List of Famous people who died at 77

Robert Benjamin Leighton was a prominent American experimental physicist who spent his professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). His work over the years spanned solid state physics, cosmic ray physics, the beginnings of modern particle physics, solar physics, the planets, infrared astronomy, and millimeter- and submillimeter-wave astronomy. In the latter four fields, his pioneering work opened up entirely new areas of research that subsequently developed into vigorous scientific communities.

Arthur Leonard Schawlow was an American physicist and co-inventor of the laser with Charles Townes. His central insight, which Townes overlooked, was the use of two mirrors as the resonant cavity to take maser action from microwaves to visible wavelengths. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work using lasers to determine atomic energy levels with great precision.

Martinus Petrus Maria Muskens was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Breda, Netherlands.

Michael Janisch was an Austrian actor. He in best known as Inspektor Fichtl in Tatort.

Charles Caruana CBE was a Gibraltarian Roman Catholic bishop of Maltese descent. He was appointed sixth Roman Catholic Bishop of Gibraltar on 14 February 1998 and ordained on 24 May 1998. His retirement request was accepted on 18 March 2010. He died at St Bernard's Hospital, Gibraltar on 1 October 2010 following a bout of ill health.

Leo Breiman was a distinguished statistician at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, and was a member of the United States National Academy of Science.

Piero Dorazio was an Italian painter. His work was related to color field painting, lyrical abstraction and other forms of abstract art.