1981 deaths

John Ruddock (20 May 1897 – 24 September 1981) was a Peruvian-born British film and television actor.

Ludwik Sempoliński (18 August 1899 – 17 April 1981) was a Polish film actor. He appeared in twenty films between 1935 and 1966.

Hal Adelquist (11 July 1914 – 26 March 1981) was an American animator, storyboard writer, animation and TV producer primarily known for his work in helping to create and produce The Mickey Mouse Club, which began running as an ABC television series in 1955. Along with producer Bill Walsh, and others at the behest of Walt Disney, the show was created and Adelquist was credited as an associate producer for several of the episodes where he served as right-hand man to Walsh.

Charles de Noailles or Arthur Anne Marie Charles, Vicomte de Noailles (26 September 1891 – 28 April 1981) was a French nobleman and patron of the arts.

Trygve de Lange (3 September 1918 – 12 February 1981) was a Norwegian lawyer and secretary-general of Libertas.
He was born in Kristiania, took his examen artium in 1937 and the cand.jur. degree at the University of Oslo in 1941. He edited the periodical Minerva from 1938 to 1939, and was deputy chair of the Norwegian Students' Society in 1940. In 1942 he married Lulla Bagn (1918–2003). After World War II he opened a lawyer's office.When Libertas was founded to promote libertarian ideas after World War 2 in order to counteract the social democratic tendency of the time, de Lange was hired as the first secretary-general.In 1955, de Lange was hired part-time as finance secretary in the Conservative Party by the party's general secretary, Leif Helberg. John Lyng belonged to those who wanted de Lange as general secretary of the Conservative Party, while primarily C.J. Hambro and Alv Kjøs provided for the final break with Libertas around 1960. The beginning of this settlement was Liberta's launch of the program "Will to power", where it was proposed to give young, talented politicians positions in business, so they could get to know business next to his political work. Libertas proposed concrete political programs and alternative state budgets, but was opposed by the Conservatives' central government, which stated that "the independence of the parties is an absolute prerequisite for a clear responsibility in political life." Kjøs believed that Libertas should simply be shut down. Lars Roar Langslet and others in the circle around Minerva criticized market liberalism as such. Libertas was forced to become a pure information organization and refrain from playing in purely political matters, and the Conservatives could more easily cooperate with other bourgeois parties.De Lange had many supporters, some of whom wanted to recruit him to the leadership of the Conservative Party. As de Lange retired in 1976, Libertas faded into a more obscure existence, and it was disbanded and replaced by Liberalt Forskningsinstitutt in 1988. de Lange returned to the lawyer profession, and died in February 1981 in Oslo.

Mette Lange-Nielsen (30 April 1929 – 29 May 1981) was a Norwegian actress. Her husband was actor Per Lillo-Stenberg, and her son is musician Lars Lillo-Stenberg.

Jacob Berend "Jaap" Bakema (8 March 1914 – 20 February 1981) was a Dutch modernist architect, notable for design of public housing and involvement in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War.Born in Groningen, Bakema studied at the Groningen Higher Technical College (1931–1936) and the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, where he studied among others with Mart Stam. In 1946 he began attending meetings of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne, became its Secretary in 1955, and was a core member of its offshoot Team 10.From 1948 onward, Bakema worked with Jo van den Broek in the architectural firm Van den Broek and Bakema. They collaborated to design landmarks and neighborhoods in Rotterdam and around the Netherlands, and participated in the 1957 Interbau project in Berlin.
In 1964 Bakema became a professor at Delft University of Technology, and in 1965 became a professor at Staatliche Hochschule in Hamburg.

Julita Ross (March 21, 1919 – June 29, 1981) was a singer of Puerto Rican danzas, also known as "The Great Lady of the Danzas".

María Moliner (30 March 1900 – 22 January 1981) was a Spanish librarian and lexicographer. She is perhaps best known for her Diccionario de uso del español, first published in 1966–1967, when she completed the work started in 1952.

Valentine Tessier (5 August 1892 – 11 August 1981) was a French actress who appeared in around thirty films during her career. She played the title role in Jean Renoir's 1934 film version of Madame Bovary.