Famous People Who Died in 1979

Deaths 1 - 200 of 352

Ted Cassidy (1932-1979)

Jan 16 American actor (Lurch-Addams Family), dies at 46

Jan 18 Cyril Mockridge, British composer for film and television (Miracle On 34th Street; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), dies at 82
Jan 19 Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans, American NFL fullback (NY Giants), dies of a heart attack at 66
Jan 19 Paul Meurisse, actor (Diabolique, Truth, Suspects, Monocle), dies
Jan 20 Gustav Winckler, Danish pop singer ("Skibet skal sejle i nat"- "The Ship Is Leaving Tonight"), dies in a car crash at 53
Jan 22 Ali Hassan Salameh [Abu Hassan], killed by car bomb; believed to have helped mastermind massacre of 1972 Munich Olympics athletes
Jan 24 Jerry Damon, comedian (That Was The Week That Was), dies at 51
Jan 24 Mabel Taliaferro, actress (My Love Come Back), dies at 91
Jan 25 Robertson Hare, English actor (All Gas and Gaiters. Our Girl Friday, Banana Ridge), dies at 87

Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979)

Jan 26 American politician (Vice President: 1974-1977; Governor of New York (R), 1959-73), dies of a heart attack at 70

Jan 27 Qalander Baba Auliya, Indian Sufi master (Azeemiyya order), dies at about 81
Jan 27 Victoria Ocampo, Argentine writer and publisher (Sur magazine), dies at 88
Jan 28 Eileen Shanahan, Irish poet (The Three Children (Near Clonmel)), dies at 77
Jan 28 Hans Scherfig, Danish artist and communist writer (Idealists, Stolen Spring), dies at 73
Jan 31 Grant Green, American jazz, blues and funk guitarist, and songwriter, dies of a heart attack at 43
Feb 1 Mort Marshall [Mortimer Haig Lichtenstein], American actor (Kiss Me Deadly, Dumplings), dies of coronary arrest at 60
Feb 2 Jim Burke, Australian cricket batsman (24 Tests; record for most innings in a complete career without scoring a duck [44]) and broadcaster (ABC), dies of self inflicted gunshot wounds at 48

Sid Vicious (1957-1979)

Feb 2 English musician and bassist (Sex Pistols), dies of a heroin overdose at 21

Feb 3 Jody Gilbert, American actress (Willard, Shaggy, Blonde Dynamite), dies at 62
Feb 5 Eddie Paynter, English cricketer (20 Tests for England, avg 59.23), dies at 77
Feb 6 Alain Teister, Dutch sculptor/writer, dies at 47
Feb 6 Arthur van Schendel, Dutch art historian, dies at 68
Feb 7 Herbert "Peanuts" Holland, American swing jazz trumpeter, dies at 68
Feb 7 Josef Mengele, concentration camp doctor, drowns
Feb 7 Warren Giles, American Baseball HOF executive (President National League 1951-69; GM Cincinnati Reds 1937–51), dies at 82
Feb 8 Jim Smith, English cricket all-rounder (5 Tests), dies at 72
Feb 8 Nikolay Semyonovich Tikhonov, Russian poet and writer (against Pasternak), dies at 82
Feb 9 Allen Tate, American poet (Mr Pope & Other Poems), dies at 79
Feb 9 C I J Smith, cricket all-rounder (5 Tests for England 1935-37), dies

Dennis Gabor (1900-1979)

Feb 9 Hungarian-British engineer and physicist (invented holography, Nobel Prize 1971), dies at 79

Feb 12 Jean Renoir, French film director (Madame Bovary, Nana, Grand Illusion) and actor (Rules of the Game), dies at 84
Feb 14 Adolph Dubs, US ambassador to Afghanistan, murdered
Feb 16 Louise Allbritton, American actress (The Egg and I, Stage Door, Got a Secret), dies of cancer at 58
Feb 16 Mehdi Rahimi, Iranian general and military governor of Tehran under the Shah of Iran, executed by a firing squad during the Islamic Revolution at around 57
Feb 16 Nematullah Nassiri, Iran general/head of Savak, executed
Feb 17 Bill Gargan, American actor (The Bells of St. Mary's; You Only Live Once), dies from a heart attack at 73
Feb 21 Ray Whitley, American country and western singer-songwriter ("Back in the Saddle Again") and actor (Tim Holt films), dies at 77
Feb 23 W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician, dies at 78
Feb 28 Jane Hylton [Audrey Gwendolene Clark], British actress (Adv of Sir Lancelot, Daybreak), dies of a heart attack at 52
Feb 28 Mr Ed, talking horse, dies
Feb 28 Paul Alverdes, German writer (Pfeiferstube), dies at 81
Mar 1 Dolores Costello, American actress (Noah's Ark, Expensive Women), dies at 73
Mar 1 Mustafa al-Barzani, Kurdish leader (KDP), dies at 75
Mar 2 Christy Ring, Irish hurler (Cork 65 games, scoring tally [33-208], 8 x All-Ireland medals), dies at 58
Mar 2 Edith Craig, actress (Harmony Lane, Smashing Rackets), dies at 71
Mar 3 Tom Creavy, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1931), dies of a heart attack at 68
Mar 4 Willi Unsoeld, American mountaineer (First ascent of the West Ridge of Mount Everest), dies at 52
Mar 5 Vicente Ascone, Italian composer, dies at 81
Mar 6 Charles Wagenheim, actor (Halligan-Gunsmoke), dies at 83
Mar 7 Guiomar Novaes, Barzilain concert pianist (Brazilian Order of Merit), dies at 84
Mar 7 Klaus Egge, Norwegian composer (Fanitullen), dies at 72
Mar 9 Barbara Mullen, American actress (Thunder Rock, Innocent Sinners), dies of a heart attack at 64
Mar 11 Victor Kilian, American actor (Gentleman's Agreement), dies at 88
Mar 15 Leonide Massine, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1914-20), dies at 82
Mar 16 Jean Monnet, French political economist and diplomat, dies at 90
Mar 19 Albert "Al" Hodge, American actor on radio (Green Hornet), and early television (Captain Video), dies of heart failure at 66
Mar 19 Richard Beckinsale, English actor (Doing Time, Porridge, Lovers), dies at 31
Mar 20 Mino Pecorelli, Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome at 50
Mar 21 Evald Ilyenkov, Soviet philosopher (Dialectical Logic), dies at 55
Mar 22 Ben Lyon, American actor (Hell's Angels, I Cover the Waterfront, Night Nurse), dies at 78
Mar 22 Richard Sykes, British ambassador to the Netherlands, assassinated at 58 by the IRA in The Hague
Mar 23 Philip Bourneuf, actor (Big Night, Frankenstein), dies at 71
Mar 23 Ted Anderson, English footballer (b. 1911)
Mar 24 Yvonne Mitchell, writer, dies at 53
Mar 25 Anton Heiller, Austrian organist and composer, dies at 55
Mar 26 Jean Stafford, American writer (Pulitzer Prize 1970-The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford), dies at 63
Mar 27 Ronald Adam, actor (Phantom Shot), dies at 82
Mar 28 Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (Weary Willy), dies at 80
Mar 29 Ray Ventura, French jazz pianist and big band bandleader ("Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise"), dies at 69
Mar 29 Sultan Yahya Petra, 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (1975-79), dies at 61
Mar 30 Airey Neave, British MP (Conservative), killed in a car bomb by the Irish National Liberation Army at 63
Apr 1 Bruno Coquatrix, French songwriter, music impresario (Olympia Hall, Paris), and politician, dies at 68
Apr 2 Carroll Rosenbloom, American businessman and NFL team owner (Baltimore Colts, LA Rams), dies of a heart attack at 72
Apr 2 Ivan Barrow, Jamaican cricket wicketkeeper (11 Tests; first West Indian Test century-maker in England), dies at 68
Apr 4 Edgar Buchanan, American actor (Petticoat Junction), dies at 76
Apr 4 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani president, hanged in Pakistan at 51
Apr 5 Eugène Gabritschevsky, Russian biologist and artist (b. 1893)
Apr 6 M Marie Wadlow, American softball pitcher (Hall of Fame 1957), dies at 61
Apr 6 Milton Ager, American composer, dies at 85
Apr 7 Bruno Apitz, German writer, dies at 78
Apr 9 Staats Cotsworth, American actor (Hamlet, Peyton Place), dies at 71
Apr 10 Henriette P "Hetty" Beck, Dutch actress (Dodendans), dies at 91
Apr 10 Nino Rota [Giovanni Rota Rinaldi], Italian classical and film score composer (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze; The Godfather (I & II; 16 Fellini films), dies from a coronary thrombosis at 67
Apr 12 Pernell Charity, American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, dies at 58
Apr 19 Rogers Morton, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland), dies at 64
Apr 20 Peter Donald, British-born American actor and radio host dubbed "one of radio's great dialecticians" (Masquerade Party), dies at 60
Apr 23 Blair Peach, New Zealand-born anti-fascist (b. 1946)
Apr 23 Doug Rauch, American rock and jazz-fusion bassist (Santana, 1972-74), dies of a heroin overdose at 28
Apr 24 John Carroll [Julian LaFaye], American actor (Flying Tigers, Go West), dies from leukemia at 72
Apr 27 Alfred Kantorowicz, German-Jewish historian and journalist (Spanish Diary), dies at 79
Apr 28 Feliks Roderyk Łabuński, Polish composer, dies at 86
Apr 29 Hardie Gramatky, American author and animator (Little Toot), dies at 72
Apr 29 Julia Perry, American classical composer (Soul Symphony; Cask of Amontillado; Homunuclus C.F.), dies at 55
May 1 Taisto Mäki, Finnish athlete (WR 2 miles, 5,000m and 10,000m simultaneously 1939-42), dies at 68
May 2 Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
May 3 Erin O'Brien-Moore, actress (Nurse Choate-Peyton Place), dies at 76
May 5 Shirley O'Hara, actress (Wild Party), dies at 68
May 8 Talcott Parsons, American sociologist, dies at 76

