Date of Death between 1981-01-01 and 1981-12-31 (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)
1. Natalie Wood
Actress | West Side Story
Natalie Wood was born on July 20, 1938, in San Francisco, California, as Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko. Her parents, Maria Stepanovna (Zudilov) and Nikolai Stepanovich Zakharenko, were Russian-born émigrés, of Ukrainian and Russian descent, who spoke barely comprehensible English; they changed the ...
2. William Holden
Actor | Stalag 17
William Holden was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. in O'Fallon, Illinois, to Mary Blanche (Ball), a schoolteacher, and William Franklin Beedle, Sr., an industrial chemist. He came from a wealthy family (the Beedles) that moved to Pasadena, California, when he was three. In 1937, while studying ...
3. Gloria Grahame
Actress | The Bad and the Beautiful
Gloria Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever (1944) was ...
4. Bernard Lee
Actor | The Man with the Golden Gun
Best remembered as 'M' in the James Bond films, Bernard Lee was a popular character player in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Born into a theatrical family, he made his stage debut at age six and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He first appeared on the West End stage...
5. Paddy Chayefsky
Writer | Network
Author, producer and composer who earned a Bachelor of Science degree from CCNY, then a Purple Heart during World War II while serving in the US Army. Joining ASCAP in 1955, his chief musical collaborators included George Bassman and Harry Warren. His popular-song compositions include "Marty" and "...
6. Richard Boone
Actor | Have Gun - Will Travel
Richard Allen Boone was born in Los Angeles, California, to Cecile Lillian (Beckerman) and Kirk Etna Boone, a wealthy corporate lawyer. His maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, while his father was descended from a brother of frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Squire Boone.
Richard was a...
7. Melvyn Douglas
Actor | Being There
Two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas was one of America's finest actors. In addition to his two Oscars, he also won a Tony Award and an Emmy. Douglas would enjoy cinema immortality if for no other reason than his being the man who made Greta Garbo laugh in Ernst Lubitsch's classic comedy Ninotchka ...
8. Jim Davis
Actor | Big Jake
Tall, rangy Jim Davis spent much of his early career in westerns mainly at Republic Pictures. The Missouri-born and -raised Davis' relaxed, easygoing manner and Southern drawl easily fit most moviegoers' image of the cowboy and Republic put him in a ton of them over the years (the fact that, unlike...
9. Hoagy Carmichael
Soundtrack | To Have and Have Not
Award-winning songwriter ("Stardust", "Ole Buttermilk Sky", "Georgia on My Mind"), composer, pianist, actor and singer, educated at Indiana University (LL.B). He played piano in the college bands, and later gave up a law practice for a career in songwriting. He joined ASCAP in 1931, and his chief ...
10. Enid Markey
Actress | Tarzan of the Apes
Enid Markey was born on February 22, 1894 in Dillon, Colorado, USA as Enid Virginia Markey. She was an actress, known for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), The Romance of Tarzan (1918) and The Yankee Way (1917). She was married to George W. Cobb. She died on November 15, 1981 in Bay Shore, Long Island, ...
11. Jenny Maxwell
Actress | Blue Hawaii
Jenny Maxwell was born on September 3, 1941 in New York City, New York, USA as Jennifer Helene Maxwell. She was an actress, known for Blue Hawaii (1961), Hawaiian Eye (1959) and The Wild Wild West (1965). She was married to Ervin "Tip" Roeder and Paul W. Rapp. She died on June 10, 1981 in Los ...
12. William Wyler
Director | The Best Years of Our Lives
William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...
13. Robert Montgomery
Actor | Night Must Fall
As a child, Robert Montgomery enjoyed a privileged life, as his father was the president of the New York Rubber Co. When he died, the fortune was gone and Robert worked at a number of jobs. He later went to New York to be a writer, and on the advice of a friend tried acting. He worked with George ...
14. Jack Albertson
Actor | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
A former song-and-dance man and veteran of vaudeville, burlesque and Broadway, Jack Albertson is best known to audiences as "The Man" in the TV series Chico and the Man (1974), for which he won an Emmy. In 1968 Albertson, the brother of actress Mabel Albertson, won the Oscar for Best Supporting ...
15. Edith Head
Costume Department | Sabrina
Edith Head was born on October 28, 1897 in San Bernardino, California, USA as Edith Claire Posener. She is known for her work on Sabrina (1954), All About Eve (1950) and Roman Holiday (1953). She was married to Wiard Ihnen and Charles Head. She died on October 24, 1981 in Los Angeles, California.
16. Ross Martin
Actor | The Wild Wild West
Born in Grodek, Poland, Ross Martin grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. He spoke Yiddish, Polish, and Russian before even learning English and later added French, Spanish, and Italian to his amazing repertoire.
Despite academic training (and receiving honors in) business, instruction, and ...
17. Madge Evans
Actress | Dinner at Eight
Lovely Madge Evans was the perennial nice girl in films of the 1930's. By then, she had been in front of the camera for many years, starting with Fairy Soap commercials at the age of two (she sat on a bar of soap holding a bunch of violets with the tag line reading "have you a little fairy in your ...
