The following is a list of notable deaths in October 1978.
Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:
Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.
Roy L. Dennis, 16, American teenager who suffered from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare scleroticbone disorder, he died alone in his own bedroom, having not interacted with anyone in his family since he complained about his headache on the previous evening.Peter Bogdanovich directed the drama film Mask (1985), from Anna Hamilton Phelan's screenplay, loosely based on Dennis's life. Most of the scenes and dialogue were altered for dramatic purposes.
6
Johnny O'Keefe, 43, Australian rock and roll singer and television presenter, although he had helped the careers of many of his rock and roll contemporaries, O'Keefe was resistant to the changes in pop music and made himself unpopular amongst the newer music groups by banning "long-haired" acts, such as The Missing Links, from appearing on his show Sing Sing Sing, in early 1974, he scored his last big hit with a version of the old Inez and Charlie Foxx hit "Mockingbird", recorded as a duet with the vocalist Margaret McLaren,; it became his 29th Australian hit, reaching No. 8 nationally in April 1974, death caused by cardiovascular collapse, which was in turn caused by an overdose of prescription barbiturates and Methaqualone.
8
Jim Gilliam, 49, American baseball player and coach, he was second baseman and third baseman in the Negro league and in Major League Baseball (MLB), he served as a player-coach in 1965-1966, and became a full-time first-base coach in 1967. he continued as a coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers until his death in 1978, including three more Dodger pennant teams in 1974, 1977, and 1978; they lost the World Series in each year.having suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in mid-September 1978 and having lapsed into a coma following a surgery, he died while still comatose.
John Randolph Bray, 99, American animator, cartoonist, and film producer,eponymous founder of the studio Bray Productions,; unlike newspaper cartoonist Winsor McCay, who had been making short animated films for several years, Bray organized his studio according to the principles of industrial production, an approach that Raoul Barré, another animator, also adopted at around the same time,as the 1910s progressed, Bray's studio became a powerhouse in the early animation industry, the studio assembled a staff that included many accomplished animators, and it produced a steady and widely distributed stream of animated shorts, Bray himself contributed a series featuring his character Colonel Heeza Liar, which was among the most popular series of animated shorts in that era, Bray produced the first animated film in color, The Debut of Thomas Cat (1920), in Brewster Color.
Ralph Metcalfe, 68, American politician and track and field sprinter, he served as the representative of Illinois's 1st congressional district from 1971 until his death in office in 1978,as a sprinter, Metcalfe had broken or equaled world record times at 16 different occasions; however, only 5 of these were ever officially ratified by the athletics governing body, the IAAF, death caused by his second-known heart attack.
12
Nancy Spungen, 20, American stripper, groupie, and figure of the 1970s punk rock scene, death caused by a knife wound to her abdomen. Her dead body was found under the wash basin in the bathroom of her room at the Hotel Chelsea. Spungen's boyfriend Sid Vicious was immediately arrested and charged with second-degree murder, but he died of a heroin overdose prior to his trial taking place.There are various conflicting theories about the cause of Spungen's death. One theory attributed her death to the perpetrators of a robbery in her hotel room, as certain items, including a substantial amount of money, were claimed to be missing from the room. In his book Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk, Phil Strongman accused the actor and stand-up comic Rockets Redglare of killing Spungen; as Redglare delivered drugs to the couple's room on the night of Spungen's death.
13
Roger Clark, 70, American actor,; in 1936, he was one of many young performers being signed to long-term contracts by the film studioUniversal Pictures, between 1944 and 1952, Clark produced, directed and/or performed in six Broadway shows, death due to unspecified "long illness".
Gunnar Nilsson, 29, Swedish racing driver, he competed in Formula One from 1976 to 1977, his debut season saw a podium finish at only his third Grand Prix, the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix,; he also scored another impressive third place in the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix, fifth in Germany and sixth in Japan, but the rest of the season was marred by accidents – in Belgium, Sweden, and Holland – and by car failures – in Monaco, France, England, and at Watkins Glen, death caused by testicular cancer.
Salka Viertel, 89, Austrian actress and screenwriter, she was a mentor and confidante to the Swedish actress Greta Garbo, and it was Garbo who encouraged Viertel to write screenplays as an alternative to film acting, the Viertel home became the site of salons and meetings of the émigré community of European intellectuals, along with Hollywood luminaries, particularly at Sunday night tea parties that Salka hosted, besides acting as a diplomat within the ethnically and politically diverse expatriate colony, Viertel also played a practical role as a go-between who could accelerate projects and careers,death caused by cancer.
12Green, Michelle (March 18, 1985). "The Drama Behind Mask". People Weekly. Vol.23, no.11. Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on May 6, 2009. Retrieved June 22, 2024.