List of Famous people who died at 79

Li Zhensheng was a Chinese photojournalist who captured some of the most telling images from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, better known as the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Moise Jacob Safra was a Lebanese Brazilian businessman and philanthropist. He co-founded Banco Safra with his brothers Edmond Safra and Joseph Safra.

Percy Howard Newby CBE was an English novelist and broadcasting administrator. He was the first winner of the Booker Prize, his novel Something to Answer For having received the inaugural award in 1969.

Norman Burton was an American stage film and television actor. He was occasionally credited as Normann Burton.

Adam Marian Dziewoński was a Polish-American geophysicist who made seminal contributions to the determination of the large-scale structure of the Earth's interior and the nature of earthquakes using seismological methods. He spent most of his career at Harvard University, where he was the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science.

Gottfried Schatz was a Swiss-Austrian biochemist.

Peter Pasetti (1916–1996) was a German stage, television and film actor. He played a number of leading roles in post-Second World War productions such as the operetta film A Night in Venice (1953). From the late 1950s he appeared increasingly on television.

Sir Robert Birley KCMG was an English educationalist who was head master of Charterhouse School, then Eton College, and an anti-apartheid campaigner. He acquired the nickname "Red Robert", as even his moderate liberal politics caused concern for the conservative members of the Eton school of governors. His predecessor, Claude Aurelius Elliott was appointed provost and in his capacity as chair of the board of governors, living next door to Birley, he was able to keep an eye on Robert.