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

The former mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, Hazel McCallion, retired at 94 and is still around at 101.

not entirely surprised as i follow several accounts which announce sun ra ark dates etc but:

marshall allen (97) alive and touring (he's at cafe oto next week but it's already sold out)

seeing him at Solid Sound Fest, very excited.

Saw him about 4 years ago. He played for like 4 hours and would have probably played longer, he was more supple than most 30 year olds.

Ann Blyth, mentioned a couple times already but I just discovered this yesterday.

Marshall Allen is incredible, met him after a show a few years ago here in Philly, gracious and lovely person too

Terrific Random Roles w/John Astin published today: https://www.avclub.com/random-roles-john-astin-addams-family-frighteners-batma-1848715237

kinda cool how the AV Club has become just an indistinguishable content farm, but every once in awhile Will Harris still pops out of the ether with a great Random Roles interview. (I mean, the latter half of that sentence is kinda cool. Not the first part.)

Singer and activist Barbara Dane is 95 today. Has an autobiography and a documentary about her coming out this fall: https://www.heydaybooks.com/barbara-dane/

Imelda Marcos

otn

otm even

on the nose, as was

Yes, I thought of that after I posted.

Valentina Tereshkova: first woman in outer space, *only* woman to ever go on a solo space mission... and now a Putin supporter in the Russian Duma at 85.

i was positive Beau Bridges died a few years ago. was surprised to learn today that wasn't the case.

Tom Skerritt

Skerritt was really good in East of the Mountains last year. Worth checking out...

Yes, when I checked his wiki page I noticed he was not only still alive but still working.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Woodbury

Woody Woodbury, stand-up comic of the "party records" era/actor, 98

I notice there's a Bert I. Gordon film on tonight. He'll be 100 in September.

Woodbury is even older the Lehrer and Newhart: JFK-era comedy is a good LP bin to have inhabited.

Either one of the Smothers Brothers.

A good showcase for Woody Woodbury's comedy is the movie For Those Who Think Young (1964). What's interesting about that is several of his castmates from that film are still with us too. There's Nancy Sinatra, about to turn 82 next Wednesday; James Darren, about to turn 86 on Wednesday (same birthday as Nancy); Tina Louise, who is 88; and Ellen Burstyn, who is 89.

Tony Bennett, 95!
Julie Christie, 82!
Richard Simmons, a mere 73, but he has not been seen in public since 2014.

I remember being surprised to find out that James Burke was still alive. There's a popular video on YouTube from an episode of Connections where he delivers a piece to camera about rocketry, and just as he finishes a rocket takes off in the background - the timing had to be perfect. I have the impression that he's more famous in the United States than the UK. Connections was one of those TV programmes that wasn't repeated very often, or at least I don't remember seeing it ever in the 1980s. Was it ever repeated?

He was big during a brief window at the end of the 1970s (The Human League mentioned him in "Black Hit of Space") but in the UK he fell off the radar shortly after that. And yet The Day the Universe Changed was broadcast by BBC1 in 1985 so perhaps I'm completely wrong.

Stanley Baxter and Fred Harris are still with us. As are Bernard Cribbins and Jim Dale.

Irene Papas is still around as well. She recorded an album with Vangelis and appeared on Aphrodite's Child's 666, which is why I thought of her. One of only two of the main stars from The Guns of Navarone to still be alive (along with James Darren).

Posted on the other thread,, but this one seems more active.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott, 90 and still performing.

Connections was one of those TV programmes that wasn't repeated very often, or at least I don't remember seeing it ever in the 1980s. Was it ever repeated?

All three Connections series (along with The Day The Universe Changed) were in heavy rotation on Discovery Science/The Science Channel around 1999-2001 or so. All of them are pretty easy to find on the dark.net now. Back in high school, one of the items in our D&D game was a "Leisure Suit of Knowledge" (based on Burke's fave on-camera wear) that added a couple of point in intelligence and wisdom.

roger corman was just mentioned in passing on the UNCLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER pod so i checked and roger corman (96)

Now I'm thinking of situations where an old person so consistently surprises people by still being alive that eventually it's just expected that they live.

Corman is a big surprise to me

xpost That would be someone like Betty White or George Burns, someone famous who lives long enough to eventually be famous for being old.

A bunch of '70s movie icons are getting up there. Jack Nicholson is 85, Dustin Hoffman is 84, Robert Redford is 85, Woody Allen is 86, Warren Beatty is 85, Roman Polanski is 88, Donald Sutherland is 86, Shirley MacLaine is 88, Tippy Hedron is 92.

"Back in high school, one of the items in our D&D game was a "Leisure Suit of Knowledge" (based on Burke's fave on-camera wear) that added a couple of point in intelligence and wisdom."

Did you also have a "Carl Sagan orange hiking jacket of wonderousness"? Apparently it was a Sierra Designs 60/40 parka. You learn something every day. Check out Robert De Niro dressed as a 2000s indie musician, but in 1978:
https://www.outinunder.com/content/story-sierra-designs-6040-mountain-parka

Also, and I apologise for the double post, it's surprising that Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and Warren Beatty are the same age. I always assumed Nicholson was of the same generation as Gene Hackman, e.g. about ten years older than the other big stars of the 1970s. He was in black and white Roger Corman films.

I suppose it's because he always played world-weary characters. I still haven't seen The Last Detail. Does it have a lot of bad language by modern standards? That's what it was infamous for at the time.

For the record Jack Nicklaus is 82, but it's not surprising that he's still alive because he was a top athlete.

Maybe not that famous, but Jonathan Haze, who played the lead role in Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors (1960) is still alive at 93.

xp one of the podcasts i listen to keeps talking about the film Tippi Hedren made with a bunch of big cats hanging around her house
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083001/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_68
during which i think the entire cast got at least partially mauled. So maybe is surprising that she has lived so long.

Both Tippi Hedren and Jayne Mansfield had children mauled by lions.

I did not know until I listened to Karina Longworth's series on "Dead Blondes" that Jayne Mansfield was Mariska Hargitay's mother.

xpost That would be someone like Betty White or George Burns, someone famous who lives long enough to eventually be famous for being old.

A bunch of '70s movie icons are getting up there. Jack Nicholson is 85, Dustin Hoffman is 84, Robert Redford is 85, Woody Allen is 86, Warren Beatty is 85, Roman Polanski is 88, Donald Sutherland is 86, Shirley MacLaine is 88, Tippy Hedron is 92.

Bob Barker still alive at 98.

xp also apparently fucking children is good for longevity

Johnny Rivers will (hopefully) turn 80 in November.

Patrick Gleeson, synthesist and member of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi, 87.

Johnny Rivers will (hopefully) turn 80 in November.

Hadn't heard about him in years!

I guess that's why he's a secret aging man!

Bill Medley, 81

Richard O'Sullivan and Mike Yarwood at Brinsworth House where they are residents. Brinsworth House is a residential and nursing retirement home for theatre and entertainment professionals in Staines Road, Twickenham, west London, England 🎭 pic.twitter.com/MG1uBQXM5k

— 🇬🇧📺 Classic British TV 📺🇬🇧 (@Classicbritcom) June 15, 2022

Wow, they look exactly like those "what celebrities will look like when they're older" or "what Elvis would look like now, if were still alive" mock ups the tabloids occasionally indulge in.

Rod Argent

Nice to see a photo of Richard O'S... poor guy was only 59 when he started living in that place :/ He would have seen Charlie Drake and Fluff Freeman come and go.
And "retired from public life" younger than I am now. (Me also).

He's looking a lot better than he did in that spate of "You won't believe wha Richard O'Sullivan looks like now" tabloid articles a few years ago.