List of Famous people who died in 1979

Eulalia Soldevila Vall better known as Laly Soldevila was a Spanish film actress. She appeared in 100 films between 1955 and 1979.

Catherine Hessling was a French actress and the first wife of film director Jean Renoir. Hessling appeared in 15, mostly silent, films before retiring from the acting profession and withdrawing from public life in the mid-1930s.

Reinhard Gehlen was a German lieutenant-general and intelligence officer. He was chief of the Wehrmacht Foreign Armies East military intelligence service on the eastern front during World War II, spymaster of the CIA-affiliated anti-Communist Gehlen Organisation (1946–56) and the founding president of the Federal Intelligence Service of West Germany (1956–68) during the Cold War.

Teruo Nakamura was a Taiwanese-Japanese soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army who fought for Japan in World War II and did not surrender until 1974. He was the last known Japanese holdout to surrender after the end of hostilities in 1945.

Tariq bin Taimur was a member of the Omani royal family who became president of the Council of Ministers of Oman.

Harry-Max was a French film actor. He appeared in more than eighty films from 1938 to 1975.

Adolph "Spike" Dubs was the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 13, 1978, until his death in 1979. He was killed during a rescue attempt after his kidnapping.

Kathleen Esther Garman, Lady Epstein was the third of the seven Garman sisters, who were high-profile members of artistic circles in mid-20th century London, renowned for their beauty and scandalous behaviour. She was the model and longtime mistress of British/American sculptor Jacob Epstein, and eventually his second wife. They met in 1921 and immediately began a relationship that lasted until Epstein's death and produced three of Epstein's five children. Their daughter, Kitty Garman, was the first wife of Lucian Freud; their son was the artist Theodore Garman.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert George Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, was a British soldier, landowner, businessman and politician. In the 1970s he was the richest man in Britain.

Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause.