List of Famous people who died in 1979

Ludvík Svoboda was a Czechoslovak general and politician. He fought in both World Wars, for which he was regarded as a national hero, and he later served as President of Czechoslovakia from 1968 to 1975.

Catherine Lacey was an English actress of stage and screen.

Jean Berthoin was a French politician. As Minister of National Education under Charles de Gaulle, he instituted a policy of compulsory education for all children, both French and foreign citizens, until the age of sixteen, building on the earlier reforms of 1936. Implemented in 1959, this was known as the Berthoin Ordinance. He also suggested that the baccalauréat be abolished, prompting a significant backlash in the Parisian press.

Richard Paulick was a German architect with political connections. In professional terms his most productive period, frequently overlooked in western sources, may have been the time he spent in  Shanghai between 1933 and 1949. He has been described as the "father of East-German Plattenbau" (construction). In the eyes of admirers he was nevertheless able to bring an element of "humanisation" to the economics-driven low-cost high-density post-war reconstruction of East Germany.

Erin O'Brien-Moore was an American actress. She created the role of Rose in the original Broadway production of Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Street Scene (1929), and was put under contract in Hollywood and made a number of films in the 1930s. Her promising career on the stage and screen was interrupted by severe injuries she sustained in a 1939 fire. Following her recovery and extensive plastic surgery she returned to the stage and character roles in films and television, including four seasons of the primetime serial drama Peyton Place (1965–68).