I say we give it to Mr. Abbott (as all his friends called him – really, it’s true). I saw him interviewed on Today at age 102 and, while no longer directing, he apparently was producing yet another show. He seemed very crisp and vital.
Did you see him at the TV Land Awards? He used his camera time to ask for work! How cool is that (and he still has the same voice- he quite smoking 10 years ago so he should be good for another 20).
Here’s a list of show-biz centenarians. Señor Wences (“Hallo!”) is the only one that I know for a fact was still performing after triple digits.
He had a chance to be on the Love Boat pilot, Noah’s Ark, but died a week before it sailed. (Charo made it- she was married to Japheth at the time, later leaving him for Xavier Cugat.)
While it’s getting away from the OP, two 90 something actors who are alive, well and keep amazingly busy in stage and film are Kevin McCarthy and Norman Lloyd. Both were born in 1914, both were on Broadway in the 1930s (Lloyd was heavily involved with Orson Welles & John Houseman’s Mercury Studio) and both have movies in production currently. (McCarthy has college aged children to educate, which is one reason he hasn’t retired.) Gloria Stuart also remains busy in her 90s, though she had quite a few decades (mostly) off from acting.
Lillian Gish won raves and several awards for her work in The Whales of August, filmed when she was in her early 90s.
I find it impressive that you know all this stuff.
Cicero writes:
> I find it impressive that you know all this stuff.
Thank you. I guess it helps to be able to make stuff up when all else fails. Did I ever tell you about how Jeanne Calment, Vincent Van Gogh, and I used to go out drinking together?
Ok, found him: he was a manager, not an actor. David Kinnison, who died in 1852, supposedly at 115 years old. He fought in the American Revolution and, at the age of 111, was operating Mooney’s Museum (a variety house) in Chicago. