1979 deaths

Jean-Louis Allibert (1897–1979) was a French film and television actor. He is sometimes also known as Louis Allibert.

Johannes "Jan" Baptist Norbertus Pijnenburg (15 February 1906 – 2 December 1979) was a Dutch track cyclist who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal as part of the Dutch pursuit team. After the Olympics he turned professional and won six-day races in Dortmund (1931, 1932), Berlin (1931), Amsterdam (1932, 1933), Brussels (1932–1934), Paris (1932, 1934), Chicago (1932), Frankfurt (1933), Stuttgart (1933), Antwerp (1934, 1937), Rotterdam (1936) and Copenhagen (1936).Honored by several people, retired in September 1940.

Paul Alverdes (6 May 1897, Strasbourg - 28 February 1979, Munich) was a German novelist and poet.
The son of an officer and member of the German Youth Movement, he volunteered for duty in World War I and received a severe injury to the throat. After 1922 he was a freelance author in Munich, and from 1934 to 1944, along with Karl Benno von Mechow, he edited and published the journal Das innere Reich. Alverdes's work was influenced by the youth movement and by the World War I front experience, whose purifying and "transforming" power he praised. Nonetheless, he was only moderately popular with National Socialists because he lacked an "activist-dynamic attitude". After 1945 he mainly wrote stories for children.

Giacomo Lauri-Volpi (11 December 1892 – 17 March 1979) was an Italian tenor with a lyric voice of exceptional range and technical facility. He performed throughout Europe and the Americas in a top-class career that spanned 40 years.

Stefan Wiechecki (pen-name Wiech; 10 August 1896 – 26 July 1979) was a Polish writer and journalist. He is most fondly remembered for his humorous feuilletons, which chronicled the everyday life of Warsaw and cultivated the Warsaw dialect.
Stefan Wiechecki was born 10 August 1896. In inter-war Poland he collaborated with numerous Warsaw-based newspapers, initially as a court reporter. During numerous trials he documented typical personalities of the poorer, less-known part of the city with its distinctive culture, language and customs. With time he was given his own column in Express Wieczorny evening newspaper, where he published humorous sketches and feuilletons featuring personalities based on people taking part in trials he took part in. They gained much popularity and in late 1930s Wiechecki opened a chocolate shop in the borough of Praga, which became his main source of income.
During the Warsaw Uprising, he was cut off from his house on the other side of the river, in the Old Town. There he collaborated with numerous newspapers published in the Polish-held part of town, notably the Powstaniec. Sharing the fate of the rest of Warsaw's civilians, Wiechecki was forced out of the city after the end of the uprising. However, he returned soon after the town was retaken from the Germans and resumed his duties as a journalist. Some of his humorous stories were published in book form, while others continued to be published by Warsaw-based newspapers.
While criticised by linguists and Polonists for filling the Polish language with trash, he was nevertheless considered a classic of the Warsaw dialect, at that time suppressed by schools along with all other non-standard variations of the literary language. One of the scientists to defend him in numerous articles was Bronisław Wieczorkiewicz, who later published the first monograph on the dialects of Warsaw. A renowned Polish poet Julian Tuwim dubbed Wiechecki the Homer of Warsaw's streets and Warsaw's language, his feuilletons are also mentioned in the works of Antoni Słonimski, Stefan Kisielewski and Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. He died 26 July 1979 in Warsaw, where he is buried. After 1989 one of the main pedestrian-only zones of downtown Warsaw was officially named the Wiech Passage in honour of Wiechecki.
Wiechecki's novel Cafe pod Minogą was filmed in 1956.

Alighiero Noschese (Italian pronunciation: [aliˈɡjɛːro noˈskeːze, -eːse]; 25 November 1932 – 3 December 1979) was an Italian TV impersonator and actor.

Leif Størmer (1 July 1905 – 15 May 1979) was a Norwegian paleontologist and geologist. He was professor of historical geology at the University of Oslo from 1946 to 1975. His father was the mathematician Carl Størmer, and his son the mathematician Erling Størmer.

Rolf Østbye (17 April 1898 – 20 November 1979) was a Norwegian businessperson.
He was born in Kristiania as a son of rector Niels Johan Hagerup Østbye (1866–1952) and Johanne Elisabeth Mellbye (1873–1962). From 1923 to 1931 he was married to Reidun Berg (1899–1976), and from 1933 he was married to Ellen Martinsen (1904–1997), a granddaughter of Gustav Martinsen.He worked in Ringnes Bryggeri, Lillehammer Bryggeri and Bjølsen Valsemølle at a young age, but took education as a chemical engineer. He was hired in Standard Telefon og Kabelfabrik in 1947, and became chief executive officer in 1949. In 1953 he was hired in Norsk Hydro, becoming Director-General (CEO) in 1956. He stayed in this position until 1966; after this he was chairman of the board from 1967 to 1970. From 1966 to 1973 he chaired the Norwegian Trade Council, which is now a part of Innovation Norway.
He was also a supervisory council member of Forsikringsaktieselskabet Norden.

Umberto Melnati (17 June 1897 – 30 March 1979) was an Italian film actor
He appeared in over 35 films between 1932 and 1962.
He starred in films such as the Mario Mattoli 1936 film L'uomo che sorride and Il signor Max (1937). He made many appearances alongside Vittorio De Sica when he was a younger actor.

Ignacio Chávez Sánchez, M.D., F.A.C.P. (born 31 January 1897 in Zirándaro, Guerrero – d. 13 July 1979 in Mexico City) was a prominent Mexican educator, cardiologist, and founding member of El Colegio Nacional.