Deaths in 1979

The following is a list of notable deaths in 1979. Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship, reason for notability, cause of death, and reference.

Deaths in 1979

January

January 3 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier
January 4 – Vincent Korda, Hungarian art director
January 5
* Billy Bletcher, American actor
* Charles Mingus, American musician
January 11 – Jack Soo, Japanese-born American actor
January 13 – Donny Hathaway, American musician
January 15 – Charles W. Morris, American philosopher and semiotician
January 16 – Ted Cassidy, American actor
January 22 – Ali Hassan Salameh, Palestinian Leader of Black September and mastermind of the 1972 Munich massacre
January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States
January 27 – Victoria Ocampo, Argentine publisher, writer and critic

February

February 1
* William H. Brockman Jr., United States Navy admiral
* Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist and human rights activist
February 2 – Sid Vicious, English musician
February 6 – Issa Pliyev, Soviet general
February 7 – Josef Mengele, German officer and physician
February 9 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian-born British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
February 10
* Edvard Kardelj, Slovene general, economist, and politician, 2nd Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia
* Karl von Eberstein, German politician
February 12 – Jean Renoir, French film director and actor
February 14 – Reginald Maudling, British politician
February 16 – William Gargan, American actor
February 20 – Nereo Rocco, Italian footballer and manager
February 23 – W. A. C. Bennett, Canadian politician, premier of British Columbia
February 25 – Henrich Focke, German aviation pioneer

March

March 1
* Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician
* Dolores Costello, American actress
March 13 – Tudor Owen, Welsh-American actor
March 15 – Léonide Massine, Russian dancer and choreographer
March 16 – Jean Monnet, French political economist, diplomat and a founding father of the European Union
March 19 – Richard Beckinsale, British actor
March 22 – Ben Lyon, American actor
March 24 – Yvonne Mitchell, English actress
March 26 – Jean Stafford, American writer
March 28 – Emmett Kelly, American circus clown
March 29
* Yahya Petra of Kelantan, Sultan of Kelantan and 6th King of Malaysia
* Milena Rudnytska, Ukrainian educator, women's activist, politician and writer
March 30
* Airey Neave, British politician
* José María Velasco Ibarra, Ecuadorian politician, 24th President of Ecuador

April

April 3 – Juan Cedrés, Spanish professional football player
April 4
* Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan and 4th President of Pakistan
* Edgar Buchanan, American actor
April 10 – Nino Rota, Italian composer
April 11 – Hassan Pakravan, Iranian diplomat
April 19 – Wilhelm Bittrich, German Waffen SS general
April 23 – Blair Peach, New Zealand-born, British teacher
April 24 – John Carroll, American actor
April 27 – Phan Huy Quát, 4th Prime Minister of South Vietnam

May

May 1 – Morteza Motahhari, Iranian cleric and politician
May 2 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
May 6 – Milton Ager, American songwriter
May 8 – Talcott Parsons, American sociologist
May 11
* Joan Chandler, American actress
* Barbara Hutton, American socialite
May 13 – Predrag Đajić, Bosnian Serb and Yugoslav footballer
May 14 – Jean Rhys, Dominican novelist
May 16 – A. Philip Randolph, African-American civil rights activist
May 21 – Bernadette Armiger, Catholic nun and president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing from 1972 to 1974
May 27 – Ahmed Ould Bouceif, Mauritanian military officer, second Prime Minister of Mauritania
May 29 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress and producer

June

June 1
* Werner Forssmann, German researcher and physician, Nobel Prize laureate
* Ján Kadár, Czechoslovakian film director
* Jack Mulhall, American actor
June 2 – Jim Hutton, American actor
June 5 – Heinz Erhardt, German comedian, musician, entertainer, actor and poet
June 6 – Jack Haley, American actor
June 8 – Reinhard Gehlen, German general, 20 July Plotter
June 9 – Cyclone Taylor, Canadian ice hockey player
June 11
*Edward Almond, American general
* Loren Murchison, American Olympic athlete
* John Wayne, American actor and film director
June 12 – Ferenc Nagy, 40th prime minister of Hungary
June 13 – Darla Hood, American actress
June 16 – Nicholas Ray, American film director, screenwriter and actor
June 22
* Louis Chiron, Monacan Grand Prix driver
* Emory Parnell, American actor
June 25 – Dave Fleischer, American animator
June 26 – Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian soldier and politician, Head of state
June 28 – Philippe Cousteau, French diver and cinematographer
June 29 – Lowell George, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer

July

July 2
* Carlyle S. Beals, Canadian astronomer
* Larisa Shepitko, Ukrainian-Soviet film director, screenwriter and actress
July 3 – Louis Durey, French composer
July 4 – Theodora Kroeber, American writer and anthropologist
July 6
* Antonio María Barbieri, Uruguay Roman Catholic cardinal
* Van McCoy, American musician noted for his 1975 hit "The Hustle"
July 8
* Elizabeth Ryan, American 30 Grand Slam (tennis) tennis champion
* Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Michael Wilding, English actor
* Robert Burns Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
July 10 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor
July 12 – Minnie Riperton, American rhythm and blues singer
July 13 – Corinne Griffith, American actress and author
July 15
* Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican politician, 49th President of Mexico, 1964–1970
* Frederick Hanson, New Zealand soldier, engineer, military leader and public servant
* Juana de Ibarbourou, Uruguayan poet
July 16 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor
July 17 – Edward Akufo-Addo, Ghanese politician and lawyer, 5th President of Ghana
July 20 – Sir Herbert Butterfield, English philosopher and historian
July 22 – Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer
July 23 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and author
July 26 – Virginia Brissac, American actress
July 28 – George Seaton, American screenwriter and director
July 29 – Herbert Marcuse, German-American philosopher, sociologist and political theorist

August

August 2
* Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician, founder and leader of APRA party
* Thurman Munson, American baseball player
August 3 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist and Liberal politician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
August 6 – Feodor Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
August 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive
August 10
* Dick Foran, American actor
* Walther Gerlach, German physicist
* Mohammad Nur Ahmad Etemadi, Afghan politician, 9th Prime Minister of Afghanistan
August 12 – Sir Ernst Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
August 16 – John Diefenbaker, 13th Prime Minister of Canada
August 17 – Vivian Vance, American actress and singer
August 19 – Saad Jumaa, Prime Minister of Jordan
August 21 – Stuart Heisler, American film and television director
August 24
* Ahmad Daouk, Lebanese politician, 12th Prime Minister of Lebanon
* Hanna Reitsch, German aviator
August 25 – Stan Kenton, American jazz pianist
August 26
* Alvin Karpis, American criminal
* Mika Waltari, Finnish author
August 27 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, British Viceroy of India
August 30 – Jean Seberg, American actress
August 31 – Sally Rand, American dancer

September

September 1 – Doris Kenyon, American actress
September 2 – Felix Aylmer, British actor
September 5 – Alberto di Jorio, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal
September 9 – Norrie Paramor, British music producer
September 10 – Agostinho Neto, Angolan poet and politician, 1st President of Angola
September 12 – Jocelyne LaGarde, Tahitian actress
September 16
* Giò Ponti, Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer and artist
* Rob Slotemaker, Indonesian-born, Dutch Formula 1 racing car driver
September 20
* Ismail Nasiruddin of Terengganu, Sultan of Terengganu and 4th King of Malaysia
* Ludvík Svoboda, 8th President of Czechoslovakia
September 22
* Abul A'la Maududi, Pakistani journalist and philosopher
* Otto Robert Frisch, Austrian-born British physicist
September 24 – Carl Laemmle Jr., American film studio executive
September 25 – Yury Kovalyov, Soviet footballer
September 26
* John Cromwell, American film director and actor
* Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor
September 27
* Dame Gracie Fields, British actress
* Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish guitarist
September 29
* Francisco Macías Nguema, 1st President of Equatorial Guinea
* Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Russian composer

October

October 1
* Dorothy Arzner, American film director
* Roy Harris, American composer
October 6 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet
October 9 – Nur Muhammad Taraki, Afghan revolutionary communist politician, journalist and writer
October 12 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-born American actress
October 13
* Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist
* Archibald Roosevelt, American army officer and conservative political activist
October 15 – Jacob L. Devers, American army general
October 17
* S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author
* John Stuart, Scottish actor
October 18 – Virgilio Piñera, Cuban author, playwright and poet
October 22 – Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher
October 23 – Antonio Caggiano, Argentine cardinal
October 25
* Maphevu Dlamini, 2nd Prime Minister of Swaziland
* Sir Gerald Templer, British field marshal
October 26 – Park Chun Hee, Korean politician, 3rd President of the Republic of Korea
October 27 – Charles Coughlin, Canadian-born American priest and conservative radio show commentator
October 30 – Sir Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer

November

November 1
* Albert Préjean, French actor
* Mamie Eisenhower, 34th First Lady of the United States
November 2 – Jacques Mesrine, French criminal; known as the "French Robin Hood"
November 5
* Al Capp, American cartoonist
* Amedeo Nazzari, Italian actor
November 7 – Frank O'Connor, American actor, rancher, and painter
November 8
* Edward Ardizzone, English painter, printmaker and author
* Yvonne de Gaulle, French wife of Charles de Gaulle
November 11 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Russian film composer
November 13 – Ernest N. Harmon, American general
November 17 – Immanuel Velikovsky, Russian author and psychiatrist
November 21 – Marie Byles, Australian solicitor and conservationist
November 23
* Merle Oberon, British actress
* Judee Sill, American singer and songwriter
November 26 – Marcel L'Herbier, French movie-maker
November 30 – Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian

December

December 3 – Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player
December 5 – Sonia Delaunay, Russian-born French artist
December 7 – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist
December 9 – Fulton J. Sheen, American Roman Catholic bishop and venerable
December 10 – Ann Dvorak, American actress
December 11 – James J. Gibson, American psychologist and academic
December 13 – Jon Hall, American actor
December 15 – Ethel Lackie, American Olympic swimmer
December 16 – Vagif Mustafazadeh, Azerbaijani jazz musician
December 21 – Ermindo Onega, Argentine footballer
December 22 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer
December 23
* Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector
* Ernest B. Schoedsack, American film producer and director
December 24 – Rudi Dutschke, German radical student leader
December 25
* Joan Blondell, American actress
* Lee Bowman, American actor
December 26 – Helmut Hasse, German mathematician
December 27 – Hafizullah Amin, 2nd General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council
December 28 – Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly, 43rd President of the Dominican Republic
December 30 – Richard Rodgers, American composer