List of Famous people who died in 1979

Paul Marie-Adolphe Charles Paray was a French conductor, organist and composer. He is best remembered in the United States for being the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade.

Willy Berking was a German orchestra conductor, trombonist and composer.

George Froeschel was an Austrian novelist and screenwriter. In 1943, he received two Academy Award nominations for co-writing screenplays for Mrs. Miniver and Random Harvest. He won the Academy Award for Mrs. Miniver.

Eric Pohlmann was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the primary antagonist of the James Bond series, in the films From Russia with Love and Thunderball.

Yao Zhe was a People's Liberation Army lieutenant general. He was born in Shaoyang County, Hunan Province. Yao joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in July 1928 and the Communist Party of China in 1929. He fought alongside Liu Zhidan in the Chinese Civil War. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was active in Daqing Mountain as part of the Shanxi-Chahar Province-Hebei. He participated in the Datong-Jining Campaign against Fu Zuoyi.

Fred Coe, nicknamed Pappy, was an American television producer and director most famous for The Goodyear Television Playhouse/The Philco Television Playhouse in 1948-1955 and Playhouse 90 from 1957 to 1959. Among the live TV dramas he produced were Marty and The Trip to Bountiful for Goodyear/Philco, Peter Pan for Producers' Showcase, and Days of Wine and Roses for Playhouse 90.

David Armitage Bannerman OBE, MA, SD (Cantab), Hon. LL.D. (Glasgow), FRSE, FZS was a British ornithologist. From 1919 to 1952 he was Curator of the British Museum of Natural History.