List of Famous people who died in 1978

Harold Dwight Lasswell was a leading American political scientist and communications theorist. He earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and economics and was a PhD student at the University of Chicago. He was a professor of law at Yale University. He studied at the Universities of London, Geneva, Paris, and Berlin in the 1920s. He served as president of the American Political Science Association (APSA), of the American Society of International Law and of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).

Mark Robson was a Canadian-born film director, producer, and editor. Robson began his 45-year career in Hollywood as a film editor. He later began working as a director and producer. He directed thirty-four films during his career, including The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955), Peyton Place (1957), for which he earned his first Oscar nomination, Von Ryan's Express (1965), and Valley of the Dolls (1967).

Guy-Marie Riobé (1911–1978) was a mid-twentieth century bishop of Orléans, France, in office 1963 to 1978. He held liberal, progressive views influenced by the climate of the Second Vatican Council.

Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery, an English crime writer and composer, known for his Gervase Fen novels and for his musical scores for the early films in the Carry On series.

Ronald George Wreyford Norrish FRS was a British chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967.

Winston Singleton Sharples was an American composer known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation department at Paramount Pictures. In his 35-year career, Sharples scored more than 700 cartoons for Paramount and Famous Studios, and composed music for two Frank Buck films, Wild Cargo (1934) and Fang and Claw (1935).

Arnfried Heyne was a German film editor, who also worked as assistant director. He was one of several editors to work on Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia (1938).