List of Famous people who died at 78

Makoto Satō 18 March 1934 – 6 December 2012 was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films from 1953 to 2008.

Arthur Edeson, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. Born in New York City, his career ran from the formative years of the film industry in New York, through the silent era in Hollywood, and the sound era there in the 1930s and 1940s. His work included many landmarks in film history, including The Thief of Bagdad (1924), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Frankenstein (1931), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Casablanca (1942).

Olga Solbelli was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 81 films between 1939 and 1967. She was born in Verghereto and died in Bologna.

Matthew Williams Stirling was an American ethnologist, archaeologist and later an administrator at several scientific institutions in the field. He is best known for his discoveries relating to the Olmec civilization. Much of his work was done with his "wife and constant collaborator" of 42 years Marion Stirling.

Mordechaï Podchlebnik or Michał Podchlebnik was a Polish Jew who managed to survive the Holocaust. He was a member of the Sonderkommando work detail for nearly two weeks at the Chełmno extermination camp in occupied Poland. Podchlebnik was one of at least three prisoners who escaped into the surrounding forest from the mass burial zone.

Paul Schmidt was a German aerospace engineer and inventor based in Munich, mainly known for his contribution to the development of the pulsejet.

Frank S. Ferguson was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television.

Viola Mallory Lawrence is considered by many to be the first female film editor in Hollywood. She was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing: for Pal Joey (1957), with Jerome Thoms; and for Pepe (1960), with Al Clark.