# Most recent film with no living cast members **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904 "2019-11-24T04:40:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/21 "2019-11-24T17:03:20Z")
_The Blair Witch Project_? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/22 "2019-11-24T17:45:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > [Sleuth](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069281/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_107) from 1972 has only one remaining cast member alive, Michael Caine, now 86. It’s been a contender ever since 1989 when the only other living cast member, Laurence Olivier passed away. None of the other cast members were alive when the film was released. \ ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/23 "2019-11-24T20:18:03Z")
I always liked Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker teamups (_F-Troop_ and the original _Ghost Busters_). Storch is still alive, and (AFAICT) his 1951 film _The Prince Who Was a Thief_ has only him and Piper Laurie surviving. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/24 "2019-11-25T03:58:28Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > All the credited cast members of _The Conqueror_ (1956) are dead. That’s the John Wayne movie they filmed downwind of a nuclear test site, and everyone got cancer. This is one of those things that “everyone knows” but isn’t true. First of all, it was far from “everyone.” > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The cast and crew totaled 220 people. By the end of 1980, as ascertained by People magazine, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease. > > Since the primary cast and crew numbered about 220, and a considerable number of cancer cases would be expected, controversy exists as to whether the actual results are attributable to radiation at the nearby nuclear weapons test site.[17][18] Statistically, the odds of developing cancer for men in the U.S. population are 43% and the odds of dying of cancer are 23% (slightly lower in women at 38% and 19%, respectively).[19] Cite. Doing the math, if the whole cast and crew had been male, we would have expected 95 to have gotten cancer, and 51 of them to have died of it, no matter where it was made. If it had been an all-female group, the expected numbers would have been 84 and 42. The actual numbers fall right in the middle of those two ranges. There is therefore no reason to believe that the filming location had any connection to the incidence of cancer among members of that group. Yet another case of confirmation bias. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/25 "2019-11-25T08:25:45Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Sure, lots of those as well. I think the only credited cast member of 1977’s _[Powers of Ten](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078106/)_ was the narrator, physicist [Philip Morrison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Morrison), who died in 2005. But there must be scads of more recent documentaries featuring only a now-dead narrator. Wouldn’t the couple on the picnic blanket be included? Or everyone in the then-known universe, but that’s pushing it. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/26 "2019-11-26T20:34:02Z")
Haven’t the rules for crediting changed over the years to include far more members of a movie’s cast than just the leads? This isn’t a bad thing, but it makes this challenge far more difficult as nearly every minor role these days is credited. For example, I checked [Cocoon (1985)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088933/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm)and realized that this film featuring mostly elderly stars might not lose all its credited actors for decades. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/27 "2019-11-26T20:59:07Z")
How about **The Producers** (the original film from 1967)? All of the major actors are gone, except for Lee Meredith, who played Ulla. I’m surprised how many of the actors from **Young Frankenstein** (1975) are gone. It seems not that long ago they had a reunion show, but only Teri Garr, Gene Hackman, and Cloris Leachman temain of the major actors. (Mel Brooks is still with us, but he only had the one brief part and a lot of voiceovers. Danny Goldman, the medical student who asks all the questions, is still around, but retired from acting.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904/28 "2019-12-09T22:00:09Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Altman’s _Images_ from 1972 is one Rene Auberjonois away from qualifying. He’s almost 80. And 2+ weeks later it qualifies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recent-film-with-no-living-cast-members/843904.md?page=1)