List of Famous people who died at 78

The career of set decorator Edward G. Boyle kicked off in the early 1930s, when he started working on the first of over 100 films. His successful filmography includes such credits as an uncredited assist on the wartorn old South in Victor Fleming's classic Gone with the Wind (1939), the Nazi-influenced designs for Charlie Chaplin's fictional country of Tomania in The Great Dictator (1940), the gritty boxing world in Robert Rossen's Body and Soul (1947) and Mark Robson's Champion (1949), an elegant Bournemouth seaside hotel in Separate Tables (1958), island life at the turn of the century in George Roy Hill's Hawaii (1966) and the sophisticated demi-monde of the multi-millionaire lifestyles in Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).

Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American writer of science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

Edda Soligo (1905–1984) was an Italian film and television actress.

Manikka Vinayagam was a Tamil playback singer and actor. He sang for all the South Indian language films and acted in several Tamil feature films as a character artist. He was the son of the dancer Vazhuvoor B. Ramiah Pillai. His uncle and music guru was the singer C. S. Jayaraman.

Piergiorgio Silvano Nesti was an Italian Roman Catholic archbishop.

Piet Roozenburg was a draughts player from the Netherlands.

Renato Mambor was an Italian painter, writer, photographer and actor.