the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually still alive

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Who knew?

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

(Richard Widmark)

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Saddam Hussein, obv

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Stanley Baxter

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 12:21 (twenty-two years ago)

(Inverting the question completely) Thora Hird.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 12:22 (twenty-two years ago)

she was famous.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Anita O'Day: though I had never heard of her until the time I also learned that she was still alive.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 24 December 2003 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Clive Dunn is the obvious one.

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 14:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Dennis Hopper, every time.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 24 December 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Mickey Rooney

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

She was famous, yeah, but I thought she was alive and she's not.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

So I guess it's only half-inverted.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

J.D. Salinger, every time I hear it, I'm surprised.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm always vaguelly confused that he even exists.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

George Jones.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Presley

― jewelly (jewelly), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Joe Namath - I could have sworn he had a heart attack years ago!

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Red Auerbach, who I had to make sure was still alive by going to Dead or Alive?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait, didn't Studs Terkel die? That site lists him as alive. Or am I thinking of Irv Kupcinet?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

That guy from the Von Bondies

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I feel particularly bad for this, having been such a huge fan of his music, but only earlier in 2003 did I learn that Mr. Sly Stone in fact did not die sometime in the early 80s.

― nickalicious at granny's crib, Thursday, 25 December 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Ursula Moray Williams

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 25 December 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Reg Varney

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 26 December 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave Allen

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 26 December 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I couldn't believe Christopher Lee was alive when I found out he was doing Saruman (and then the Star Wars dingus). He's like, 80!!!

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 26 December 2003 20:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops: Kupcinet just kicked the bucket about a month ago. Studs is alive and well.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 26 December 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

GENE WILDER. I swear he died.

― TEH ONE AN ONLEY DEANN GULBAREY (deangulberry), Friday, 26 December 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Reg Varney's still alive?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 27 December 2003 02:01 (twenty-two years ago)

richard pryor.

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 27 December 2003 02:22 (twenty-two years ago)

i read something saying Nina Simone only died this year. Can that be right?

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 28 December 2003 08:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Windsor Davies

― Ricardo (RickyT), Sunday, 28 December 2003 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

gene wilder recently had a bout with cancer, which thank god he survived.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 28 December 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

Bosko Balaban Stats For Season

Name Bosko Balaban
Team Aston Villa
Total Appearances 0
Starts 0
Substituted 0
Total Minutes Played 0
Avg Minutes Played Per Start 0
Goals 0
Avg Goal Mins When Starting 0.0
Avg Mins Played/Goal Scored 0
Goals Scored As Sub 0
Number of Bookings 0
Total Booking Minutes 0
Avg Bookings Per Start 0
Number of Red Cards 0
Total Red Card Minutes 0
Avg Red Cards Per Start 0
Avg Booking Minutes When Starting 0.0

― bosko, Monday, 14 June 2004 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I was surprised that Bosko even lived.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 June 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

Telma Hopkins!

but that was last week.

today it was ARNOLD STANG!!!!

don't know why i though telma hopkins died.

― tremendoid, Friday, 8 February 2008 06:25 (seventeen years ago)

Zsa Zsa Gabor just turned 91 a few days ago.

― Roz, Friday, 8 February 2008 07:03 (seventeen years ago)

abe vigoda

― remy bean, Friday, 8 February 2008 07:11 (seventeen years ago)

I think Ernest Borgnine is still at it too.

― nickn, Friday, 8 February 2008 07:52 (seventeen years ago)

doris day

― Frogman Henry, Friday, 8 February 2008 08:00 (seventeen years ago)

she's getting a grammy tomorrow

― tremendoid, Friday, 8 February 2008 08:03 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

Shirley Temple

― lol @ dog w/ sunglasses (Pillbox), Thursday, 23 September 2010 19:06 (fifteen years ago)

!!!

― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Thursday, 23 September 2010 19:07 (fifteen years ago)

Leonard skinner, but he's now dead.

― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 23 September 2010 19:08 (fifteen years ago)

I was surprised that Bosko even lived.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, June 15, 2004 4:15 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

dying here

had no idea Sam Beckett lived until 1989 until the other day

― CharlieS, Thursday, 23 September 2010 19:12 (fifteen years ago)

j.d. salinger, but then he died not long after i found out

― just1n3, Thursday, 23 September 2010 19:24 (fifteen years ago)

four months pass...

Louie Anderson

― Godzilla vs. Rodan Rodannadanna (The Yellow Kid), Friday, 18 February 2011 06:17 (fourteen years ago)

He was on Tim & Eric a year or two ago.

― Wacky Way Lounge (Evan), Friday, 18 February 2011 06:41 (fourteen years ago)

Kenneth Mars, but once again after he was dead.

― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 18 February 2011 07:56 (fourteen years ago)

Jane Russell

― Alba, Friday, 18 February 2011 09:00 (fourteen years ago)

Clive Dunn

― Alba, Friday, 18 February 2011 09:01 (fourteen years ago)

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lee grant, 100

Possibly!

Her birthday is October 31, but the year is disputed, with all years ranging from 1925 to 1931 having been given as her year of birth at some point; however, census data, travel manifests, and testimony suggest that she was born in 1925 or 1926, while Grant's stated ages at the time of her professional debut and Oscar nomination indicate she was born in 1927.

― oh the traffic around here (Matt #2), Saturday, 20 December 2025 00:14 (one month ago)

It totally boggles my mind how many scores John Williams has written, and across seven decades.

― Alba, Saturday, 20 December 2025 08:37 (one month ago)

Jake Paul

― deep and crisp and crispy (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 20 December 2025 08:41 (one month ago)

Quiz question: Not counting TV movies or his part of Twilight Zone: The Movie, what are the only Spielberg films John Williams didn't score? The Color Purple, Bridge of Spies, Ready Player One and West Side Story.

― Alba, Saturday, 20 December 2025 08:50 (one month ago)

Claudine Longet, 83. She's had nothing to do with show business for nearly 50 years now.

― Josefa, Tuesday, 23 December 2025 00:22 (one month ago)

I wonder what happened.

― cryptosicko, Tuesday, 23 December 2025 00:23 (one month ago)

Neil Sedaka, 86--a post of his turned up on my FB wall.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 December 2025 23:57 (one month ago)

She has maintained a private profile since 1977, following her conviction for negligent homicide in connection with the shooting death of her boyfriend, former Olympic skier Spider Sabich.

― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 24 December 2025 00:00 (one month ago)

Nice song--might be a cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g66vVPRYn20

― clemenza, Wednesday, 24 December 2025 00:37 (one month ago)

just realized that Yoko Ono was born before Roy Orbinson

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 24 December 2025 00:40 (one month ago)

xp "Small Talk" was written by the two guys who wrote "Happy Together" for the Turtles. I think Lesley Gore recorded it first and released it as a single in 1968 which didn't chart.

― Josefa, Wednesday, 24 December 2025 01:36 (one month ago)

Music Producer John Simon (The Band; Janis Joplin), 84

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 24 December 2025 06:12 (one month ago)

Claudine Longet is all over the Andy Williams xmas specials, having been married to him at the time. Her very French presence within the general cornball americana adds to their unnerving nightmare feel.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 24 December 2025 17:10 (one month ago)

Julian Assange, 54.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 24 December 2025 22:09 (one month ago)

Desmond Morris, 97

― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 25 December 2025 00:15 (one month ago)

"White Christmas" is on, so time to point out that thread favourite George Chakiris is still with us at 93. Also Barrie Chase, 92, who was mentioned in another thread recently.

― Donald Crump (Tom D.), Thursday, 25 December 2025 13:38 (one month ago)

It totally boggles my mind how many scores John Williams has written, and across seven decades.

150 credited scores according to letterboxd. He's still got a ways to go to catch up with my man Morricone, who has 441, but he's dead and Williams isn't, so if he really goes for it now...

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 25 December 2025 13:48 (one month ago)

Murray Langston, the Unknown Comic--81 and posting on Facebook. (If you can be famous with a paper bag over head, he was for 15 minutes.)

― clemenza, Monday, 29 December 2025 18:30 (four weeks ago)

Rosey Grier, 93, who I guess is famous for his sporting achievements but I know him from playing alongside Ray Milland in 1972's The Thing With Two Heads (he was one of the heads). Trivia note: while working as a bodyguard for Robert Kennedy after retiring from the NFL he was one of the people who subdued Sirhan Sirhan.

― a stadium filled with people in cheesecloth shirts (Matt #2), Monday, 29 December 2025 18:49 (four weeks ago)

Grier's needlepoint advocacy was formative to (some ) kids (like me) not getting too hungup about masculine conformity

https://www.maharam.com/stories/boyer_dual-threat-the-needlepoint-of-rosey-grier

― bendy, Monday, 29 December 2025 19:06 (four weeks ago)

pretty big icon of not getting too hungup about masculine conformity, actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y52bs0aX6v8

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 29 December 2025 19:11 (four weeks ago)

Just saw on fb that today is Sandy Koufax's birthday, and he's still around, at 90.

― nickn, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 20:19 (three weeks ago)

I think he went to a bunch of the World Series games

― tobo73, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 20:20 (three weeks ago)

https://i.postimg.cc/4NDKGf4n/koufax.jpg

― clemenza, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 20:29 (three weeks ago)

xxp Rosey Grier was also allegedly the recipient of O.J. Simpson's jailhouse confession.

