List of Famous people who died at 78

Nicolás García Uriburu was an Argentine contemporary artist, landscape architect, and ecologist. His work in land art was aimed at raising consciousness about environmental issues such as water pollution.

Sergey Khoruzhiy was a Russian physicist, mathematician, philosopher, and theologian.

Abel Salazar García was a Mexican actor, producer and director. He appeared in 70 films between 1941 and 1989. He was a son of Don García and his wife, and brother to Don Alfredo Salazar.

Lolita Aniyar de Castro was a Venezuelan teacher, lawyer, politician, and criminologist. She served as a professor at Universidad del Zulia in the department of criminology, and for more than 15 years was director of the Institute of Criminology there, which now bears her name. She taught in graduate school at the Universidad de los Andes, as well as other universities in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Brazil, as well as other countries. She was appointed as governor of the State of Zulia on 2 February 1994, following the resignation of her predecessor, Oswaldo Álvarez Paz. Aniyar de Castro became the first Venezuelan woman to be elected to that position. Before that, she had already become the first woman to be elected deputy to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Zulia and the first female senator to the National Congress of Venezuela. She was the Delegate of Venezuela to UNESCO, and she became Consul of Venezuela in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Committee of Stockholm awarded her the International Prize of Criminology . She also wrote numerous books on the criminal justice area and in Venezuela. She died on 7 December 2015 at the age of 78, as a result of a heart attack at her home in Maracaibo.

Thomas Arthur Steitz was an American biochemist, a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, best known for his pioneering work on the ribosome.

Max Horkheimer was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militarism, economic disruption, environmental crisis, and the poverty of mass culture using the philosophy of history as a framework. This became the foundation of critical theory. His most important works include Eclipse of Reason (1947), Between Philosophy and Social Science (1930–1938) and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). Through the Frankfurt School, Horkheimer planned, supported and made other significant works possible.

Otto Christian Archibald, Prince of Bismarck, was a German politician and diplomat, and the Prince of Bismarck from 1904 to his death. He was a prominent member of the Nazi party (1933–1945).

Tom Regan was an American philosopher who specialized in animal rights theory. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, where he had taught from 1967 until his retirement in 2001.

Christa Dichgans was a German painter, associated with the Pop Art movement.

Ernst L. Freud was an Austrian architect and the fourth child of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his German-born wife Martha Bernays. In honour of his wife, Ernst Freud added the initial L. to his name when he married in early 1920, making the middle initial stand for Lucie and not Ludwig as is often assumed.