List of Famous people who died in 1979

Commander Shunsaku Kudō was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He is notable for the humanitarian act of rescuing 442 enemy British and American sailors from the Java Sea in 1942.

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Cotesworth Slessor, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF), serving as Chief of the Air Staff from 1950 to 1952. As a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, he saw action with No. 17 Squadron in the Middle East, earning the Military Cross, and with No. 5 Squadron on the Western Front, where he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Between the wars he commanded No. 4 Squadron in England, and No. 3 (Indian) Wing, earning the Distinguished Service Order for operations with the latter in Waziristan. In 1936, he published Air Power and Armies, which examined the use of air power against targets on and behind the battlefield.

Beatrix Alice Lehmann was a British actress, theatre director, writer and novelist.

Atos Kasimir Wirtanen was a Finnish left-wing intellectual, journalist, member of Finnish parliament (1936–1953) and cultural critic. He was born in Saltvik, Åland.

Michel de Ré was a French actor and theatre director. A grandson of Marshal Joseph Gallieni, he was until 1950 the husband of Heddy Einstein, daughter of the painter William Einstein, and afterwards compagnon of the comedian Martine Sarcey.