Major Actor/ Actress Still Alive?

[Cicero]

With Heston passing I was thinking of who the oldest left would be.

I thought actors would be Karl Malden and Kirk Douglas.

Actress - maybe Kathleen Grayson.


I know definitions of "major" will vary. Any others you can think of?

[Cicero]

Oh- Ernest Borgnine of course.

[audit1]

A quick check of www.deadoraliveinfo.com should give you some answers such as Olivia Dehavilland is still alive.

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by audit1

A quick check of www.deadoraliveinfo.com should give you some answers such as Olivia Dehavilland is still alive.

Thanks- used to have that in favourites but after numerous computer crashes it has gone.

[cochrane]

Abe Vigoda.

[Sir Rhosis]

Paul Newman springs to mind, but I just saw some rag paper headline saying he was very ill. Hate to believe these things, but a lot of times, unfortunately, they are right.

Elizabeth Taylor.

Sir Rhosis

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Kevin McCarthy.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

How old is Christopher Lee? He's got to be pushing 200 and is still going strong

[jovan]

Lauren Bacall is still alive and apparently still working, too. Christopher Lee is a relatively major actor who is also still active.

...
On edit: Ah damn, beaten to the Lee.

[Otto]

Mickey Rooney simply will not die.

[Zeldar]

I hope this fits within the scope of this thread but back in 2006 (it seems more recent but I checked IMDB) I happened to watch an old Glenn Ford movie on cable. Must have been Jubal which was a good counterpart for Shane when it came out. I enjoyed the experience enough to go IMDB to find out how long Ford had been dead. It blew my mind that he was still alive. Sadly, he died with a month of that discovery and I almost posted to that effect. (May even have.)

[Spoke]

Tony Curtis will be 83 this year.

Gene Barry, star of War of the Worlds, will be 89.

[Spoke]

Fess Parker will be 84 this year.

Andy Griffith will be 82.

Clint Eastwood will be 78.

Tab Hunter will be 77.

Peter O'Toole will be 76.

Jack Klugman will be 86.

Eli Wallach will be 93.

[OtakuLoki]

Harry Morgan is, I believe still alive in his 90s.

[Cluricaun]

Originally Posted by spoke-

Fess Parker will be 84 this year.

Wow, Fess Parker. Now there's someone I haven't thought of in a long, long time.

[astorian]

Luise Rainer, who won two Best Actress Oscars back in the 1930s, is still alive. She must be nearly 100 by now.

[Darryl Lict]

Originally Posted by Cluricaun

Wow, Fess Parker. Now there's someone I haven't thought of in a long, long time.

Fess Parker is a notorious mega-developer here in town. He's doing fine.

[pinkfreud]

Recently, watching the movie version of Brigadoon, I looked up Van Johnson in the IMDb. He was born in 1916. Wow.

[Zeldar]

According to audit1's link on people older than 85 Karl Malden is the oldest one I can say is an actor/actress most likely to be familiar to Dopers in general. There are a few on that list who are older, though.

I remember having the same sort of concern about Malden that I did about Glenn Ford, but I can't remember anything special about that curiosity except that I was a bit surprised to learn he was still around. (Yes, I saw Cicero's post about Malden.)

[Southpaw]

Originally Posted by Cicero

Actress - maybe Kathleen Grayson.

[Nitpick] Kathryn [/nitpick].

How about everyone's favorite feuding siblings? Olivia de Havilland (b. 1916) and Joan Fontaine (b. 1917)? I think each is waiting for the other do die first.

[drachillix]

Originally Posted by jovan

Lauren Bacall is still alive and apparently still working, too.

IIRC she appeared in an episode of the sopranos in the last season.

[Doug Bowe]

Okay, until Eve makes an appearance and blows this out of the tub I vote for Anita Page. If she makes it to next August she'll be 98.

Anita Page is one of only three people still alive who appeared in silent movies as an adult (granted, a very young adult). At MGM she was the leading lady to Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Robert Montgomery and Clark Gable. She even received a proposal of marrage from Benito Mussolini.

She is the last living person on this planet to have attended the first Academy Awards.

[descamisado]

Originally Posted by drachillix

IIRC she appeared in an episode of the sopranos in the last season.

Not only is she alive and stillworking, apparently she can take a punch.

[TWDuke]

Not quite the oldest on the list, but Gloria Stuart deserves an honorable mention. Born in 1910, she worked steadily through the 1930s, retired from the screen in the 1940s, returned to acting in the 1970s, got an Oscar nom in the 1990's (Titanic) and kept working right into the 21st century.

[commasense]

Lena Horne will be 91 in June.

[Sampiro]

Of those mentioned so far, Eli Wallach is most impressive to me as he's over 90 and still works constantly. He has films now in both pre- and post-production, and (Mystic River and The Hoax are just two of his more recent big-budget films in which he had important supporting roles. Borgnine still works occasionally but very rarely, though if my pilot sells Gloria Stuart will soon take on Amy Fisher in Celebrity Boxing: The Series, which will make her the oldest living 'name' actress.

[Annie-Xmas]

Originally Posted by Southpaw

How about everyone's favorite feuding siblings? Olivia de Havilland (b. 1916) and Joan Fontaine (b. 1917)? I think each is waiting for the other do die first.

Right. They hate each other and have made a pact that the other one must die first.

You have to admire a feud that goes on that long.

[Zsofia]

Originally Posted by Sir Rhosis

Paul Newman springs to mind, but I just saw some rag paper headline saying he was very ill. Hate to believe these things, but a lot of times, unfortunately, they are right.

Elizabeth Taylor.

Sir Rhosis

If you paid attention to that, though, Liz Taylor would have died a thousand times. I think I've even seen Paul Newman on their death watch before. They just like to find really awful looking pictures of people and declare their presence at death's door.