Cyrus Eaton (1883-1979)

May 9 Canadian-American financier, industrialist and steel magnate, dies at 95

May 9 Eddie Jefferson, American jazz vocalese singer and lyricist ("Moody's Mood for Love"), shot to death by a disgruntled former employee at 60
May 9 Lan Adomian, Russian-born American composer, dies at 73
May 10 John Cameron Andrieu Bingham Morton, satirist (Beachcomber), dies
May 10 Louis Paul Boon, Belgian writer (Eros & the Lonely Man), dies at 67
May 11 Barbara Hutton 'poor little rich girl', American heiress (Woolworth fortune), dies at 66
May 11 Joan Chandler, American actress, dies at 55
May 11 Lester Flatt, American bluegrass guitarist (Flatt & Scruggs - "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"; "Ballad of Jed Clampett"), dies at 64
May 14 Paul van 't Veeer, Dutch journalist/writer (Vrije Volk), dies at 57
May 15 Curtis Stevens, American bobsledder (Olympic gold 2-man [with brother Hubert] 1932), dies at 80
May 16 A. Philip Randolph, American labor leader (Railroad Porter's Union), dies at 90
May 21 Blue [Richard Allen] Mitchell, American jazz musician (Riverside, Blue Note), dies of cancer at 79
May 23 Hubert van Doorne, auto manufacturer (DAF Trucks), dies at 79
May 24 Jan Arvan, actor (Red Skelton Show, Zorro), dies
May 25 John Arthur Spenkelink, American murderer (b. 1949)
May 26 George Brent, American actor (Baby Face, Dark Victory, 42nd St), dies at 75
May 28 William Edmonson, American bass harmony and gospel vocalist (Southernaires), radio, stage and screen actor (Thirty Years Later), dies at 76
May 29 John H. Wood, Jr., American federal judge (b. 1916)

Mary Pickford (1892-1979)

May 29 Canadian actress (Poor Little Rich Girl, Suds, Secrets), dies of cerebral hemorrhage at 87

May 30 Jack Raine, British actor (Quartet), dies at 82
May 31 Nigel Howard, English cricket batsman and captain (4 Tests; Lancashire, MCC), dies at 54
Jun 1 Jack Mulhall, American actor and producer (The Three Musketeers, The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand), dies at 91
Jun 1 Werner Forssmann, German urologist (Nobel 1956), dies at 74
Jun 2 Jim Hutton, actor (Ellery Queen), dies of liver cancer at 45
Jun 3 Arno Schmidt, German writer, dies at 65
Jun 4 Edward Dawson, cricketer (England batsman in 5 Tests 1927-30), dies
Jun 4 Herman Shumlin, American Broadway producer, director and actor (Watch on the Rhine), dies at 80
Jun 5 Pauline Offner, Zen Theravadin nun, dies at 53

Jack Haley (1898-1979)

Jun 6 American vaudevillle and screen actor, singer, and dancer (The Wizard of Oz -"Tin Man"; Higher and Higher), dies of a heart attack at 81

Jun 6 Janina Spychajowa-Kurkowska, Polish archer (record 5x women's world championships), dies at 78
Jun 7 Forrest [Asa Earl] Carter, American author and segregationist speech writer, dies at 53
Jun 8 Herb Polesie, producer/playwright (20 Questions), dies at 79
Jun 8 Louis Palange, American arranger, classical music and film score composer (Hollywood Panorama; King Dinosaur), and conductor, dies at 61
Jun 9 Cyclone Taylor, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame rover (Stanley Cup 1909 Ottawa, 1915 Vancouver), dies at 94
Jun 11 August Maes, Flemish actor and director (Farmer that Dies), dies at 85

John Wayne (1907-1979)

