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

Was she ever in a movie with Julie Andrews, 87?

At this stage of her life is there much point in Lee Grant lying about her age? Dunno, maybe she's forgotten herself.

Joan Plowright, 93.

She’s on telly right now in Olivier’s 1970 film of Three Sisters.

Roger Corman

― it me, Friday, August 24, 2018 2:08 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

97 today.

John P. Allen (biosphere guy), 93.

trying to think which 50s musicians (that actually had hits in the 50s) are still alive. So far I've come up with:

* Tony Bennett
* Connie Francis
* Shirley Bassey
* Paul Anka
* Cliff Richard (& Hank)
* Jerry Keller
* Tommy Steele
* Frankie Avalon
* Craig Douglas
* Jane Morgan
* Santo & Johnny

I immediately thought of Frank Ifield, but he didn't really have any success outside Australia until 1960. Still, I think he counts.

Not hitmakers as such, but the following musician-composers who made their mark in the '50s (or '40s!) are still around:

Sonny Rollins
Roy Haynes
Benny Golson
Lou Donaldson

Might Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) still singing like a bird at 87

Frank Ifield is spiritually very much a musician of the 50s, yes.

I think Petula Clark too - she might even have had a hit in the '40s, had the UK charts existed then!

Petula Clark is the first one I thought of, she certainly recorded and released material in the 40s.

How could I forget Petula?

Harry Belafonte, 96.

Tom Lehrer, obviously.

* Michael Stoller (of Leiber and Stoller)
* Clarence "Frogman" Henry
* Wanda Jackson
* Brenda Lee

(Not counting people who had careers going back into the 50s, but no hits in their own name until the 60s - Tina Turner, Herbie Hancock, etc.)

* at least three of the original Shadows

Was just checking whether Lehrer had hits as singles in the 50s, or just albums.

Cleo Laine released albums in the 50s but didn't have a chart hit until '61.

Johnny Mathis
Pat Boone
Paul Anka
Dion
Frankie Avalon

Sorry, you already had Anka and Avalon

Jack Jones is in the same boat as Cleo Laine

Sonny Rollins
Faye Adams
Leroy Van Dyke

How soon you forget Rolf Harris

If getting a single to #49 in 1957 counts, Simon and Garfunkel (as Tom and Jerry).

I watched the 1956 musical comedy The Girl Can't Help It last night; Fats Domino and Little Richard are gone, but which musical performers from the film are still around?
Johnny Olenn, 85
Nino Tempo, 87
Ray Anthony, 100

― Halfway there but for you, Friday, October 21, 2022 6:43 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Connie Francis

And Connie Stevens!

Melania Trump

Sad to discover that the Scottish Elvis, Jackie Dennis, died a couple of years ago.

Eden Kane a fixture of UK rock and roll revival tours is still around but his first release was 1960.

Wee Willie Harris probably as good a shout as Tommy Steele

Marty Wilde and Vince Eager from the Larry Parnes stable still with us

OK, so "The Quatermass Xperiment" has just started on Talking Pictures and Wikipedia tells me the female lead, Margia Dean, is still alive... she's 101. Her career started in 1929.

(... Wiki also tells me the actor who plays her husband was the great-great-grandson of William Wordsworth!)

to be clear "her husband" is the lad who turns into a giant plant-based spacecrab!

spoilers i guess

I forgot this ends up at Westminster Abbey (another spoiler?)

Margia Dean: not a fan of Jock Mahoney or Scott Brady; disappointed by Cesar Romero’s homosexuality (according to IMDb). Retired from film before the rating system started

Bassist-composer Richard Davis, who turns 93 today! Possibly/probably the only musician who has played with both Albert Ayler and Bruce Springsteen.

and Van Morrison

Not a person but: Tupperware.

trying to think which 50s musicians (that actually had hits in the 50s) are still alive.

First recordings in the 50s, first hits not until the 60s: Willie Nelson

Mohamed Al-Fayed

My God, yes!

He’ll probably die the day before the coronation.

Or on the day itself, burned in a giant wicker corgi on the roof of the palace

I still have to check Stanley Baxter is alive every now and then, because he's quite clear in his autobiography that he didn't want it published before he died (and in the last chapter he seems to be at death's door).

Then I have to check Glen Michael too.

Bill O'Reilly (sadly)

(xp) Also John Cairney and Una McLean.

trying to think which 50s musicians (that actually had hits in the 50s) are still alive

Carol Connors, 81 ('To Know Him Is to Love Him' = 1958)

Caterina Valente

"The Breeze and I" was a hit in 1955, she's 91

Doris Andreae, Karlheinz Stockhausen's first wife (mother of Markus), 99.