Aged 78
Famous people who died at 78
242 of the 11,867 best-known people in our data died aged 78, including Mahatma Gandhi, Sarah Bernhardt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Here are the 100 best known.
- Mahatma GandhiIndian independence activist · 1869–1948
- Sarah BernhardtFrench stage actress, painter and sculptor · 1844–1923
- Dwight D. EisenhowerPresident of the United States from 1953 to 1961 · 1890–1969
- Simone de BeauvoirFrench philosopher, social theorist and activist · 1908–1986
- Henrik IbsenNorwegian playwright and theatre director · 1828–1906
- Andrew JacksonPresident of the United States from 1829 to 1837 · 1767–1845
- Ralph Waldo EmersonAmerican philosopher · 1803–1882
- Vladimir NabokovRussian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor · 1899–1977
- Eleanor RooseveltAmerican diplomat and activist, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 · 1884–1962
- Romain RollandFrench author · 1866–1944
- Willy BrandtGerman politician (SPD), chancellor of West Germany (1969–1974) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate · 1913–1992
- Peter KropotkinRussian revolutionary socialist and philosopher · 1842–1921
- Mikhail SholokhovSoviet writer · 1905–1984
- Franz BeckenbauerGerman sports official and association football player · 1945–2024
- Pierre-Auguste RenoirFrench painter and sculptor · 1841–1919
- Harold PinterBritish playwright · 1930–2008
- Kublai KhanFounding emperor of the Yuan dynasty, grandson of Genghis Khan · 1215–1294
- Alphonse de LamartineFrench author, poet and statesman · 1790–1869
- Nelly SachsJewish German poet and playwright · 1891–1970
- Pierre CorneilleFrench tragedian · 1606–1684
- Albert Abraham MichelsonAmerican physicist · 1852–1931
- David LynchAmerican filmmaker · 1946–2025
- George MarshallAmerican army officer and statesman · 1880–1959
- Konstantin TsiolkovskyRussian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory · 1857–1935
- Wassily KandinskyAvant-garde painter of Russian origin · 1866–1944
- Pieter ZeemanDutch physicist · 1865–1943
- Stefania Turkevych-LukiianovychUkrainian pianist, composer, and musicologist · 1898–1977
- Aurobindo GhoshIndian Bengali philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet and nationalist · 1872–1950
- John Amos ComeniusCzech teacher, educator, philosopher and writer · 1592–1670
- Alvar AaltoFinnish architect and designer · 1898–1976
- Menachem BeginIsraeli politician and former Prime Minister · 1913–1992
- Elinor OstromAmerican political economist · 1933–2012
- Islam Karimov1st President of the Republic of Uzbekistan · 1938–2016
- Juan PerónPresident of Argentina · 1895–1974
- Ernst MachAustrian physicist · 1838–1916
- Patrick WhiteEnglish-born Australian writer · 1912–1990
- Henry CavendishEnglish natural philosopher, and scientist · 1731–1810
- Wilhelm OstwaldBaltic German chemist · 1853–1932
- Dennis GaborNobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor of holography · 1900–1979
- Mario PuzoAmerican author, screenwriter, and journalist · 1920–1999
- JamiPersian poet · 1414–1492
- Innocent XIPope of the Catholic Church from 1676 to 1689 · 1611–1689
- Dean MartinAmerican singer, actor, comedian and film producer · 1917–1995
- Heinrich MannGerman writer · 1871–1950
- Rajendra PrasadIndian statesman, lawyer and writer (1884–1963); first President of India · 1884–1963
- Jacob GrimmGerman philologist, linguist, jurist and mythologist · 1785–1863
- Peter GrünbergGerman physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate · 1939–2018
- Theodor FontaneGerman novelist and poet · 1819–1898
- Alija IzetbegovićBosnian politician, lawyer, philosopher and author · 1925–2003
- Jean-Baptiste Camille CorotFrench landscape and portrait painter and printmaker in etching · 1796–1875
- Nikolay BasovSoviet physicist · 1922–2001
- Victor Emmanuel III of ItalyKing of Italy from 1900 to 1946 · 1869–1947
- Clement IVPope · 1190–1268
- Umberto II of ItalyLieutenant of the Kingdom of Italy and last king of Italy · 1904–1983
- Alphonse MuchaCzech painter, illustrator and graphic artist · 1860–1939
- Mesrop MashtotsArmenian theologian and linguist · c. AD 362–440
- Otto DielsGerman chemist · 1876–1954
- Gustáv HusákCzechoslovak politician, 8th President of Czechoslovakia · 1913–1991
- Thornton WilderAmerican playwright and novelist · 1897–1975
- Konstantin RokossovskySoviet and Polish military commander · 1889–1968
- Albert Lebrun ↗15th President of the French Republic · 1871–1950
- Artturi Ilmari Virtanen ↗Finnish chemist and professor · 1895–1973
- Christiaan Barnard ↗South African cardiac surgeon · 1922–2001
- Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock ↗German poet, writer and linguist · 1724–1803
- Max Horkheimer ↗German philosopher and sociologist · 1895–1973
- Khosrow I ↗Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire from 531 to 579 · c. AD 501–579
- Raymond Aron ↗French philosopher, sociologist, journalist, and political scientist · 1905–1983
- Alben W. Barkley ↗American politician and vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953 · 1877–1956
- Emil Zátopek ↗Czech long-distance runner · 1922–2000
- Oscar II of Sweden ↗King of Sweden from 1872 to 1907 and Norway from 1872 to 1905 · 1829–1907
- Viktor Vasnetsov ↗Russian artist · 1848–1926
- Assia Djebar ↗French Algerian writer, translator and film director · 1936–2015
- Joseph Joffre ↗French general · 1852–1931
- Alfred Döblin ↗German expressionist novelist · 1878–1957
- Asaph Hall ↗American astronomer · 1829–1907
- Gaston Bachelard ↗French writer and philosopher · 1884–1962
- Jagadish Chandra Bose ↗Bengali polymath, physicist, and biologist · 1858–1937
- Jeff Beck ↗English guitarist · 1944–2023
- Le Duc Tho ↗Vietnamese diplomat · 1911–1990
- Athanasius Kircher ↗German Jesuit scholar · 1602–1680
- Bingu wa Mutharika ↗Malawi politician and economist · 1934–2012
- Coretta Scott King ↗American author, activist, eta eskubide zibilen liderra; Martin Luther Kingen emaztea · 1927–2006
- Mátyás Rákosi ↗Former First Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party · 1892–1971
- Robert Bellarmine ↗Catholic cardinal, saint, and Doctor of the Church · 1542–1621
- James Naismith ↗Canadian-American coach; inventor of basketball · 1861–1939
- Nguyễn Văn Thiệu ↗President of South Vietnam from 1965–75 · 1923–2001
- Paolo Uccello ↗Italian painter · 1397–1475
- John Pople ↗Nobel prize winning British chemist · 1925–2004
- Thomas A. Steitz ↗American biochemist · 1940–2018
- A. J. Ayer ↗English philosopher · 1910–1989
- Jason Robards ↗American actor · 1922–2000
- Paul Kruger ↗South African politician and President of the South African Republic · 1825–1904
- Virna Lisi ↗Italian actress · 1936–2014
- Zail Singh ↗President of India from 1982 to 1987 · 1916–1994
- Alexander Calder ↗American artist · 1898–1976
- Chaim Herzog ↗6th President of Israel (1983–1993) – · 1918–1997
- Ferdinand von Zeppelin ↗German general and airship pioneer · 1838–1917
- J. G. Ballard ↗British novelist · 1930–2009
- Melanie Klein ↗British Austrian born psychoanalyst · 1882–1960
- Milena Dravić ↗Serbian actress · 1940–2018
"c." means only the years are known, so the age could be a year out. Dates are from Wikidata (CC0), last updated 22 October 2026.
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