List of Famous people who died at 78

John Glenn Beall Jr., was an American Republican politician and businessman from the state of Maryland who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Maryland's 6th congressional district (1969–1971), and as a United States Senator from Maryland (1971–1977). He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1962–1968).

Wakabayama Sadao was a sumo wrestler from Yame, Fukuoka, Japan. His highest rank was komusubi. He earned four gold stars for defeating yokozuna. After his retirement from active competition in 1961 he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Shikoroyama.

Arne Nordheim was a Norwegian composer. Nordheim received numerous awards for his compositions, and from 1982 lived in the Norwegian government's honorary residence, Grotten, next to the Royal Palace in Oslo. He was elected an honorary member of the International Society for Contemporary Music in 1997. On 18 August 2006, Arne Nordheim received a doctor honoris causa degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He died at the age of 78 and was given a state funeral.

David Opatoshu was an American actor. He is best known for his role in the film Exodus (1960).

Donald Richie Taylor was an American actor and film director. He co-starred in 1940s and 1950s classics, including the 1948 film noir The Naked City, Battleground, Father of the Bride, Father's Little Dividend and Stalag 17. He later turned to directing films such as Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Tom Sawyer (1973), and Damien: Omen II (1978).

John Clotworthy Talbot Foster Whyte-Melville-Skeffington, 13th Viscount Massereene and 6th Viscount Ferrard DL was a British politician and landowner. He was also Baron of Loughneagh, 6th Baron Oriel, and 6th Baron Oriel, and served as a Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim. He succeeded his father in 1956 and regularly attended the House of Lords.

Charles H. Joffe was an American film producer and comedy talent manager. He is best known as, in partnership with Jack Rollins, the producer or executive producer of most of Woody Allen's films. Joffe won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Picture as producer of Allen's Annie Hall.

Heinz Angermeyer (1909–1988) was a German film producer. Along with Kurt Hoffmann, he ran a production company Independent-Film.

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen was a Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method".