1961 deaths

Vaadjuv Dag Nyqvist (October 5, 1902 – 9 May 1961) was a Norwegian sailor who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics.
In 1936 he won the silver medal as crew member of the Norwegian boat Lully II in the 6 metre class event.

Carl August Ringvold Jr. (16 December 1902 – 27 August 1961) was a Norwegian sailor who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics. In 1924 he won the gold medal as crew member of the Norwegian boat Bera in the 8 metre class event. He is the son of Carl Ringvold.

Mario Bonetti (March 3, 1888 – February 16, 1961) was an Italian admiral during World War II.

George Blake (1893–1961) was a Scottish journalist, literary editor and novelist. His The Shipbuilders (1935) is considered a significant and influential effort to write about the Scottish industrial working class. "At a time when the idea of myth was current in the Scottish literary world and other writers were forging theirs out of the facts and spirit of rural life, Blake took the iron and grease and the pride of the skilled worker to create one for industrial Scotland." As a literary critic, he wrote a noted work against the Kailyard school of Scottish fiction; and is taken to have formulated a broad-based thesis as cultural critic of the "kailyard" representing the "same ongoing movement in Scottish culture" that leads to "a cheapening, evasive, stereotyped view of Scottish life." He was well known as a BBC radio broadcaster by the 1930s.

Cuno Amiet (28 March 1868 – 6 July 1961) was a Swiss painter, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor. As the first Swiss painter to give precedence to colour in composition, he was a pioneer of modern art in Switzerland.

Henri Léon Émile Deloge (21 November 1874 in Saint-Mandé – 27 December 1961 in Bourg-la-Reine) was a French middle-distance runner who won a silver medal over 1500m in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris ahead of John Bray. The race was won by Charles Bennett who won the gold medal. He also won the silver medal in the 5000 metres team race for the French distance team.Deloge also placed fourth in the 800 metres, after winning his semifinal heat with a time of 2:00.6. A repeat of that time would have won the final, but Deloge placed fourth instead with an unknown time (but one greater than 2:03.0, the silver medalist's time).

Hyman Hirsh (October 11, 1911, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – November 1961, Paris, France), was an American photographer and experimental filmmaker. He is regarded as a visual music filmmaker, as well as one of the first filmmakers to use electronic imagery (filmed oscilloscope patterns) in a film.

Paul Gangelin (November 7, 1898 – September 25, 1961) was an American screenwriter.

Elizabeth Maxine Chambers (August 25, 1920 − May 11, 1961) was one of the first female pilots in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program in which women took on non-combat flying duties so more male pilots were available for combat. She was in WASP Class of 44-W-3 as part of the
318th Army Air Forces Flying Training Detachment. She became a pilot shortly after her husband lost his life while flying, despite the fact that she had a new baby, and was the only recent widow and mother to have served as a WASP.

Mona Goya (25 November 1909 – 8 October 1961) was a Mexican-born French film actress who rose to fame in the 1930s.