18. Vera-Ellen
Actress | White Christmas
Vera-Ellen began dancing at the age of 10, and a few years later became one of the youngest Rockettes. She appeared in several Broadway musicals until she was spotted by film producer Samuel Goldwyn in 1945. She was only 24 years old when Goldwyn cast her opposite Danny Kaye in Wonder Man (1945). ...
19. Wanda Hendrix
Actress | Song of Surrender
Born Dixie Wanda Hendrix in Jacksonville, Florida to a logging camp boss (Max Sylvester Hendrix) and his wife (Mary Bailley), wholesome, green-eyed, dark-haired Wanda Hendrix was involved in her hometown's little theater group when she was "discovered" by a passing talent agent and signed up by ...
20. Beulah Bondi
Actress | It's a Wonderful Life
Character actress Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and 1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great films, including The Trail...
21. Allen Ludden
Self | Password
Allen Ludden was born on October 5, 1917 in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, USA as Allen Packard Ellsworth. He was an actor, known for Password (1961), It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman! (1975) and Futureworld (1976). He was married to Betty White and Margaret Frances McGloin. He died on June ...
22. Nigel Patrick
Actor | Raintree County
This droll, dry-witted London-born gent came from a family of actors. He made his stage debut in 1932 and established his reputation in stylish plays. He progressed to films in 1939 but his career was immediately interrupted after only one movie appearance by WWII, serving as a lieutenant colonel ...
23. Arthur O'Connell
Actor | Anatomy of a Murder
Though veteran character actor Arthur O'Connell was born in New York City in 1908, he looked as countrified as apple pie, looking ever more comfy in overalls than he ever did in a suit. He made his stage debut in the mid 1930s and came into contact with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. As a result, ...
24. Matthew 'Stymie' Beard
Actor | Mush and Milk
Matthew 'Stymie' Beard was born on January 1, 1925 in Los Angeles, California, USA as Matthew Beard Jr. He was an actor, known for Mush and Milk (1933), A Lad an' a Lamp (1932) and Free Wheeling (1932). He was married to Annie. He died on January 8, 1981 in Los Angeles.
25. Margaret Lindsay
Actress | Scarlet Street
Picture-pretty brunette Margaret Lindsay was one of a number of pleasant, sweet-natured ingénues who could do no wrong in a score of 1930s stylish Hollywood pictures. Such altruistic love interests were often overlooked in pictures that were carried by the flashy histrionics of a jaunty James Cagney...
26. Pat Conway
Actor | Destination 60,000
Born on January 9, 1931, in Los Angeles, California, Patrick (Pat) Douglas Conway was the son of Hollywood "royalty"-film actor/director/producer Hugh ("Jack") Ryan Conway and his second wife, Virginia C. Bushman Conway, daughter of famous silent screen star Francis X. Bushman. Pat was a real ...
27. Bob Marley
Soundtrack | Strange Days
Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica, to Norval Marley and Cedella Booker. His father was a Jamaican of English descent. His mother was a black teenager. The couple planned to get married but Norval left Kingston before this could happen. Norval died in 1955, ...
28. Lotte Lenya
Actress | From Russia with Love
Lotte Lenya was a Tony Award-winning and Academy award-nominated actress and singer who is best remembered for her supporting role as Rosa Klebb in the classic Bond film From Russia with Love (1963).
She was born Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blaumauer on October 18, 1898, in Vienna, Austria (at ...
29. Torin Thatcher
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Associated with gritty, flashy film villainy, veteran character actor Torin Thatcher was born in Bombay, India to British parents on January 15, 1905, and was educated in England at the Bedford School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. A former schoolteacher, he appeared on the London stage in ...
30. Chief Dan George
Actor | Little Big Man
Chief Dan George was born with the names Geswanouth Slahoot (which was anglicised as 'Dan Slaholt') to a tribal chief on Burrard Indian Reserve Nº. 3 in North Vancouver. His last name was changed to 'George' when he entered a mission boarding school at the age of 5, where the use of his native ...
31. Brenda de Banzie
Actress | Hobson's Choice
The daughter of a musical conductor, fair-haired, matronly Brenda de Banzie appeared in just a handful of films. As the result of two outstanding performances she became an unexpected star when well into her middle age. Brenda first came to public notice as a sixteen year old chorine on the London ...
32. Frank DeKova
Actor | The Ten Commandments
Frank DeKova parlayed a sinister scowl, piercing eyes and an all-around menacing attitude into a long career of playing cold-blooded trigger-men, rampaging Indian chiefs, brutal Mexican army officers and the like. So it would probably come as a shock to those who know his work to discover that, ...
33. Eddie Byrne
Actor | Star Wars
Eddie Byrne was born on January 31, 1911 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Island of Terror (1966) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). He died on August 21, 1981 in Dublin.
34. William 'Wee Willie' Davis
Actor | Samson and Delilah
William 'Wee Willie' Davis was born on December 7, 1906 in New York City, New York, USA as William Grundy Davis. He was an actor, known for Samson and Delilah (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Reap the Wild Wind (1942). He died on April 9, 1981 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
35. Kipp Hamilton
Actress | Mike Hammer
Kipp Hamilton was born on August 16, 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA as Rita Marie Hamilton. She was an actress, known for Mike Hammer (1958), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and The Unforgiven (1960). She was married to Donald Thorman Rosenfeld and Dave Geisel. She died on January 29, 1981 in ...
