people you thought were dead but aren't

Sammy Davis Jr, cept he really was dead when I displayed surprise at seeing him on TV whilst I thought him dead.

Anyone see the interview with Henry Grimes in this month's Wire? Bassist with Albert Ayler in the 60s, the first question the poor fella asks is, "So, how is Albert doing?". Interviewer has to break the news that Ayler died in 1970.

Yogi Berra's still alive?!

When Jane Russell turned up in a photograph for the Oscars I was amazed.

I thought Frank Zappa was dead for ages. then I read in the paper that he had just died. I killed him with my negative beliefs.

-- webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, January 7, 2003 2:05 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

I love that nobody cared enough to correct him.

Thought for years that the actor that played Zack from Saved By The Bell was dead, it went around my school as a rumour. Believed it because why would anyone bother making that up? And it's not as if he was in the public eye a lot after the show finished, anyway.

Walter Cronkite. He already seemed to be kind of old in the famous clip where he announced that Kennedy was dead. I guess he would have only been in his mid-40s at the time though.

he was still producing stuff as of a few years ago, CBS seems to have disavowed him entirely now probably because of his politics.

Gene Wilder

I was fairly sure Alec Guinness had died at least 3 different times before he actually did die.

I thought Gene Wilder had died too, until I checked it on IMDb.

i thought harold gould died. not so

(Dave Allen died in 2005, don't be confused by the opening post)

http://www.deathlist.net/

I remember being a bit surprised when I found out Doris Day is still alive. For some reason I seem to assume every celebrity who had his or her heyday before the 60s must be dead by now.

Also, apparently this thread put a jinx on Katharine Hepburn, who died only a few months after she was mentioned here.

heh I thought Katherine Hepburn was still alive :)

I had a discussion the other day about someone that was all about whether they were alive or dead. I forget who it was now, and we never checked for confirmation either.

But yeah, Harvey Dent.

David Blaine was who we were talking about.

No, he was just buried alive.

I think people were hoping.

i just watched holiday today (Grant/Hepburn. excellent), she looks even more severe than usual but the character is wonderfully vibrant, as is grant (he does flips); i hadn't seen in ten yrs probably i was afraid i'd be disappoinged; lots of thoughtful lefty easter eggs in the script.

Clive Dunn

I love how Abe Vigoda has a simple website devoted to his living 'status', I guess everyone must think he is dead.

http://www.abevigoda.com/

ok wtf

Erich von Däniken!

Olivia de Havilland from 'Gone with the Wind' is still alive and still making a mockery of my Death Pool. Come on Ollie!

I was fairly sure Alec Guinness had died at least 3 different times before he actually did die.

Yes, for some he was the king of this

Yes, for some reason he was the king of this, that should read. I can think of at least two occasions when I bet someone that Alec Guinness was dead when he wasn't.

Charles Aznavour

For some reason I thought Pratchett was dead til I read an article by him today about his alzheimers. I think I confused him with Douglas Adams.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Smith_(actress)";>Liz Smith</a>

Very pleased to find she's not and has just received an MBE. Good on her.

Liz Smith that is.

peter o'toole

he almost won a oscar last year brutha

Hearing that Jimmy Swaggart died, I thought he might have been the last of the big 80s televangelists left. I went to see when Jim Bakker died and - he's still alive at 85! Maybe I conflated breaking up with Tammy Faye with a sort of living death.

Renee Richards

Len Deighton (still alive and is now 96)

Jazz vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, probably best known these days for having Alice Coltrane in his band in the early 60s. He's 101.

Carole Kay and the woman from the Whipped Cream & Other Delights album cover. Both 90.

not to mention Herb Alpert himself is 90

Dang, I thought he was so dead, I didn't bother to look him up!

When Herbie Hancock died I realised that I got them mixed up and also called Herb Alpert Herp Albert.

Wait! Herbie Hancock hasn't died either

I was like wut! I don’t remember that.

Robert Crumb

Robert Duvall, 95

His co-stars in Network have been dead for 49 years (Peter Finch) and 44 years (William Holden) - Faye Dunaway is alive of course.

Thinking about this later today, it also means that he was 45 when he filmed Network.
Reader, I am 46.

Eddie Floyd, 88.

not knocking on coffin yet

Robert Duvall, 95

Oops

Vini Reilly

And very glad we are, especially after listening to his new album.

Ralph Nader, 92

I met him once in 2004 when he was running for President. He gave a speech on campus and I approached him and with a suggestion for his campaign slogan: "George and John make me want to Ralph!". Sadly he did not like it one bit.

it's funny that his early triumph was the Corvair thing: "Unsafe at Any Speed!" Yet I see more Corvairs on the road today than most models of that era, except for maybe Mustangs

or maybe I'm self-selecting and have Dodge Dart blindness

I frequently drive by a garage in western Mass. that only works on Corvairs, so there must be a fair few of them still on the road.

haven't seen many Pintos lately

Pintos greatly outnumbered Vegas into the 90s, but I don't see them now.

Vegas famously started rusting in the showroom.

James Baker III

Frank Langella, born 1938.

George railroad martin

formerly blacklisted actor lee grant (around about 100)

composer betsy jolas 96 (daughter of the also somewhat famous eugene & maria)

― no lime tangier, Thursday, 20 April 2023 07:55 (three years ago)

now 100!

Petula Clark, 93

well... she knows a place

Not a person, I guess, but Bubbles the chimp, 43.

According to animal keepers at the center, Bubbles — whose facial features have changed since his time with Jackson — is now "huge and ugly"...

According to the Simian Society, there were 750,000 pet monkeys in the US in 1971 — more than the number of registered poodles. But monkeys proved to be much more difficult than poodles to care for.

I'm sorry, getting way off topic now. I'll stop.

"huge and ugly"

and every day he regrets signing that NDA

Poodlin' ain't easy! I'll hold off on the chimps for now. Thanks for the intel, pplains.

Be careful. You'll only be able to hold off those chimps for so long.

https://i.ibb.co/zHTDXZhm/2001-output-onlinegiftools.gif

I have a bunch of old magazines with ads for pet spider monkeys: "Eats the same food as you do!" lol

don’t chimps rip your balls off

can vs. do

they go for the eyes first, fwiu

Wasn't there an MMA fool going to fight a chimp? Is he still alive?

Ok, found him, looks like they couldn't find a chimp, which is a shame as I'm pretty sure the chimp would be absolutely fine.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mma-fighter-to-face-chimpanzee-in-one-on-one-fight-on-september-11-report-12018878

surprised that chimp fight wasn’t part of president great grandpa’s july 4th

don’t chimps rip your balls off

Yes, plus so much more - I remember there were a couple of famous chimp attacks in the early 00s and wikipedia does not disappoint:

---

Buddy and Ollie destroyed a majority of St. James' fingers, his left foot, most of his buttocks, both testicles, part of his torso, and parts of his face including his nose and lips.

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The hospital provided counseling to staff members who initially treated her because of the extraordinary nature of her wounds. Doctors noted she had lost her eyelids, nose, lips, mid-face bone structure, and nine fingers. Doctors removed some of Travis' hair and teeth that were embedded in her bones and reattached her jaw

---

Yeah I remember reading that about the travis attack and wishing I hadn’t (also maybe a cw & hide tags for stuff like that dropped in random threads?)

RIP Eva Marie Saint