Deaths in 1979

	Contents
January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December
← 1978	1979	1980 →

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 (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

Deaths in 1979

January

Nelson Rockefeller

• January 3 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
• January 4 – Vincent Korda, Hungarian art director (b. 1897)
• January 5
  • Billy Bletcher, American actor (b. 1894)
  • Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
• January 11 – Jack Soo, Japanese-born American actor (b. 1917)
• January 13 – Donny Hathaway, American musician (b. 1945)
• January 15 – Charles W. Morris, American philosopher and semiotician (b. 1901)
• January 16 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)
• January 22 – Ali Hassan Salameh, Palestinian Leader of Black September and mastermind of the 1972 Munich massacre (b. 1940)
• January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
• January 27 – Victoria Ocampo, Argentine publisher, writer and critic (b. 1890) ^[1]

February

Sid Vicious

• February 1
  • William H. Brockman Jr., United States Navy admiral (b. 1904)
  • Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist and human rights activist (b. 1929)
• February 2 – Sid Vicious, English musician (b. 1957)
• February 6 – Issa Pliyev, Soviet general (b. 1903)
• February 7 – Josef Mengele, German officer and physician (b. 1911)
• February 9 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian-born British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900) ^[2]
• February 10
  • Edvard Kardelj, Slovene general, economist, and politician, 2nd Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1910) ^[3]
  • Karl von Eberstein, German politician (b. 1894)
• February 12 – Jean Renoir, French film director and actor (b. 1894)
• February 14 – Reginald Maudling, British politician (b. 1917)
• February 16 – William Gargan, American actor (b. 1905)
• February 20 – Nereo Rocco, Italian footballer and manager (b. 1912)
• February 23 – W. A. C. Bennett, Canadian politician, premier of British Columbia (b. 1900) ^[4]
• February 25 – Henrich Focke, German aviation pioneer (b. 1890)

March

José María Velasco Ibarra

• March 1
  • Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician (b. 1903)
  • Dolores Costello, American actress (b. 1903)
• March 13 – Tudor Owen, Welsh-American actor (b. 1898) ^[5]
• March 15 – Léonide Massine, Russian dancer and choreographer (b. 1896)
• March 16 – Jean Monnet, French political economist, diplomat and a founding father of the European Union (b. 1888) ^[6]
• March 19 – Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)
• March 22 – Ben Lyon, American actor (b. 1901)
• March 24 – Yvonne Mitchell, English actress (b. 1915)
• March 26 – Jean Stafford, American writer (b. 1915)
• March 28 – Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (b. 1898) ^[7]
• March 29
  • Yahya Petra of Kelantan, Sultan of Kelantan and 6th King of Malaysia (b. 1917)
  • Milena Rudnytska, Ukrainian educator, women's activist, politician and writer (b. 1892) ^[8]
• March 30
  • Airey Neave, British politician (assassinated) (b. 1916)
  • José María Velasco Ibarra, Ecuadorian politician, 24th President of Ecuador (b. 1893)

April

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

• April 4
  • Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan and 4th President of Pakistan (executed) (b. 1928)
  • Edgar Buchanan, American actor (b. 1903)
• April 10 – Nino Rota, Italian composer (b. 1911) ^[9]
• April 11 – Hassan Pakravan, Iranian diplomat (b. 1911)
• April 19 – Wilhelm Bittrich, German Waffen SS general (b. 1894)
• April 23 – Blair Peach, New Zealand-born, British teacher (b. 1946) ^[10]
• April 24 – John Carroll, American actor (b. 1906)
• April 27 – Phan Huy Quát, 4th Prime Minister of South Vietnam (b. 1908)

May

Mary Pickford

• May 1 – Morteza Motahhari, Iranian cleric and politician (b. 1919)
• May 2 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903) ^[11]
• May 6 – Milton Ager, American songwriter (b. 1893)
• May 8 – Talcott Parsons, American sociologist (b. 1902)
• May 11
  • Joan Chandler, American actress (b. 1923)
  • Barbara Hutton, American socialite (b. 1912)
• May 13 – Predrag Đajić, Bosnian Serb and Yugoslav footballer (b. 1922)
• May 14 – Jean Rhys, Dominican novelist (b. 1890)
• May 16 – A. Philip Randolph, African-American civil rights activist (b. 1889)
• May 21 – Bernadette Armiger, Catholic nun and president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing from 1972 to 1974 (b. 1915)
• May 27 – Ahmed Ould Bouceif, Mauritanian military officer, second Prime Minister of Mauritania (b. 1934)
• May 29 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress and producer (b. 1892)

June

Werner Forssmann

John Wayne

• June 1
  • Werner Forssmann, German researcher and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
  • Ján Kadár, Czechoslovakian film director (b. 1918)
  • Jack Mulhall, American actor (b. 1887)
• June 2 – Jim Hutton, American actor (b. 1934)
• June 5 – Heinz Erhardt, German comedian, musician, entertainer, actor and poet (b. 1909)
• June 6 – Jack Haley, American actor (b. 1898)
• June 8 – Reinhard Gehlen, German general, 20 July Plotter (b. 1902)
• June 9 – Cyclone Taylor, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1884) ^[12]
• June 11
  • Edward Almond, American general (b. 1892) ^[13]
  • Loren Murchison, American Olympic athlete (b. 1898)
  • John Wayne, American actor and film director (b. 1907)
• June 12 – Ferenc Nagy, 40th prime minister of Hungary (b. 1903) ^[14]
• June 13 – Darla Hood, American actress (b. 1931)
• June 16 – Nicholas Ray, American film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1911)
• June 22
  • Louis Chiron, Monacan Grand Prix driver (b. 1899)
  • Emory Parnell, American actor (b. 1892) ^[15]
• June 25 – Dave Fleischer, American animator (b. 1894)
• June 26 – Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian soldier and politician, Head of state (1969–1970) (b. 1936)
• June 28 – Philippe Cousteau, French diver and cinematographer (b. 1940)
• June 29 – Lowell George, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer (b. 1945)

July

Shin'ichirō Tomonaga

Gustavo Diaz Ordaz

• July 2
  • Carlyle S. Beals, Canadian astronomer (b. 1899)
  • Larisa Shepitko, Ukrainian-Soviet film director, screenwriter and actress (b. 1938)
• July 3 – Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
• July 4 – Theodora Kroeber, American writer and anthropologist (b. 1897)
• July 6
  • Antonio María Barbieri, Uruguay Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1892)
  • Van McCoy, American musician noted for his 1975 hit "The Hustle" (b. 1940)
• July 8
  • Elizabeth Ryan, American 30 Grand Slam (tennis) tennis champion (b. 1892)
  • Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
  • Michael Wilding, English actor (b. 1912)
  • Robert Burns Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• July 10 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor ( Boston Pops ) (b. 1894)
• July 12 – Minnie Riperton, American rhythm and blues singer ( Lovin' You ) (b. 1947)
• July 13 – Corinne Griffith, American actress and author (b. 1894)
• July 15
  • Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican politician, 49th President of Mexico, 1964–1970 (b. 1911) ^[16]
  • Frederick Hanson, New Zealand soldier, engineer, military leader and public servant (b. 1895) ^[17]
  • Juana de Ibarbourou, Uruguayan poet (b. 1892)
• July 16 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
• July 17 – Edward Akufo-Addo, Ghanese politician and lawyer, 5th President of Ghana (b. 1906)
• July 20 – Sir Herbert Butterfield, English philosopher and historian (b. 1900)
• July 22 – Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
• July 23 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and author (b. 1897) ^[18]
• July 26 – Virginia Brissac, American actress (b. 1883)
• July 28 – George Seaton, American screenwriter and director (b. 1911)
• July 29 – Herbert Marcuse, German-American philosopher, sociologist and political theorist (b. 1898) ^[19]

August

John Diefenbaker

Mika Waltari

Jean Seberg

• August 2
  • Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician, founder and leader of APRA party (b. 1895)
  • Thurman Munson, American baseball player (b. 1947)
• August 3 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist and Liberal politician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (b. 1899)
• August 6 – Feodor Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
• August 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
• August 10
  • Dick Foran, American actor (b. 1910)
  • Walther Gerlach, German physicist (b. 1889)
  • Mohammad Nur Ahmad Etemadi, Afghan politician, 9th Prime Minister of Afghanistan (b. 1921)
• August 12 – Sir Ernst Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• August 16 – John Diefenbaker, 13th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1895)
• August 17 – Vivian Vance, American actress and singer (b. 1909)
• August 19 – Saad Jumaa, Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1916)
• August 21 – Stuart Heisler, American film and television director (b. 1896)
• August 24
  • Ahmad Daouk, Lebanese politician, 12th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1892)
  • Hanna Reitsch, German aviator (b. 1912)
• August 25 – Stan Kenton, American jazz pianist (b. 1911)
• August 26
  • Alvin Karpis, American criminal (b. 1907)
  • Mika Waltari, Finnish author (b. 1908) ^[20]
• August 27 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, British Viceroy of India (assassinated) (b. 1900)
• August 30 – Jean Seberg, American actress (body found on September 8) (b. 1938)
• August 31 – Sally Rand, American dancer (b. 1904)