[Cluricaun]

Originally Posted by Darryl Lict

Fess Parker is a notorious mega-developer here in town. He's doing fine.

Tell me that he builds log cabins.

[Annie-Xmas]

Newman's wife Joanne Woodward is still alive.

Gene Wilder is 74!

[cmkeller]

Gloria Stuart, 98 come July 4, can still be considered a Titanic survivor.

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by Cluricaun

Tell me that he builds log cabins.

Don't know about that, but he sells coonskin caps. (I shudder to think what mishaps may transpire with those at a winery.)

[Spoke]

Maureen O'Hara will be 88 this year, and she's still somewhat visible. (I saw her interviewed briefly on TV recently, and she looked great.)

[Sigmagirl]

I thought I heard William Schallert's voice on a radio commercial this morning, so I checked to be sure. Can't confirm it was him, but he still is doing voice work at the age of 85. Best known as Patty's father on the Patty Duke Show, but also was president of the Screen Actor's Guild. He and his wife Rosemarie will celebrate their 60th anniversary next year.

And I think it was him. Even 40-plus years later, that voice is hard to miss.

[chowder]

Originally Posted by Cluricaun

Tell me that he builds log cabins.

On a mountain top in Tennessee?

BTW Tapioca Chris Lee is dead he just comes alive at night

[Cluricaun]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

Don't know about that, but he sells coonskin caps. (I shudder to think what mishaps may transpire with those at a winery.)

Here, have a delicious glass of fermented raccoon squeezins.

[Labdad]

Cliff Robertson is still alive and kickin' and playing Uncle Ben in the Spider Man series. He'll be 83 this year.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Some other names that aren’t big stars, but had long screen careers:

Art Balinger (93 this year). He played Joe Friday’s boss (as well as other roles) on both “Dragnet” TV series.

Art Gilmore (96 this year). He also played Joe Friday’s boss, and was one of the best voice men in the industry. (Kinda strange. Balinger looked much older)

Mike Road (90 this year). Quite a few guest star roles in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the voice of “Race Bannon.”
(Another surprise. Road is older than John Stephenson (85 this August), who supplied the voice of Dr. Quest. Stephenson also looked much older.) John Stephenson also supplied the closing trial results on the 1960s “Dragnet” series.

[drm]

Director Sidney Lumet turns 84 this year and currently has two projects in development. Pretty impressive, really.

[Troy McClure SF]

Originally Posted by Sir Rhosis

Paul Newman springs to mind, but I just saw some rag paper headline saying he was very ill. Hate to believe these things, but a lot of times, unfortunately, they are right.

Elizabeth Taylor.

Sir Rhosis

Well someone sure has a high opinion of himself.

[Zeldar]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure SF

Well someone sure has a high opinion of himself.

Thanks for commentiong on this. I saw it, too, and had a similar reaction.

[Annie-Xmas]

Mel Brooks is still working at age 81.

[Sampiro]

Sidney Poitier is alive and active at 81. He doesn't work often, but then he's been semi-retired for years and has gone as long as a decade between acting roles. Harry Belafonte is also still active and he's a month younger than Sidney Poitier.

1950s superstar Jean Simmons (Guys & Dolls, The Robe, Elmer Gantry) is alive and still does an occasional acting gig and lots of voice work.

Debbie Reynolds turned 76 last week and so is younger than most people on this list, but she was a superstar in the 1950s and has had the professional persistence and resilience of Cher; she's always working or on talk shows or somehow getting publicity.

[Lunar Saltlick]

I was going to suggest William Hickey, who looked 90 a couple of decades ago as a mafia big wig in Prizzi's Honor, and who looked 100 as the father of one of the lawyers in L A Law, but I just saw in IMDB that he passed away in 1997, and he was only 70!

I got nuthin'.

[Labdad]

She hasn't worked in years, but Doris day just turned 84 on April 3. In her heyday, she was as big a box office draw as there was. Last I heard, she was still running the Doris Day Animal League in Carmel, California, which advocates homes and proper care of household pets.

[UntouchedTakeaway]

She also has a hotel (pet friendly, naturalment!) - The Cypress Inn - www.cypress-inn.com

There's a good article on her in this month's (the "green" issue) Vanity Fair.

VCNJ~

Originally Posted by Labdad

She hasn't worked in years, but Doris day just turned 84 on April 3. In her heyday, she was as big a box office draw as there was. Last I heard, she was still running the Doris Day Animal League in Carmel, California, which advocates homes and proper care of household pets.

[ivylass]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

Right. They hate each other and have made a pact that the other one must die first.

You have to admire a feud that goes on that long.

What's up with that?

Are both the Gabor sisters still around?

[Ignatz]

Originally Posted by astorian

Luise Rainer, who won two Best Actress Oscars back in the 1930s, is still alive. She must be nearly 100 by now.

b. 1914 in Dusseldorf

[Ignatz]

Originally Posted by ivylass

What's up with that?

Are both the Gabor sisters still around?

Eva: 1919-1995

Zsa Zsa: 1919- (per my 2003 source)

As for names: Karl Malden born Mladen Sekulovich

Doris Day born Doris Kappelhoff

Ernest Borgnine born Ermes Borgnino

Glenn Ford born Gwyllyn Ford

Lauren Bacall born Betty Joan Perske

Red Buttons born Aaron Chwatt

Jerry Lewis born Joseph Levich

Walter Matthau born Walter Matuschandkayasky

Tab Hunter born Andrew Arthur Kelm

[Marley23]

Walter Matthau died in 2000, and the long name was a joke. His birth name was Walter Matthow.

Also, Red Buttons died in 2006.