List of Famous people who died in 1977

Bekir Refet Teker was a Turkish footballer. He played as a striker for Fenerbahçe and the Turkey national football team. Like most little boys from Kadıköy his career started in the Fenerbahçe youth teams until he was promoted to the senior team. Bekir then played for Altinordu, Galatasaray and Karlsruhe in Germany. Bekir was a member of the Olympic squads of Turkey in 1924 and 1928.

Sujono Hadinoto was an Indonesian politician and academician. He briefly served as Minister of Economic Affairs in the Sukiman Cabinet, and was the chairman of the Indonesian National Party between 1947 and 1950.

Manuel Sandoval Vallarta was a Mexican physicist. He was a Physics professor at both MIT and the Institute of Physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 credited films, and was best known for her roles in collaboration with director Kenji Mizoguchi over 15 films between 1940 and 1954. She was also a second cousin to director Masaki Kobayashi.

Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."

Modibo Keïta was the first President of Mali (1960–1968) and the Prime Minister of the Mali Federation. He espoused a form of African socialism.

Chinita Ullmann, sometimes seen as Chinita Ullman, was a Brazilian dancer, born Frieda Ullmann. "Modern dance was largely introduced to Brazil by Chinita Ullman," notes The Oxford Dictionary of Dance.

Peter Jonathan Winston was an American chess player from New York City. He shared first prize in the 1974 U.S. Junior Chess Championship. Winston disappeared in mysterious circumstances in January 1978. His last published FIDE rating was 2220.

Marie-Thérèse Walter was the French lover and model of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935 and the mother of their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he was 45 and still living with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova. It ended when Picasso moved on to his next relationship, with artist Dora Maar.

Pan Hannian was a major figure in the Chinese Communist intelligence by the early 1930s and until 1955. He began his work with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1926 as a propagandist with the editorial department of the magazine "Oazo" (Huanzhou) and later with "Crossroads". Pan became a CCP member in February 1927 and was assigned as managing editor of the "Revolutionary Army Daily" in Nanchang. Ordered to Shanghai for the entry of the KMT in April, Pan had barely arrived when the 12 April anti-communist coup forced him underground. This may have been the time when Pan was first assigned intelligence duties. Pan escaped Shanghai with Zhou Enlai to Wuhan, but eventually returned to Shanghai to take up a leadership position with their paramount intelligence organization, the CCP Central Committee Special Branch. He became the head of CCSB's Second Section (intelligence) and later the Third Section, in 1931-33 stayed on in Shanghai as the rest of Central Committee was evacuated under intense pressure from KMT intelligence and police in the Shanghai International Settlement and the Shanghai French Concession. Pan eventually left Shanghai in 1933 and participated in the Long March, but returned to Shanghai and regularly visited Hong Kong after the 1935 Zunyi Conference.