# Major Actor/ Actress Still Alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162 "2008-04-06T08:25:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/41 "2008-04-08T15:53:48Z")
[QUOTE=Troy McClure SF] Well _some_one sure has a high opinion of himself. [/QUOTE] Thanks for commentiong on this. I saw it, too, and had a similar reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/42 "2008-04-08T16:16:57Z")
Mel Brooks is still working at age 81. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/43 "2008-04-08T16:59:50Z")
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](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001739/) (_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. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/44 "2008-04-08T17:45:58Z")
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’. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/45 "2008-04-08T18:19:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/46 "2008-04-08T23:34:21Z")
She also has a hotel (pet friendly, naturalment!) - The Cypress Inn - [www.cypress-inn.com](http://www.cypress-inn.com) There’s a good article on her in this month’s (the “green” issue) Vanity Fair. VCNJ~ [QUOTE=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. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/47 "2008-04-09T01:11:50Z")
[QUOTE=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. [/QUOTE] What’s up with that? Are both the Gabor sisters still around? ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/48 "2008-04-09T01:37:47Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] Luise Rainer, who won two Best Actress Oscars back in the 1930s, is still alive. She must be nearly 100 by now. [/QUOTE] b. 1914 in Dusseldorf ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/49 "2008-04-09T02:03:06Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] What’s up with that? Are both the Gabor sisters still around? [/QUOTE] 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 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/50 "2008-04-09T02:09:18Z")
Walter Matthau died in 2000, and the long name was a joke. His birth name was Walter Matthow. Also, Red Buttons died in 2006. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/51 "2008-04-09T22:12:26Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] \ Are both the Gabor sisters still around? [/QUOTE] Actually, there were three of them. Here is the Wiki page for [Magda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda_Gabor), who was the oldest sister. She died in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/52 "2008-04-11T13:28:59Z")
[QUOTE=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. [/QUOTE] And she’s still working, too, kinda. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656105/](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656105/) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162/53 "2008-04-11T14:09:48Z")
[QUOTE=Clothahump] And she’s still working, too, kinda. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656105/](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656105/) [/QUOTE] And I have a copy of Our Modern Maidens- I will watch tomorrow. It is odd that she had a virtual 60 year gap between making films. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-actor-actress-still-alive/444162.md?page=2)