Events from the year 1981 in the United States.

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← 1980 1979 1978 1981 in the United States → 1982 1983 1984
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	History of the United States (1980–1991) Timeline of United States history (1970–1989) List of years in the United States

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• January 5
  • Frederick Osborn, philanthropist and eugenicist (b. 1889)
  • Harold Urey, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1893)
• January 7 – John Pascal, playwright, screenwriter, author and journalist (b. 1932)
• January 8 – Matthew Beard, child film actor (b. 1925)
• January 10
  • Katharine Alexander, film actress (b. 1898)
  • Richard Boone, Western film actor (b. 1917)
• January 11 – Beulah Bondi, actress (b. 1888)
• January 13 – Robert Kellard, film actor (b. 1915)
• January 25 – Adele Astaire, dancer (b. 1896)
• January 29 – Kipp Hamilton, American actress (b. 1934)
• February 9
  • Jack Z. Anderson, U.S. Representative from California (b. 1904)
  • Bill Haley, rock & roll musician (b. 1925)
• February 15 – Mike Bloomfield, blues guitarist and composer (b. 1943)
• February 22 – Ilo Wallace, wife of Henry A. Wallace, Second Lady of the United States (born 1888)
• March 5 – Yip Harburg, lyricist (b. 1896)
• March 7 – Bosley Crowther, film critic (b. 1905)
• March 9 – Max Delbrück, biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906 in Germany)
• March 30 – DeWitt Wallace, magazine publisher (b. 1889)
• April 4 – Brad Johnson, actor (b. 1924)
• April 5
  • Bob Hite, musician (b. 1943)
  • Lucile Godbold, Olympic athlete (b. 1900)
• April 7 – Norman Taurog, film director (b. 1899)
• April 8 – Omar N. Bradley, U.S. Army General (b. 1893)
• April 12 – Joe Louis, African American heavyweight boxer (b. 1914)
• April 15 – John Thach, naval aviator and admiral (b. 1905)
• April 26
  • Jim Davis, television actor (b. 1909)
  • Madge Evans, actress (b. 1909)
• April 27 – John Aspinwall Roosevelt, businessman and philanthropist (b. 1916)
• April 28 – Cliff Battles, American footballer (Boston Redskins) (b. 1910)
• May 9 – Nelson Algren, novelist (b. 1909)
• May 11 – Bob Marley, reggae musician (b. 1945 in Jamaica)
• May 18
  • Arthur O'Connell, actor (b. 1908)
  • William Saroyan, dramatist and author (b. 1908)
• May 22 – Boris Sagal, director and producer (b. 1923)
• May 23 – George Jessel, actor and entertainer (b. 1898)
• May 28 – Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist (b. 1910)
• June 1 – Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (b. 1883)
• June 9 – Allen Ludden, television game show host (b. 1917)
• June 10 – Jenny Maxwell, American actress (b. 1941)
• July 3 – Ross Martin, actor (b. 1920)
• July 10 – Ken Rex McElroy, murder victim (b. 1934)
• July 16 – Harry Chapin, singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and activist (b. 1942)
• July 27
  • Adam Walsh, murder victim and son of John Walsh (b. 1974)
  • William Wyler, film director (b. 1902)
• July 29 – Robert Moses, urban planner (b. 1888)
• August 1 – Paddy Chayefsky, playwright, screenwriter and novelist (b. 1923)
• August 4 – Melvyn Douglas, actor
• August 15 – Carol Ryrie Brink, author (b. 1895)^[7]
• August 30 – Vera-Ellen, actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1921)
• September 22 – Harry Warren, composer and songwriter (b. 1893)
• September 27/– Robert Montgomery, actor, director, and producer (b. 1904)
• October 5 – Gloria Grahame, actress (b. 1923)
• October 24 – Edith Head, costume designer (b. 1897)
• November 2 – Wally Wood, comic book writer, artist, and independent publisher (b. 1927)
• November 3 – H. C. Westermann, sculptor and printmaker (b. 1922)
• November 7 – Will Durant, philosopher and writer (b. 1885)
• November 12 – William Holden, film actor (b. 1918)
• November 17 – Sibyl M. Rock, mathematician (b. 1909)
• November 21 – Harry von Zell, actor, singer, and announcer (b. 1906)
• November 25 – Jack Albertson, actor (b. 1907)
• November 27 – Lotte Lenya, singer (b. 1898 in Vienna)
• November 29 – Natalie Wood, actress (b. 1938)
• December 2 – Wallace Harrison, architect (b. 1895)
• December 3 – Walter Knott, farmer and founder (b. 1889)
• December 6 – Harry Harlow, psychologist (b. 1905)
• December 13 – Pigmeat Markham, African American vaudevillian (b. 1904)
• December 27 – Hoagy Carmichael, composer and singer (b. 1899)

• 1981 in American television
• List of American films of 1981
• Timeline of United States history (1970–1989)