List of Famous people who died at 79

Phoebe Foster was an American theater and film actress.

W. Donn Hayes (1893–1973) was an American film editor active from the 1910s to the 1950s. He worked for a number of Hollywood studios including MGM, Fox Film and Paramount. He was sometimes credited simply as Donn Hayes.

Thandika Mkandawire was a Malawian economist and public intellectual who was a Chair of African Development and professor of African Development at the London School of Economics. He is a widely published scholar on the social sciences in Africa. His research focused in development theory and economic and social policy.

Lesley Selander was an American film director of Westerns and adventure movies. His career as director, spanning 127 feature films and dozens of TV episodes, lasted from 1936 to 1968. Before that, Selander was assistant director on films such as The Cat and the Fiddle (1934), A Night at the Opera (1935), and Fritz Lang's Fury (1936).

Carl Benton Reid was an American actor.