List of Famous people who died in 2021

Xu Qinxian was a Chinese major general of the People's Liberation Army. As commander of the 38th Group Army, he refused the order to use force against demonstrators in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. As a result, Xu was court-martialed, jailed for five years and expelled from the Communist Party of China. After serving his sentence, he was exiled to Shijiazhuang, Hebei, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Yavorivsky was a Ukrainian poet, writer, journalist and politician.

Olga Leonidovna Pashkova was a Soviet Union born Russian film and stage actress from 1987. She played in among others It (1989) and The Thief (1997). She became in 2006 People's Artist of the Russian Federation and Merited Artist of the Russian Federation in 1998.

Steven Bruce Riley was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle for 10 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL).

Gerhard Erber was a German classical pianist and academic teacher. He played as a member of the East German ensemble Gruppe Neue Musik Hanns Eisler, which focused on contemporary chamber music. He was a professor of piano at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, and organised a Bach competition in Köthen.

Justín Javorek was a Slovak football coach and goalkeeper for the Czechoslovakia national team.

Peter Grosser was a German football player and coach.

Andrés Abt was an Uruguayan politician who served as a member in the Chamber of Representatives and as mayor of Montevideo's CH Municipality.

Aleksandar "Sanja" Ilić was a Serbian and Yugoslav musician and composer.

Martin Sinclair Frankland Hood, generally known as Sinclair Hood, was a British archaeologist and academic. He was Director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens from 1954 to 1962, and led the excavations at Knossos from 1957 to 1961. He turned 100 in January 2017 and died in January 2021, two weeks short of his 104th birthday.