List of Famous people who died in 1979

Márcia Mendes was a Brazilian actress and journalist. She was a journalist of TV newscast Jornal Hoje for Rede Globo.

Grace Marion Frick was a translator and researcher for her lifelong partner French author Marguerite Yourcenar. Grace Frick taught languages at US colleges and was the second academic dean to be appointed to Hartford Junior College.

Amir-Abbas Hoveyda was an Iranian economist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Iran from 27 January 1965 to 7 August 1977. He was prime minister for 13 years and is the longest serving prime minister in Iran's history. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Mansur's cabinet. After the Iranian Revolution, he was tried by the newly established Revolutionary Court for "waging war against God" and "spreading corruption on earth" and executed.

John George Diefenbaker was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. Between 1930 and 1979, he was the only federal Progressive Conservative leader to lead the party to an election victory, doing so three times, although only once with a majority of seats in the House of Commons of Canada.

José Fernández Díaz, commonly known as Joseíto Fernández, was a Cuban singer and songwriter. He is the writer of well-known songs, including "Elige tú, que canto yo", "Amor de madre", "Demuéstrame tú", and "Así son, boncó", as well as the most famous "Guajira Guantanamera".

Cecil Williams (1909–1979) was an English-South African theatre director and anti-apartheid activist.

Walter Huppenkothen was a German lawyer, Sicherheitsdienst (SD) leader, and Schutzstaffel (SS) prosecutor in the Hauptamt SS-Gericht.

Yuen Siu-tien was a Hong Kong martial arts film actor in the late 1970s. Yuen is perhaps best known as Beggar So in three films: Drunken Master, Story of Drunken Master and his final film Dance of the Drunk Mantis. He starred in several films with film actors like Jackie Chan and under the direction of his real life son Yuen Woo-ping.

Kurt Jooss was a famous ballet dancer and choreographer mixing classical ballet with theatre; he is also widely regarded as the founder of Tanztheater. Jooss is noted for establishing several dance companies, including most notably, the Folkwang Tanztheater, in Essen.

Joan Chandler was an American actress who notably starred in Rope (1948) with James Stewart and Humoresque (1946) with Joan Crawford.