diff --git a/stdlib/public/Distributed/DistributedActorSystem.swift b/stdlib/public/Distributed/DistributedActorSystem.swift
index c9ab2b2700a2d..57c2185e274b2 100644
--- a/stdlib/public/Distributed/DistributedActorSystem.swift
+++ b/stdlib/public/Distributed/DistributedActorSystem.swift
@@ -531,8 +531,8 @@ extension DistributedActorSystem {
     }
 
     // Decode the return type
-    func allocateReturnTypeBuffer<R>(_: R.Type) -> UnsafeRawPointer? {
-      return UnsafeRawPointer(UnsafeMutablePointer<R>.allocate(capacity: 1))
+    func allocateReturnTypeBuffer<R>(_: R.Type) -> UnsafeMutableRawPointer? {
+      return UnsafeMutableRawPointer(UnsafeMutablePointer<R>.allocate(capacity: 1))
     }
 
     let maybeReturnTypeFromTypeInfo =
@@ -555,12 +555,14 @@ extension DistributedActorSystem {
         errorCode: .typeDeserializationFailure)
     }
 
-    func destroyReturnTypeBuffer<R>(_: R.Type) {
-      resultBuffer.assumingMemoryBound(to: R.self).deallocate()
+    func doDestroyReturnTypeBuffer<R>(_: R.Type) {
+      let buf = resultBuffer.assumingMemoryBound(to: R.self)
+      buf.deinitialize(count: 1)
+      buf.deallocate()
     }
 
     defer {
-      _openExistential(returnTypeFromTypeInfo, do: destroyReturnTypeBuffer)
+      _openExistential(returnTypeFromTypeInfo, do: doDestroyReturnTypeBuffer)
     }
 
     do {
diff --git a/test/Distributed/Inputs/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swift b/test/Distributed/Inputs/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swift
index 0bf049d04ab60..7d48df671ffbf 100644
--- a/test/Distributed/Inputs/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swift
+++ b/test/Distributed/Inputs/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swift
@@ -324,6 +324,8 @@ public final class FakeRoundtripActorSystem: DistributedActorSystem, @unchecked
         handler: resultHandler
       )
 
+      defer { remoteCallResult = nil }
+      defer { remoteCallError = nil }
       switch (remoteCallResult, remoteCallError) {
       case (.some(let value), nil):
         print("  << remoteCall return: \(value)")
diff --git a/test/Distributed/Runtime/distributed_actor_execute_doesnt_leak_return.swift b/test/Distributed/Runtime/distributed_actor_execute_doesnt_leak_return.swift
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..523c4a4e53c8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Distributed/Runtime/distributed_actor_execute_doesnt_leak_return.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+// RUN: %empty-directory(%t)
+// RUN: %target-swift-frontend-emit-module -emit-module-path %t/FakeCodableForDistributedTests.swiftmodule -module-name FakeCodableForDistributedTests -disable-availability-checking %S/../Inputs/FakeCodableForDistributedTests.swift
+// RUN: %target-swift-frontend-emit-module -emit-module-path %t/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swiftmodule -module-name FakeDistributedActorSystems -disable-availability-checking %S/../Inputs/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swift
+// RUN: %target-build-swift -module-name main -enable-experimental-feature Extern -Xfrontend -enable-experimental-distributed -Xfrontend -disable-availability-checking -j2 -parse-as-library -I %t %s %S/../Inputs/FakeCodableForDistributedTests.swift %S/../Inputs/FakeDistributedActorSystems.swift -o %t/a.out
+// RUN: %target-codesign %t/a.out
+// RUN: %target-run %t/a.out | %FileCheck %s --dump-input=always
+
+// REQUIRES: executable_test
+// REQUIRES: concurrency
+// REQUIRES: distributed
+// REQUIRES: objc_interop
+
+// rdar://76038845
+// UNSUPPORTED: use_os_stdlib
+// UNSUPPORTED: back_deployment_runtime
+
+import Foundation
+import Distributed
+import FakeDistributedActorSystems
+import FakeCodableForDistributedTests
+
+typealias DefaultDistributedActorSystem = FakeRoundtripActorSystem
+
+@objc
+class SentinelNSError:
+  NSObject,
+//  NSError,
+  Codable, @unchecked Sendable {
+  let str: String
+
+  init(_ str: String) {
+    self.str = str
+    super.init()
+    print("\(str).init: \(Unmanaged.passUnretained(self).toOpaque())")
+  }
+
+  required init(from: any Decoder) { fatalError("Not implemented") }
+  func encode (to: any Decoder) { fatalError("Not implemented") }
+
+  deinit {
+    print("\(str).deinit: \(Unmanaged.passUnretained(self).toOpaque())")
+  }
+}
+
+class Sentinel: Codable {
+  let str: String
+
+  init(_ str: String) {
+    self.str = str
+    print("\(str).init: \(Unmanaged.passUnretained(self).toOpaque())")
+  }
+
+  required init(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError() }
+  required init(from: any Decoder) { fatalError("Not implemented") }
+  func encode (to: any Decoder) { fatalError("Not implemented") }
+
+  deinit {
+    print("\(str).deinit: \(Unmanaged.passUnretained(self).toOpaque())")
+  }
+}
+
+ distributed actor TestActor {
+   distributed func returnNSSentinel() -> SentinelNSError? {
+     return .init("returnNSSentinel")
+   }
+
+   distributed func returnSentinel() -> Sentinel? {
+     return .init("returnSentinel")
+   }
+ }
+
+@main
+struct Main {
+
+  static func main() async throws {
+    let system = DefaultDistributedActorSystem()
+
+    let instance = TestActor(actorSystem: system)
+    let resolved = try TestActor.resolve(id: instance.id, using: system)
+
+    // CHECK: returnSentinel.init: [[P0:0x[0-9]+]]
+    var s0 = try await instance.returnSentinel()
+    // CHECK: s0 retain count = 2
+    print("s0 retain count = \(_getRetainCount(s0!))")
+    // CHECK: returnSentinel.deinit: [[P0]]
+    s0 = nil
+
+    // CHECK: returnSentinel.init: [[P1:0x[0-9]+]]
+    var s1 = try await resolved.returnSentinel()
+    // CHECK: s1 retain count = 2
+    print("s1 retain count = \(_getRetainCount(s1!))")
+    // CHECK: returnSentinel.deinit: [[P1]]
+    s1 = nil
+
+    // CHECK: returnNSSentinel.init: [[NS1:0x[0-9]+]]
+    var ns1 = try await resolved.returnNSSentinel()
+    // CHECK: returnNSSentinel.deinit: [[NS1]]
+    ns1 = nil
+
+    print("DONE.")
+  }
+}
+
+@_alwaysEmitIntoClient
+public func _getRetainCount(_ object: AnyObject) -> UInt {
+  let count = _withHeapObject(of: object) { _swift_retainCount($0) }
+  return UInt(bitPattern: count)
+}
+
+@_extern(c, "swift_retainCount") @usableFromInline
+internal func _swift_retainCount(_: UnsafeMutableRawPointer) -> Int
+
+@_alwaysEmitIntoClient @_transparent
+internal func _withHeapObject<R>(
+  of object: AnyObject,
+  _ body: (UnsafeMutableRawPointer) -> R
+) -> R {
+  defer { _fixLifetime(object) }
+  let unmanaged = Unmanaged.passUnretained(object)
+  return body(unmanaged.toOpaque())
+}