List of Famous people who died at 78

Ruth Williams Khama, Lady Khama, was the wife of Botswana's first president Sir Seretse Khama, the Paramount Chief of its Bamangwato tribe. She served as the inaugural First Lady of Botswana from 1966 to 1980.

Helmut Krauss was a German voice actor, actor and audiobook narrator.

Teresa Marta Ruiz Penella, better known as Terele Pávez, was a Spanish actress. She appeared in more than ninety films since 1954.

Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu was a Japanese singer and guitarist born in Tokyo.

Alija Izetbegović was a Bosnian politician, lawyer, Islamic philosopher and author, who in 1992 became the first president of the Presidency of the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served in this role until 1996, when he became a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving until 2000.

Lothar Späth was a German politician of the CDU.

Albert Leonidovich Filozov was a Soviet and Russian actor. He was a People's Artist of Russia.

Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron was a French philosopher, sociologist, political scientist, and journalist.

Nicolás Dueñas Navarro was a Spanish actor. He shot to fame with the theatre play 'Toc Toc'. Later, he became a regular actor in Spanish films and appeared in films like El crimen de Cuenca' (1980), 'Gary Cooper, que estás en los cielos...' (1981), 'Divinas palabras' (1987) and 'Tu nombre envenena mis sueños' (1996). He also acted in a Television series named 'Aquí no hay quien viva'.

Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky, with Washkansky regaining full consciousness and being able to easily talk with his wife, before dying 18 days later of pneumonia, largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system. Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, an assessment which has been criticised as misleading. Barnard's second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg, whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, lived for a year and a half and was able to go home from the hospital.