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

Narrow Margin? With Marie Windsor?

H. Rap Brown (78)

Johnny Ball, 83. It'd somehow completely escaped my attention that he's Zoe Ball's dad! Wonder if he's still a climate change denier?

Detroit bop pianist Barry Harris, still teaching workshops, will be 92 in a couple of weeks.

every time I realise Tom Lehrer is still with us, I wonder if we will truly all go together when we go...

William Klein, 93.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Aaron_Boulogne

#OneThread

Ursula Andress, 85

Sidney Poitier, 94

Just behind Ursula Andress (85) are Bond girls Shirley Eaton and Luciana Paluzzi (both 84)

I expect them to die.

Lol

Mel Brooks. Publishing an autobiography at the age of 95.

I’m figuring he’ll live until um….let’s see…

Ed Meese???

John Madden

Caril Ann Fugate, convicted accomplice to 1950s spree killer Charles Starkweather.

That one's amazing--and she was young enough then that she's not yet 80.

I hope she knows Badlands won the ILX road-film poll.

just saw it for the first time last night, which was what put me on this case!

Hermeto Pascoal

Not exactly surprised, but every now and again it's nice to remember Burt Bacharach is still alive (93).

Irene Papas, 95.

(I'm listening to one of the albums she did with Vangelis right now).

Jerry Lee Lewis, 85 or so

Irene has been suffering from Alzheimer's for many years though, unfortunately. Did the fabled 20 minute version of "∞" ever appear btw?

Ah, that's a shame, she was something special!

Clive Davis, 89.

That made me look up author Clive Cussler, who is no longer with us— passed away last year.

jfk jr

Bud Grant, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings 1967-1983. 94 years old.

It keeps on being counterintuitive bc he seemed old even in the 1970s due to premature greying of the hair

Forgot about Bud Grant--I wonder if fictional Minnesota newsperson Lou Grant was named after him.

They had the same color hair

Oh wait, I'm thinking of Ted Baxter

I wonder how many times Roger Corman has been mentioned in this thread? Still alive, 95.

JLL gets me every single time

He's THE KILLER, not the killee

Jerry Lee Lewis is cousins with fellow ivory-tinklers Jimmy Swaggart & Mickey Gilley, both of which are still with us - 86 & 85 respectively

my mom’s folks (s. Mississippi) all lived well into their 90s and like it just defies all science and reason

So many hip-hop legends:

Melle Mel (a mere 60)
Afrika Bambaataa (64)
Kurtis Blow (62)
Arthur Baker (66)
Grandmaster Flash (63)
Fab Five Freddy (62)
Kool Moe Dee (59)
Doug E. Fresh (55)
All the members of the Funky 4+1 (afaict; at least one of them was hospitalized with covid in 2020)

And many more. Which is great!

do you understand life expectancy

for life expectancy add four plus one

Yeah, but there are all sorts of reasons people die young, especially those who found fleeting fame 40 years ago. I mean, how much drugs do you think Arthur Baker did? (Answer: a lot. "I was 100 pounds overweight, taking cocaine every night and a really heavy drinker,” Baker told Melody Maker.)

And also, as far as general life expectancy goes, I mean, Robbie Shakespeare was just a few years older than most of those dudes, and he just died, so ...

Sheldon Harnick, "Fiddler on the Roof" lyricist, 97.

Fiddler on the Roof of Life Expectancy.

Yeah, but there are all sorts of reasons people die young

got it: 'no'

Nehemiah Persoff still going at 102. Sadly his wife died this year after 70 years of marriage.

I knew this would be your post.

bridget riley, 90 years old god bless her