1981 deaths

Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS (, German: [hans ˈʔaːdɔlf ˈkʁeːps] ; 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that extracts energy from food and oxygen and makes it available to drive the processes of life. He is best known for his discoveries of two important sequences of chemical reactions that take place in the cells of nearly all organisms, including humans, other than anaerobic microorganisms, namely the citric acid cycle and the urea cycle. The former, often eponymously known as the "Krebs cycle", is the sequence of metabolic reactions that allows cells of oxygen-respiring organisms to obtain far more ATP from the food they consume than anaerobic processes such as glycolysis can supply; and its discovery earned Krebs a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1953. With Hans Kornberg, he also discovered the glyoxylate cycle, a slight variation of the citric acid cycle found in plants, bacteria, protists, and fungi.
Krebs died in 1981 in Oxford, where he had spent 13 years of his career from 1954 until his retirement in 1967 at the University of Oxford.

Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is The Citadel (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achieving success in London, where he becomes disillusioned about the venality and incompetence of some doctors. Cronin knew both areas, as a medical inspector of mines and as a doctor in Harley Street. The book exposed unfairness and malpractice in British medicine and helped to inspire the National Health Service. The Stars Look Down, set in the North East of England, is another of his best-selling novels inspired by his work among miners. Both novels have been filmed, as have Hatter's Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years. His 1935 novella Country Doctor inspired a long-running BBC radio and TV series, Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962–1971), set in the 1920s. There was a follow-up series in 1993–1996.

Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss.

Michael Bernard Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American blues guitarist and composer. Born in Chicago, he became one of the first popular music stars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, as he rarely sang before 1969. Respected for his guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago's blues musicians before achieving his own fame and was instrumental in popularizing blues music in the mid-1960s. In 1965, he played on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, including the single "Like a Rolling Stone", and performed with Dylan at that year's Newport Folk Festival.
Bloomfield was ranked No. 22 on Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003 and No. 42 by the same magazine in 2011. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012 and, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Rohe; February 16, 1921 – August 30, 1981) was an American dancer and actress. She is remembered for her solo performances as well as her work with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor. She is best known for her starring roles in On the Town (1949) with Gene Kelly and White Christmas (1954) with Danny Kaye.

Huberto Rohden Sobrinho, known as Huberto Rohden, (1893–1981) was a Brazilian philosopher, educator and theologist.
He was born in São Ludgero.
A pioneer of transcendentalism in Brazil who wrote more than 100 works, where he taught ecumenical lecture of spiritual approach towards Education, Philosophy, Science, emphasizing self-knowledge.
Rohden was a major proposer of a cosmo philosophy, which consists of an individual cosmic harmony within a "cosmocracy": a self-governed individual through universal ethical laws in connection with a collective consciousness of the universe and the flourishing of the divine essence of humans, assuming one has to be responsible for its acts and pursue an intimate reform, with no appeal to an ecclesiastic authority to release the debts of its moral behaviour.
He is a translator of the New Testament, of the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching; he was concerned with editing them with low prices, in order to enable access to these works.
A former jesuit priest during the beginning of the literary career; major in Sciences, Philosophy and Theology at the Innsbruck University (Austria), Valkenburg and Napoles (Italy).
In Brazil he founded the Instituição Cultural e Beneficente Alvorada (1952), taught at the Princeton University, American University (Washington D.C.) and at the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Delivered lectures in the United States, India and Portugal.

Roger Chastel (Édouard Henri Roger Chastel; 25 March 1897 in Paris – 12 July 1981 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.) was a French painter from l'École de Paris with their work inside le limit of abstract art.

Günther Treptow (22 October 1907 in Berlin – 28 March 1981 in Berlin) was a German operatic tenor, best known for Wagner roles.
Treptow began his vocal studies in Berlin as a baritone under the Italian bass, Giovanni Scarneo. Treptow was since 1926 a member of the SA and Nazi Party (membership number 38 579) until the discovery in 1934 of his mother's Jewish heritage. He was banned from performing until being granted special permission to do so from Joseph Goebbels on 6 June 1935. He made his stage debut in Berlin, as the Italian singer in Der Rosenkavalier, in 1936. He sang at the Vienna Volksoper in 1938, as Florestan in Fidelio. He appeared at the Sopot Festival in 1939, in the title role of Tannhäuser. He made his debut at the Munich State Opera in 1940, the Vienna State Opera in 1947, and the Bayreuth Festival in 1951.
He quickly established himself as one of the leading heldentenors of his generation, in roles such as Siegmund in Die Walküre, Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Tristan in Tristan und Isolde. Besides Wagner, he also sang such roles as Max in Der Freischütz, Steva in Jenůfa, Canio in Pagliacci, and the title role in Otello.
On the international scene, he made guest appearances at La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Royal Opera House in London, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, also appearing in Leningrad and Moscow.
He sang at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1961 until his retirement in 1972.

Werner Friedrich Emil Eisbrenner (2 December 1908, Berlin – 7 November 1981, West Berlin) was a German composer and conductor, best known for his film music.

Eisbrenner studied church music and musical education from 1927 to 1929 at the Berlin Staatlichen Musikademie. He then worked as a pianist, arranger, Kapellmeister and conductor, as well as composing violin concertos, orchestral music, the musical comedy Von Hand zu Hand and the music for film, radio and television for which he is best known. This includes the theme for Hans Albers's film Große Freiheit Nr. 7.
Eisbrenner was a member of the jury at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival.Eisbrenner also headed a private "Lehrinstitut für Kirchen- und Schulmusik". In 1974, he received the Filmband in Gold for his long and outstanding contributions to German film. On 23 April 1998 a plaque was unveiled at his former home at Wohnung Bismarckallee 32a in Berlin. He was married to Kathe (née Jacobi) Eisbrenner (b. ?? – d. 11 March 1974). He is buried in the Waldfriedhof Dahlem.

Marcel Gobillot (3 January 1900 – 12 January 1981) was a French cyclist who competed in the road race at the 1920 Summer Olympics. He finished 14th individually and won a gold medal with the French time trial team. He placed ninth at the 1921 UCI Road World Championships.
In 1922 he turned professional and rode the 1926 Tour de France. He retired in 1931.