September

Agostinho Neto

Gracie Fields

Francisco Macías Nguema

• September 1 – Doris Kenyon, American actress (b. 1897)
• September 2 – Felix Aylmer, British actor (b. 1889)
• September 5 – Alberto di Jorio, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1884)
• September 9 – Norrie Paramor, British music producer (b. 1914)
• September 10 – Agostinho Neto, Angolan poet and politician, 1st President of Angola (b. 1922)
• September 12 – Jocelyne LaGarde, Tahitian actress (b. 1924)
• September 16
  • Giò Ponti, Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer and artist (b. 1891)
  • Rob Slotemaker, Indonesian-born, Dutch Formula 1 racing car driver (b. 1929)
• September 20
  • Ismail Nasiruddin of Terengganu, Sultan of Terengganu and 4th King of Malaysia (b. 1907)
  • Ludvík Svoboda, 8th President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)
• September 22
  • Abul A'la Maududi, Pakistani journalist and philosopher (b. 1903)
  • Otto Robert Frisch, Austrian-born British physicist (b. 1904)
• September 24 – Carl Laemmle Jr., American film studio executive (b. 1908)
• September 25 – Yury Kovalyov, Soviet footballer (b. 1934)
• September 26
  • John Cromwell, American film director and actor (b. 1887)
  • Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor (b. 1910)
• September 27
  • Dame Gracie Fields, British actress (b. 1898)
  • Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish guitarist (Paul McCartney & Wings) (b. 1953)
• September 29
  • Francisco Macías Nguema, 1st President of Equatorial Guinea (executed) (b. 1924)
  • Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Russian composer (b. 1893)

October

Park Chung Hee

• October 1
  • Dorothy Arzner, American film director (b. 1897)
  • Roy Harris, American composer (b. 1898) ^[21]
• October 6 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (b. 1911)
• October 9 – Nur Muhammad Taraki, Afghan revolutionary communist politician, journalist and writer (b. 1917)
• October 12 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-born American actress (b. 1897) ^[22]
• October 13
  • Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist (b. 1886) ^[23]
  • Archibald Roosevelt, American army officer and conservative political activist (b. 1894) ^[24]
• October 15 – Jacob L. Devers, American army general (b. 1887)
• October 17
  • S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (b. 1904) ^[25]
  • John Stuart, Scottish actor (b. 1898) ^[26]
• October 18 – Virgilio Piñera, Cuban author, playwright and poet (b. 1912)
• October 22 – Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)
• October 23 – Antonio Caggiano, Argentine cardinal (b. 1889)
• October 25
  • Maphevu Dlamini, 2nd Prime Minister of Swaziland (b. 1922)
  • Sir Gerald Templer, British field marshal (b. 1898)
• October 26 – Park Chun Hee, Korean politician, 3rd President of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) (assassinated) (b. 1917)
• October 27 – Charles Coughlin, Canadian-born American priest and conservative radio show commentator (b. 1891)
• October 30 – Sir Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer (b. 1887)

November

Merle Oberon

Zeppo Marx

• November 1
  • Albert Préjean, French actor (b. 1894)
  • Mamie Eisenhower, 34th First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• November 2 – Jacques Mesrine, French criminal; known as the "French Robin Hood" (b. 1936)
• November 5
  • Al Capp, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
  • Amedeo Nazzari, Italian actor (b. 1907)
• November 7 –  Frank O'Connor, American actor, rancher, and painter (b. 1897) ^[27]
• November 8
  • Edward Ardizzone, English painter, printmaker and author (b. 1900) ^[28]
  • Yvonne de Gaulle, French wife of Charles de Gaulle (b. 1900)
• November 11 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Russian film composer (b. 1894)
• November 13 – Ernest N. Harmon, American general (b. 1894) ^[29]
• November 17 – Immanuel Velikovsky, Russian author and psychiatrist (b. 1895)
• November 21 – Marie Byles, Australian solicitor and conservationist (b. 1900) ^[30]
• November 23
  • Merle Oberon, British actress (b. 1911)
  • Judee Sill, American singer and songwriter (b. 1944)
• November 26 – Marcel L'Herbier, French movie-maker (b. 1888)
• November 30 – Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1901)

