List of Famous people who died at 78

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as "branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture." Aalto's early career ran in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the 20th century. Many of his clients were industrialists, among them the Ahlström-Gullichsen family. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Nordic Classicism of the early work, to a rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards. Typical for his entire career is a concern for design as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art, in which he – together with his first wife Aino Aalto – would design the building, and give special treatment to the interior surfaces, furniture, lamps and glassware. His furniture designs are considered Scandinavian Modern, in the sense of a concern for materials, especially wood, and simplification but also technical experimentation, which led him to receiving patents for various manufacturing processes, such as bent wood. As a designer he is celebrated as the inventor of bent plywood furniture. The Alvar Aalto Museum, designed by Aalto himself, is located in what is regarded as his home city Jyväskylä.

Carl Richard Mann was an American rockabilly singer and pianist.

Jitendra Nath Pande or J. N. Pande was an Indian Pulmonologist and Professor and Head of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS). He was working as Senior Consultant (Medicine) at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science & Research, New Delhi. He died on 23 May 2020 during sleep when he was home quarantined due to COVID-19 positivity, in New Delhi.

Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine. Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and its chief Begin was also noted as "leader of the notorious terrorist organisation" by British government and banned from entering the United Kingdom.

Vladimir Ivanovich Pereturin was a Russian Soviet football player. He was winner of the Spartakiad of Peoples of the RSFSR (1959) and Master of Sports of the USSR.

Jens Dyhr Okking, was a Danish actor, singer and politician.

Umberto II reigned as the last King of Italy. He reigned for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946, although he had been de facto head of state since 1944, and was nicknamed the May King.

Nikolay Timofeyevich Antoshkin was a Mokshan Russian Air Force colonel general, Hero of the Soviet Union and politician. Born in 1942 in Bashkortostan, Antoshkin was drafted into the Soviet Army in August 1961. After graduating from military aviation school, he served with reconnaissance aviation units. He became commander of the Air Force of the 20th Guards Army in May 1980. After graduation from the Military Academy of the General Staff, Antoshkin became commander of the Air Force and deputy commander of the Central Group of Forces.

Albert Millet, born July 2, 1929, was a french serial killer, nicknamed "The Boar of the Moors". He is infamous for killing two women and a man (2007) in his hometown of Hyères.

Hélène Gordon-Lazareff was a French journalist of Russian Jewish origin who founded Elle magazine in 1945. She was married to Pierre Lazareff, founder of the newspaper France-Soir. She had two daughters, Michèle Lazareff-Rosier from her first marriage and Nina Lazareff from her second marriage with Pierre.