I chanced to look at the imdb page on Lloyd Bridges, and noticed that he appeared in a movie that came out two years after he died. Now, that’s not that uncommon, since the movie production timeline can take a while. But it made me wonder how long that is?
Excluding archival footage or reused footage, what’s the longest time between someone dying and then appearing as a major character in a movie?
I guess a similar question would be what’s the longest gap between the end of shooting for a movie and its actual release.
Bruce Lee died in 1973. They hacked together the footage that had been shot and released “Game of Death” in 1978. (With the exception of the original footage at the end of the movie, the movie is laughably bad).
Even longer gap: The Day the Clown Cried still hasn’t been released after 37 years. If it ever is released (unlikely – it supposedly makes Plan 9 look like Citizen Kane) several of the cast members are probably gone. It’s likely that if it ever is released, it will be after Jerry Lewis dies, since he controls it.
Several Fatty Arbuckle comedies were completed but not released when the scandal hit. They are probably lost, though.
Trail of the Pink Panther came out two years after Peter Sellers died. There was archive footage, but also some outtakes and otherwise new material.
Basquiat filmed a movie which was apparently first called New York Beat Movie, but which I know as Downtown 81, died in 1988, and then the movie was finally released in 2001. Probably not a record, but 13 years is not trivial.
The studio never had any intention of releasing The Fantastic Four. It was made for legal reasons in order to maintain the film rights which were about to expire.
