and Doncaster. Captaining Great Britain in 1972, he was the first black captain for Great Britain in any sport. He was part of the Great Britain team which won the 1972 Rugby League World Cup. His son, Anthony Sullivan, had a successful career with Hull Kingston Rovers, St. Helens, Wales in both rugby league and union, and Cardiff RFC.