― henry s, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 22:19 (three weeks ago)

Dion (of the Belmonts)

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, 30 December 2025 22:49 (three weeks ago)

Angelo D'Aleo (a Belmont)

― henry s, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 23:01 (three weeks ago)

Larry Peerce, 95. (Not exactly famous, but did direct Goodbye, Columbus and numerous other films, including The Big T.N.T. Show, the sequel to T.A.M.I. Show.)

― clemenza, Wednesday, 31 December 2025 22:54 (three weeks ago)

Larry Peerce's first film was One Potato, Two Potato, for which actress Barbara Barrie won Best Actress at Cannes in 1964 (in a tie with Anne Bancroft). Barbara Barrie is also still alive, at 94.

― Josefa, Wednesday, 31 December 2025 23:25 (three weeks ago)

just looked up whether shirley maclean is still alive (she is, and she's 91)

her brother is 88

― mookieproof, Thursday, 1 January 2026 00:43 (three weeks ago)

My best friend and her husband got to see 8 1/2 in rep earlier this week, and while discussing it, I looked it up on IMDb only to discover most of the main female leads are still alive!
Anouk Aimee, 91
Claudia Cardinale, 85
Sandra Milo, 90
Barbara Steele, 86
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, July 23, 2023 8:01 PM (two years ago)

Barbara Steele, 88. Not the others.

― Josefa, Friday, 2 January 2026 04:37 (three weeks ago)

Rough 2 1/2 years.

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 2 January 2026 04:43 (three weeks ago)

Potential new Scottish telly icon for this thread - Mary Marquis is still with us at 91.

― Overtoun House windows (aldo), Friday, 2 January 2026 10:39 (three weeks ago)

And Archie Macpherson of course.

― Donald Crump (Tom D.), Friday, 2 January 2026 10:46 (three weeks ago)

I spent a half an hour small talking with Barbara Steele in a green room. I waiting for a friend to fishing their projectionist shift during a Barbara Steele retrospective, she was waiting to go out for the post-screening conversation. My greatest brush with fame!

― bendy, Friday, 2 January 2026 15:19 (three weeks ago)

weird, i just came here to post Lee Grant, and to share that she has no confirmed birth year, but i see i was beaten to it by two weeks

― budo jeru, Friday, 2 January 2026 16:28 (three weeks ago)

Dennis Franz,81

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 2 January 2026 22:56 (three weeks ago)

Just saw on fb that today is Sandy Koufax's birthday, and he's still around, at 90.

this is legit shocking to me

― a tv star not a dirty computer man (the table is the table), Saturday, 3 January 2026 17:43 (three weeks ago)

She's not even terribly old but Xaviera Hollander, "The Happy Hooker," 82. I think the cognitive dissonance comes in because she went immediately from her previous career to publishing her best-selling memoir, and then the movie starring Lynn Redgrave came out just over three years later, when Hollander was still only 31, so she was already a legendary figure at that age.

― Josefa, Monday, 5 January 2026 00:20 (three weeks ago)

Christiane Felscherinow, 63, of autobiographical book (and subsequent film) Christiane F.

Felscherinow contracted hepatitis C from an infected needle in the late 1980s. She suffers from cirrhosis of the liver and rejects interferon treatment because of the side effects. In 2013, Felscherinow stated: "I will die soon, I know that. But I haven't missed out on anything in my life. I am fine with it. So this isn't what I'd recommend: this isn't the best life to live, but it's my life."

Glad to hear she's still with us!

― I walked with a nimby (Matt #2), Thursday, 8 January 2026 18:55 (two weeks ago)

Joanne Woodward

― cryptosicko, Friday, 16 January 2026 13:31 (one week ago)

xp Looks like the film is available on youtube, at least for now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DdLYRFSBMQ

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 16 January 2026 21:15 (one week ago)

Lisa Gastoni, 90

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 17 January 2026 02:19 (one week ago)

Caril Ann Fugate, convicted accomplice to 1950s spree killer Charles Starkweather.
― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Thursday, December 2, 2021

Still alive, now 82. (Reading Starkweather, which includes a photo of her on the set of Badlands with Terrence Malick and some of the cast.)

― clemenza, Saturday, 17 January 2026 17:03 (one week ago)

Reading about Samuel Barber on wiki. He was introduced to soprano Leontyne Price in 1953. Well, she’s still around at 98.

― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 22 January 2026 20:34 (four days ago)

The 1952 American League MVP, Bobby Shantz (100)

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 22 January 2026 20:44 (four days ago)

Jo Anne Worley, 88

― cryptosicko, Thursday, 22 January 2026 21:53 (four days ago)

Happy Belated Birthday to Ray Anthony, 104.

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 26 January 2026 01:56 (eleven hours ago)

Ray Anthony's son Perry will be 70 this year and both his parents are still alive, his mom being 94-year-old Mamie Van Doren

― Josefa, Monday, 26 January 2026 03:21 (nine hours ago)

still lives at home too

― Gentler Death Squads Please (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 26 January 2026 03:25 (nine hours ago)

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