36. Allyn Joslyn
Actor | Only Angels Have Wings
Allyn Joslyn, the son of a Pennsylvania mining engineer, made his stage debut at 17. He was soon appearing regularly in Broadway productions, and headed for Hollywood in 1936, making his debut in They Won't Forget (1937). His nervous, at times dyspeptic demeanor and somewhat aristocratic looks fit ...
37. Ann Harding
Actress | Love from a Stranger
Ann, born Dorothy Gatley, spent most of her childhood as an "army brat" constantly moving around before the family finally settled in New York. Ann first appeared on the stage while she spent a year attending Bryn Mawr College. She became a clerk and freelance script reader with a film company ...
38. Patsy Kelly
Actress | Rosemary's Baby
Patsy Kelly was born Bridget Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly on January 12, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York. She began performing in vaudeville when she was just twelve years old. Patsy worked with comedian Frank Fay and starred in several Broadway shows. She was discovered by producer Hal Roach, who paired ...
39. Stanley Clements
Actor | Racing Luck
Stanley Clements realized he wanted a show-business career while he was in grammar school, and when he graduated he toured in vaudeville for two years. He then joined the touring company of Edward Bowes' (aka Major Bowes) Amateur Hour. In 1941 he was signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox and ...
40. Sara Haden
Actress | The Shop Around the Corner
Sara Haden was the daughter of silent screen star Charlotte Walker who was also a celebrated beauty in her day. Alas, Sara did not inherit her mother's good looks. She was actually born Catherine Haden in Center Point, Texas, on November 17 1898. There was nothing particularly outstanding about her...
41. George Voskovec
Actor | 12 Angry Men
Czech actor/producer/director/author George Voskovec was born Jirí Wachsmann on June 19, 1905, the son of Jirina Valentina Marie (nee Pinkasová) and Vilem Eduard Voskovec (Wachsmann). His ancestry was Czech, German, and French. Prior to George's birth, the spelling of the family name was Vaksman (...
42. Virginia Huston
Actress | Out of the Past
Virginia Huston was born on April 24, 1925 in Wisner, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Out of the Past (1947), Flamingo Road (1949) and Tarzan's Peril (1951). She was married to Manus Paul Clinton II. She died on February 28, 1981 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
43. Shirley Grey
Actress | Treason
Born Agnes Zetterstrand in 1902 in the small industrial town of Naugatuck, Connecticut, Grey was the seventh surviving and youngest child of Swedish immigrants. Her life and that of her family was sent into turmoil when her father died suddenly of a heart attack in 1911. Grey's family eventually ...
44. Richard Hale
Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird
Richard Hale was born on November 16, 1892 in Rogersville, Tennessee, USA as James Richards Hale. He was an actor, known for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Scaramouche (1952) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Kathryn Hamill and Temple Duncan. He died on May 18, 1981 in Northridge, California, ...
45. Robert H. Harris
Actor | Valley of the Dolls
Robert H. Harris was born on July 15, 1911 in New York City, New York, USA as Robert H. Hurwitz. He was an actor, known for Valley of the Dolls (1967), Bundle of Joy (1956) and Mirage (1965). He was married to Viola Harris and Louise Lewis. He died on November 30, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, ...
46. Russell Hayden
Actor | The Last Horseman
Russell "Lucky" Hayden was born as Hayden Michael Lucid, the son of Francis Lucid and Minnie Harvey Lucid on June 12, 1912 in Chico, California. In his early Hollywood career, he worked primarily behind the scenes as a film cutter, assistant cameraman, and sound recorder. In 1937, he began his ...
47. Harold Bennett
Actor | Are You Being Served?
Harold Bennett was born on November 17, 1898 in Hastings, East Sussex, England as Harold Frank Bennett. He was an actor, known for Are You Being Served? (1972), Are You Being Served? (1977) and Whack-O! (1956). He died on September 15, 1981 in London, England.
48. Jack Warner
Actor | Scrooge
Jack Warner started acting with the Sutton Amateur Dramatics Club after the end of World War I. From 1935, performed in cabaret at the London West End as half of the double act of Warner & Darnell. In addition to starring as Dixon of Dock Green (1955), which ran for over 20 years, he achieved ...
49. Herb Voland
Actor | Airplane!
Herb Voland was born on October 2, 1918 in New Rochelle, New York, USA as Herbert Maurice Voland. He was an actor, known for Airplane! (1980), Play of the Week (1959) and The Love God? (1969). He died on April 26, 1981 in Riverside, California, USA.
50. Don Megowan
Actor | Blazing Saddles
Don Megowan was born on May 24, 1922 in Inglewood, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Blazing Saddles (1974), The Creation of the Humanoids (1962) and The Devil's Brigade (1968). He was married to Alva Megowan and Betty Eleanor Wright. He died on June 26, 1981 in Panorama City, California.