List of Famous people who died in 1978

Air Vice Marshal Francis Masson (Frank) Bladin, was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in rural Victoria, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1920. Bladin transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1923, and learned to fly at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. He held training appointments before taking command of No. 1 Squadron in 1934. Quiet but authoritative, he was nicknamed "Dad" in tribute to the concern he displayed for the welfare of his personnel.

Charles Eames was an American designer, architect and film maker. In creative partnership with his spouse, Ray Kaiser Eames, he was responsible for groundbreaking contributions in the field of architecture, furniture design, industrial design, manufacturing and the photographic arts.

Semyon Moiseevich Krivoshein was a Soviet tank commander, who played a vital part in the World War II reform of the Red Army tank forces and in the momentous clash between German and Soviet tanks in the Battle of Kursk.

Ahmad bin Hussein al-Ghashmi was the President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 11 October 1977 until his death eight months later. Al-Ghashmi assumed power when his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, was assassinated. Ghashmi himself was assassinated later. His assassination occurred when he was meeting an envoy sent by People's Democratic Republic of Yemen President Salim Rubai Ali and a briefcase, reportedly containing a secret message, exploded, killing both al-Ghashmi and the envoy. It is not conclusively known who set off the explosion. Coincidentally, Rubai Ali died in a coup three days after this event.

George Reader was the fourth man to referee a FIFA World Cup Final, the first Englishman to do so, and the oldest match official at any World Cup in history. He hailed from Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Will Geer was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In California he befriended rising singer Woody Guthrie. They both lived in New York for a time in the 1940s. He was blacklisted in the 1950s, by Hollywood, after refusing, in testimony before Congress, to name persons who had joined the Communist Party.

Glen Milborn Sherley was an American criminal who became a country singer-songwriter after his song "Greystone Chapel" was made famous by Johnny Cash in 1968. Sherley wrote the song while in prison and it was later performed by Cash at his Folsom Prison performance, which was eventually released as the album At Folsom Prison. Sherley was in the front row, unaware that his song was going to be played.

Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American dancer and actor. He is best remembered for a series of popular musicals he made at 20th Century Fox such as Mother Wore Tights (1947).

George Leslie Stout was an American art conservation specialist and museum director who founded the first laboratory in the United States to study art conservation, as well as the first journal on the subject of art conservation. During World War II, he was a member of the U.S. Army unit devoted to recovering art, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (MFAA), a.k.a. "The Monuments Men."

Josef Carl Peter Jacobs PlM, was a German flying ace with 48 victories during the First World War. The victory total of the prewar flier tied him with Werner Voss for fourth place among the war's German aces. His skill in aerial warfare brought him squadron and wing-level commands. By war's end, he was the leading ace flying the Fokker Triplane.