List of Famous people who died in 1979

Ludwig Merwart was an influential Austrian painter and graphic artist. He is an important representative of Tachism and was a major force in graphic arts and prints, especially after World War II. His work belongs to the most significant and interesting contributions to graphic arts in Austria to this day.

Carl Georg Heise was a German art historian. From 1945 to 1955 he was director of the Kunsthalle Hamburg.

Guy Reginald Bolton was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G. Wodehouse and Fred Thompson, with whom he wrote 21 and 14 shows respectively, and the American playwright George Middleton, with whom he wrote ten shows. Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., Ian Hay and Weston and Lee. In the US, he worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Kalmar and Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Lionel Greenstreet (1889–1979) was the first officer of the Endurance and a member of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal. When he died on 13 January 1979, he was the last survivor of the Weddell Sea party within the expedition.

Hans Wolff was a German film editor and director.

Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly Fondeur was a lawyer, scholar, diplomat, and, from 1962 until 1963, the President of the Dominican Republic, before he was president, he was vice president of the country from 1960 to 1962.