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

Estelle Parsons, 94

Father Abraham, 86

Started the Smurfs on their way, they split from him and he went on to make some right wing pop tunes

great now i have that song from Sunday School in my head

The Drudge Report. (Resumed watching FX's Impeachment.)

Leslie Phillips

― Chunky Backgammon (onimo), Monday, January 1, 2018 5:45 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Watching an old ep of Midsomer murders and find to my surprise he is still alive. 97

Gary Player.

... and Neil Coles.

Robert Morse, 90.

Jimmy Cliff! A mere 77.

Michael Lang's death had me looking at Jefferson Airplane videos on YouTube. I'm not surprised Grace Slick is still alive, but I am surprised to see she's 82.

Jimmy Cliff

He only survives because of his pride.

The hero can't dead until the last reel!

(xp) lol

Denny Lethargy

.

Philip Baker Hall.

Jean-Louis Trintignant, 91 and still acting.

Alex Honnold

race car driver A. J. Foyt, 87 this weekend

Not exactly famous, but John Lennon’s stepmother, Pauline

"Stepmother! You left me.. but I never left yooooooo..."

Joyce Randolph, Trixie on The Honeymooners, 97.

Philip Baker Hall.

whaaa?! Could have sworn he died a couple years ago, have a Mandela effect of reading this.

Mike Yarwood.

Robin Askwith posted a picture of him and Richard O'Sullivan together on Richard's birthday.

Richard O'Sullivan

It seems Pauline was 20 when she became John's Stepmum. about 5 years younger than John, I believe.

Recently I've been watching old clips of What's My Line? (1950s-60s). Everything about the show (the mannerisms, overwhelming whiteness, etc.) seems somehow prehistoric, so it's interesting to look up the panelists and guests to see which are still alive (ie, Chubby Checker, Joan Collins).

And John Cale!

Whenever I watch any thing of that era I can’t stop obsessively looking up what became of everyone.

xpost

Actually John Cale was on I've Got a Secret I just remembered. The one with Betsy Palmer and Bess Myerson as panelists.

Wait, did you not watch the VU doc yet?

I did, that's where I saw the Cale appearance... it was just that when What's My Line? was mentioned I mixed up the two shows in my mind. Tbf they are very similar.

I still don't quite understand the whole Dorothy Kilgallen thing

Her death, or why she was on the show to begin with?

Is it because she didn't seem to have any footprint outside of this kind of show?

She was a syndicated entertainment columnist who later moved into some crime reporting and was an early skeptic of the Warren Report (supposedly why she died).

Specifically, Kilgallen was the last person to interview Jack Ruby. She claimed that she was going to break the JFK assassination "wide open" before turning up dead in her apartment due to a fatal combo of sleeping pills and alcohol.

That must have been after The Band played at Ruby's nightclub.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4-F6GaqnD8

Sorry, The Hawks.

Van Dyke Parks

very much alive, he posts on twitter all the time including new videos of himself playing various piano pieces

I dunno why it surprised me but somewhere in the back of my mind I just assumed he was gone

Will have to follow his Twitter

Pattie Boyd. Not that she’s very old; I just had it in my head that she’d died of cancer

the "personal life" section of yarwood's wikipedia is gloomy reading :(

i mean he was rubbish but i wish him no ill

From 2007, Yarwood lived alone in Weybridge, Surrey.[12]

:( :( :( :(

I didn't really have a lot of thoughts about whether he was alive or not, I was much too young to be aware of him as a cultural figure, and the film character far eclipsed the real person in my mind, but I was surprised to see Frank Serpico posting on twitter.

Mary Quant, 91

Bobby Goldsboro, 81 (not actually that old but I assumed he'd died years ago)

Jasper Johns, 91.