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

How are the clowns doing?

Leon Kossoff

How many people have one of these?

http://www.abevigoda.com/

George Steiner

William Schallert

Freddie Jones

Mistah Healey, he dead

Bill Tidy (it's his birthday today)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Tidy

Tidy's career has now taken him into the world of corporate speaking and hosting where he is in great demand from organisations who are entertained at events by his wit and live drawing.

really should be a 'citation needed' after that 'entertained'

that was cheap, I'm sure people are entertained. there are a couple of examples of his corporate speaking here, so people can judge for themselves, anyway

http://www.youtube.com/user/sthmedia/videos

he's represented by the same talent agency as Katie Hopkins!

I always forget that Wally Fawkes/Trog is still alive

Bella Emberg

John Nettleton aka Sir Arnold from Yes Minister

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsN/tve19963-19860227-1894.jpg

http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/02/06/10/Gaz%20Coombes_of_Supergrass.jpg

Koko the gorilla (44 years old!)

Bill Tidy's been on the old re-runs of Countdown they've been showing on Challenge recently. I looked him up last week and was surprised that not only is he alive, he's younger than my dad.

I received a letter from Bill Tidy when I was 10. My aunt sent him some of my cartoons (which were rubbish, even for a 10yo, but my aunt, bless her, obviously thought the man at the Liverpool Echo needed to see my marvellous renditions of football drama and sci-fi adventure). I think he said something about "action is so much more exciting to draw than static scenes" and gave me some bland encouragement. I think I chucked out that letter and my cartoons sometime in the early '90s.

Thought Tim Curry was dead for some reason. I think I tossed him in the ground accidentally when Raul Julia passed.

Raul Julia's dead?

Stanley Baxter
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 12:21 (11 years ago) Permalink

11 years on and still going strong, errrrr, Stanley Baxter that is, not Dom. Can't be sure about Dom.

I think Baxter is overdue another Xmas special. (I had no idea he was still doing Radio 4 plays as recently as last year).

Perhaps there should be another thread (or perhaps there is) for people you'd forgotten were dead, and it bummed you out all over again when you remembered. Today's example: Mark Bell. :(

RIP Al Molinaro

Richard Adams

95

George H.W. Bush (at least every time I see that George H.W. Bush - Classic or Dud has been bumped)

http://www.cnet.com/news/sony-says-it-will-stop-producing-its-betamax-tapes-in-march/

another nail in the coffin for The Daily Show

Aww, RIP Mark Bell :(

Bill Withers. I also can't believe they didn't get him into the Hall Of Fame until this year.

Henry Kissinger. I thought he had died years ago, until I read the news yesterday that he'd commented on the Paris terrorist attacks.

Marla Gibbs...saw a collage post on FB, and thought she'd died, but it's just a repost from her 84th birthday last June.

Olivia de Havilland. 100, come June 1st.

Always had the edge on her sister (two Oscars to one; 99y* to 96y).

I could've swore Chuck Yeager had died.

i thought whitey ford was felled by a barrage of pretzels 17 years ago but i guess not.

Harry Belafonte

Yeah, saw his name crop up on Twitter several times today and quite surprised, was sure he'd died years ago.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's back in hospital, but seems to be immortal.

Nat Hentoff

Jerry Lewis

^ 90 today!

came here to post him after the namecheck in pres election thread. wow.

Walking through Prague city centre yesterday, big ads for Charles Aznavoir in concert.

yep. He's doing a farewell tour, age 91. Will be 92 when its finished.

Saw something on FB yesterday about how Beverly Clearly is looking forward to her impending 100th birthday later this month.

...and in checking out Ms. CLEARY's wiki, how did I not know that Sarah Polley played Ramona in the TV version I used to see as a kid?

Claus Von Bulow

Tom Lehrer.

Come to think of it, this phenomenon would make good subject matter for a Tom Lehrer song.

Jimmy Cricket

Robert Shapiro

woah: Dershowitz's campaign to acquit Bülow was assisted by Jim Cramer and future New York Attorney General and Governor Eliot Spitzer who were then Harvard Law School students.[23]

Liz Windsor

Vera Lynn (just heard her being interviewed on the radio there).

isn't there a robyn hitchcock song about vera lynn being dead that's from like twenty years ago