December

Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly

Richard Rodgers

• December 3 – Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (b. 1905)
• December 5 – Sonia Delaunay, Russian-born French artist (b. 1885)
• December 7 – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1900)
• December 9 – Fulton J. Sheen, American Roman Catholic bishop and venerable (b. 1895)
• December 10 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (b. 1911) ^[31]
• December 11 – James J. Gibson, American psychologist and academic (b. 1904) ^[32]
• December 13 – Jon Hall, American actor (b. 1915)
• December 15 – Ethel Lackie, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1907)
• December 16 – Vagif Mustafazadeh, Azerbaijani jazz musician (b. 1940)
• December 21 – Ermindo Onega, Argentine footballer (b. 1940)
• December 22 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer (b. 1902) ^[33]
• December 23
  • Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (b. 1898)
  • Ernest B. Schoedsack, American film producer and director (b. 1893)
• December 24 – Rudi Dutschke, German radical student leader (b. 1940)
• December 25
  • Joan Blondell, American actress (b. 1906)
  • Lee Bowman, American actor (b. 1914)
• December 26 – Helmut Hasse, German mathematician (b. 1898)
• December 27 – Hafizullah Amin, 2nd General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council (b. 1929)
• December 28 – Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly, 43rd President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1904)
• December 30 – Richard Rodgers, American composer (b. 1902) ^[34]

References

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2. Dennis Gabor British engineer
3. Bernard A. Cook (2001). Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 710. ISBN   978-0-8153-4058-4.
4. W.A.C. Bennett
5. Tudor Owen
6. "Jean Monnet | European Union founder, diplomat, statesman | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. November 5, 2023.
7. Emmett Kelly American clown
8. Rudnytska, Milena
9. Gino Moliterno (11 September 2002). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture. Routledge. p. 733. ISBN   978-1-134-75876-0.
10. Dummett, Michael (1980). The Death of Blair Peach: the Supplementary Report of the Unofficial Committee of Enquiry. London: National Council for Civil Liberties. ISBN   978-0-9011-0891-3.
11. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1963". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
12. "Cyclone Taylor Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Salary, Title". Hockey-Reference.com.
13. Edward M. Almond United States general
14. Ferenc Nagy premier of Hungary
15. Emory Parnell
16. "Gustavo Díaz Ordaz" (in Spanish). Busca Biografias. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
17. Story: Hanson, Frederick Melrose Horowhenua
18. JOSEPH KESSEL
19. Kenneth A. Briggs (July 31, 1979). "Marcuse, Radical Philosopher, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
20. Hejkalová, Markéta (2008) [2007 (Czech)]. Mika Waltari: The Finn. Translated by Turner, Gerald. Helsinki: WSOY. p. 171. ISBN   978-951-0-34335-7.
21. Roy Harris
22. Celia Lovsky
23. "Rebecca Clarke".
24. Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt
25. "S.J. Perelman, the R.I. Wit Who Wrote Groucho's Jokes". Arts and Leisure. New England Historical Society. 2021. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
26. John Stuart (1898–1979), Scottish actor, 20th century
27. "Charles Francis O'Connor, Artist, Husband of the Writer Ayn Rand". The New York Times (obituary). November 12, 1979. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved December 23, 2022.
28. EDWARD JEFFREY IRVING ARDIZZONE
29. ERNIE HARMON: THE OTHER PATTON
30. "Marie Beuzeville Byles (1900–1979)". Biography – Marie Beuzeville Byles – Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. 2015-04-11. Archived from the original on 2015-04-11. Retrieved 2017-10-22.
31. "Ann Dvorak Dies; Screen Actress, 67". The New York Times. 1979-12-20. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 22, 2020.
32. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (1 May 2008). Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 761. ISBN   978-1-59339-492-9.
33. Arnold, Gary (December 24, 1979). "Motion Picture Producer Darryl F. Zanuck Is Dead at 77". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
34. "Richard Rodgers | American composer | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 April 2022.