List of Famous people who died in 1979

Carmine Galante was an American mobster and acting boss of the Bonanno crime family. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar, leading to the nickname "The Cigar" and "Lilo".

Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim collected art in Europe and America primarily between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it; in 1949, she settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice.

Juana Fernández Morales de Ibarbourou, also known as Juana de América, (1892–1979) was a Uruguayan poet and one of the most popular poets of Spanish America. Her poetry, the earliest of which is often highly erotic, is notable for her identification of her feelings with nature around her. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

Aleksei Yakovlevich Kapler was a prominent Soviet filmmaker, screenwriter, actor and writer. He was known as screenwriter of many Soviet movies, such as Lenin in 1918, Amphibian Man, The Blue Bird and Striped Trip, as well as one of the anchors and directors of TV program Kinopanorama. In 1941, Kapler was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Archibald Bulloch "Archie" Roosevelt, the fifth child of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, was a distinguished U.S. Army officer and commander of U.S. forces in both World War I and II. In both conflicts he was wounded. He earned the Silver Star with three oak leaf clusters, Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster and the French Croix de guerre. After World War II, he became a successful businessman and the founder of a New York City bond brokerage house, as well as a spokesman for conservative political causes.

Dame Gracie Fields, was an English actress, singer and comedian and star of both cinema and music hall. She spent the later part of her life on the isle of Capri, Italy. Fields was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Services to Entertainment in 1938, and in 1979, seven months before her death, she was invested as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Vivian Vance was an American actress and singer, who is known for her role as Ethel Mertz on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 1954, as well as receiving three other Emmy nominations. She also starred as Vivian Bagley on the sitcom The Lucy Show (1962–1968).

Debra Louise Jackson informally known as "Orange Socks" when unidentified, was an American murder victim who went unidentified for nearly 40 years before being identified via a DNA match with her surviving sister in 2019. Her murder is believed to have taken place on October 30 or 31, 1979, in Georgetown, Texas. Her body was found naked, except for the pair of orange socks from which the nickname was derived. She had been strangled, and was believed to have died only hours before the discovery.

Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in film and television for half a century.

Sándor Péter Kocsis was a Hungarian footballer who played for Ferencváros TC, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelona and Hungary as a striker. During the 1950s, along with Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti, he was a member of the Mighty Magyars. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he moved to Spain where he became a member of the FC Barcelona team of the late 1950s.