Jun 11 American actor (Green Berets, True Grit), dies of stomach cancer at 72

Jun 13 Darla Hood, American child actress (Little Rascals, The Bat), dies from acute hepatitis at 47
Jun 14 David Butler, American director (April in Paris, Calamity Jane), dies at 84
Jun 15 Ernst Meister, writer, dies at 67
Jun 16 (William Jennings Bryan) "Ben" Weber, American composer (Thorne Music Award 1965), dies at 62
Jun 16 Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong, Ghanaian chief of state (1972-78), executed by firing squad during a coup at 47
Jun 16 Liselotte Welskopf-Heinrich, German writer and historian, dies at 77
Jun 16 Nicholas Ray, American film director (Rebel Without a Cause), dies at 67
Jun 17 Duffy Lewis, American baseball left fielder (World Series 1912, 15, 16; Boston Red Sox), dies at 91
Jun 17 Lou Frizzell, American character actor (Summer of '42; Bonanza - "Dusty Rhodes"), dies at 59
Jun 19 Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
Jun 21 Angus Maclise, American percussionist, mystic, shaman, and composer (Velvet Underground), dies of hypoglycemia and pulmonary tuberculosis at 41
Jun 21 Julian Orchard, English actor (Perfect Friday, Bless this House), dies at 49
Jun 22 (Walter) "Pee Wee" Hunt, American jazz trombonist (Casa Loma Orchestra, 1929-43; "Twelfth Street Rag", "Oh!"), and bandleader, dies at 72
Jun 22 Emory Parnell, American vaudeville performer and character actor (Life of RIley; County Fair; Falcon films; Ma and Pa Kettle movies), dies of a heat attack at 86
Jun 22 Louis Chiron, Monégasque racing driver, dies at 79
Jun 22 Paul Smart, American yachtsman (Olympic gold 1948), dies at 87
Jun 25 Philippe Halsman, American portrait photographer, dies at 73
Jun 26 Charles Clore, financier, dies
Jun 28 Paul Dessau, German composer and conductor (Adventures of Casanova; Never Trust a Woman), dies at 84
Jun 29 Ben Barnett, Australian cricketer (4 Tests for Australia 1938), dies at 71
Jun 29 Lowell George, American rock vocalist and guitarist (Mothers of Invention; Little Feat), dies at 34
Jun 30 Alfons Vranckx, Belgian politician, dies at 72
Jul 1 Richard Ward, African American actor (Death of a Salesman, Beacon Hill), dies of a heart attack at 64
Jul 1 Vsevolod Bobrov, Soviet ice hockey left wing (Olympic gold 1956) and soccer striker (3 caps), dies at 56
Jul 3 Louis Durey, French composer, dies at 91
Jul 4 Lee Wai Tong, Chinese footballer (b. 1905)

Elizabeth Ryan (1891-1979)

Jul 5 American tennis player (26 Grand Slam doubles titles), dies at 87

Jul 5 Judson Laire, American stage and screen actor (I Remember Mama - "Papa"; Advise and Consent), dies at 76
Jul 6 Van McCoy, American musician and songwriter (The Hustle), dies of a heart attack at 39
Jul 7 D P Conyngham, cricketer (one Test for South Africa), dies
Jul 7 Dalton Conyngham, South African cricket medium-pace bowler (1 Test, 2 wickets; Natal, Transvaal, Western Province), dies at 82
Jul 8 Charles Kynard, American soul, jazz, and funk Hammond B-3 organ player (Reelin With The Feelin'), dies at 46
Jul 8 Michael Wilding, British actor (Stage Fright, Courtney Affair, World of Suzie Wong), dies from a head injury at 66
Jul 8 Robert B. Woodward, American organic chemist (Nobel 1965), dies at 62
Jul 8 Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)
Jul 9 Betty Evans Grayson, American softball pitcher (National Softball Hall of Fame 1959; Chicago Queens), dies at 53
Jul 9 Cornelia Otis Skinner, American actress and writer (When Our Hearts Were Young & Gay), dies at 78
Jul 10 Arthur Fiedler, American orchestra leader (Boston Pops), dies at 84
Jul 11 Claude Wagner, French Canadian judge and politician, dies at 54
Jul 12 Kalervo Tuukkanen, Finnish composer, dies at 69
Jul 12 Minnie Ripperton [Andrea Davis], American pop, R&B, and disco singer-songwriter ("Lovin' You"), dies of breast cancer at 31
Jul 13 Corine Griffith, dies at 84
Jul 14 George De Witt, American TV host (Name that Tune), dies at 56
Jul 15 Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican politician (President of Mexico 1964-70), dies of cancer at 68
Jul 16 Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
Jul 16 James F Mcintyre, archbishop of Los Angeles, dies at 93
Jul 17 Doug Meintjes, South African cricket pace bowler (v England 1922-23), dies
Jul 21 Ludwig Renn, German writer, dies at 90
Jul 22 (Sarah) Hope Summers, American character actress (The Andy Griffith Show & Mayberry RFD - "Clara"), dies at 77
Jul 22 Mikhail Soschtschenko, Soviet Russian writer (The Regained Youth; Before the Dawn), dies at 83
Jul 22 Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (Budapest Honvéd), dies at 49

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