List of Famous people who died at 74

Vantile Emmanuel Whitfield was a highly influential arts administrator who helped found several performing arts institutions in the United States.

Leonid Georgievich Melnikov was a Soviet politician and diplomat.

Norman Krasna was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director. He is best known for penning screwball comedies which centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna also directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood. He garnered four Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's Princess O'Rourke, a film he also directed.

Sir Michael James Lighthill was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics and for writing the Lighthill report on artificial intelligence.

Yevgeny Petrovich Klevtsov was a Russian cyclist. He competed in the individual and team road races at the 1952 Summer Olympics, but without much success. He was selected for the next Olympics, but reportedly refused to go because he would not stand the long trip by sea to Melbourne, Australia. At the next Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the 100 km team time trial. Both in 1952 and 1960 he was the team captain and during the races did his best to "pull" his team mates. In 1952 his efforts were discarded by a crash that involved two riders of his team.

Walter Farley was an American author, primarily of horse stories for children. His first and most famous work was The Black Stallion (1941). He wrote many sequels, and the series has been continued since his death by his son Steven.

Wilbert Lee "Bill" Gore was an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded W. L. Gore and Associates with his wife, Genevieve (Vieve).