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

Claes Oldenburg, 91

Do we have a thread for people you thought were alive but aren't? An obituary for Ray Manzarek came up on my Facebook feed for some reason - I clicked through only to discover it was from 2013. RIP Ray, sorry it took me 7 years to learn you were dead

Yes, I posted Joan Rivers on it recently.

I missed that too. Must have been before we had the rolling obituary threads.

people you thought were still alive but aren't

Dickie Davies, 87.

Earl Holliman
Clu Gulager

Shocked to see Clu's name in credits for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both born in 1928. Both surely would have guest starred on Bounty Law.

Speaking of Earl Holliman (I mentioned this somewhere before) all four of the original 1974 cast of TV's Police Woman are still alive... Ed Bernard (81); Charles Dierkop (83); Angie Dickinson (88); and Earl Holliman (91).

Walter Ernest "Wally" Fawkes (born 21 June 1924) is a British-Canadian jazz clarinetist and a satirical cartoonist. As a cartoonist, he usually worked under the name "Trog" until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005 at the age of 81.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Bacharach#/media/Datei:Marlene_Dietrich_and_Burt_Bacharach_visit_Jerusalem_during_a_1960_concert_tour_of_Israel_-_Photo_by_Fritz_Shlezingel.png

(Burt Bacharach & Marlene Dietrich, 1960)

Johnny Shannon, go-to character actor for Cockney gangsters e.g. in "Performance", 87.

for some reason I always think Steve Earle died 20 years ago from cancer or something. Wtf?

just did a play at the public theater before mama rona took over

Might be confusing Steve Earle with Warren Zevon.

Or Stevie Ray Vaughn

nah i think maybe it’s because in some photos from back then he looks slightly like Bill Hicks? Idk

Rhonda Fleming, 96.

Gena Rowlands, 90 today

Murray Walker, 96

his 2nd showing on this thread after Soref posted him 6 years ago.

Connie Francis

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

My shop teacher.

tell us more about mr. _____

Only winged him, eh?

xp
Sexist!

tell us more about mr. _____

― mookieproof, Wednesday, September 30, 2020 9:59 PM

I looked up Mr. Johnson (fuckit, no googleproofing) out of curiosity, and there he was, at the same address in the same town of 800 people. He's now 76.

His voter registration, like most of us around here, shows that he's a member of the Optional Party.

The next link was from the 1940 census, which listed him as a five-year-old living... in that same town of 800 people!

Roy Haynes, 95. Total ledge.

Was asked if Barbara Windsor was still alive the other day and hesitantly answered no, thinking she died at some point in the last four years. Then did the exact same with June Brown who only left Eastenders for good earlier this year.

Babs is still alive but has dementia, I believe.

I was absolutely positive that Michael Gambon had died a couple of years ago.

xp - curse of the thread strikes again!

Gambon and on and on

Phil Spector? Honestly thought he died a few years ago.

Genuinely thought that Sondheim had died years ago.

Shane McGowan definitely died a few years ago.

somehow my mom, who wasn’t real tech savvy, found this comedian on youtube that she really fell for. statuesque southern lady who tells clean funny stories: absolutely my mama’s jam! thru the magic of Algorithm, mom got to enjoy randomly coming across videos of this gal’s routines for a couple of years — until tragedy struck. she told me sadly that her comedian had died. oh no, i said, how did it happen? mom didn’t know because the memorial video youtube had shown her didn’t mention a cause of death. she mourned, i sympathized. when mom’s next birthday approached i decided to search online to see if that lady had ever put out a book or dvd or other gift-type merch, and discovered that 1.) HOMEGIRL LIVES and 2.) WAS TOURING and 3.) HAD A PERFORMANCE COMING UP IN OUR CITY IN TWO FLIPPING DAYS

obviously i dropped everything and got us tickets and told mom i was taking her somewhere special, and she was game, because she was awesome. so there we were in a lutheran church at 10:30 on a thursday morning, packed in with a crowd of hyped old ladies, my mom completely baffled, me giggling like a lunatic and trying not to bounce in our pew because i was even hyped-er than the ladies around us. random woman gets up front and gives a generic intro and then WHABAM, back from the dead, big as life, neon pink power suit and sparkly jewelry transfixing the crowd, my mom’s idol appeared. i’d never seen her so stunned, i’ve never seen anyone so stunned. it was dope.

thread winner

What was with the memorial video??

Also, please share idol’s name.

Jeanne Robertson, rip in peace (she died for real this august). and my best guess for the memorial is that some other lady with a similar name (and features?) must have passed away, her family put together a video honoring her, and youtube figured oh hey people who enjoy the comedy stylings of this one lady must want to watch the funeral of this similar lady? which turned out to be the right call in the end because my mom realizing JR was still alive was pretty much a top 3 moment in both our lives, i can still get totally blissed out on the memory <3

Simon Callow again , think somebody said he wasn't dead a couple of years ago and now he's been in Hawkeye so he must be undead or something or reanimated again. Must be like.

cat, that is some down-home wholesome humor right there.

Oh jeez what a beautiful story

does this count?

thank you for watching #ThisIsGoingToHurt, it was an honour to play the SHO

long live our NHS 💙 pic.twitter.com/9KAWRNx3R1

— Ambika Mod (@ambikamod) March 22, 2022

Hazel McCallion, former long-time mayor of Mississauga Ontario, 101.

Margaret Keane, painter of big eyed children, age 94.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott, 90 and still performing.

Bob Newhart, 92

Philip Baker Hall, 24 hours ago.

Arthur Scargill, back on the front of the tabloids.

John Barth, author of The Sot-Weed Factor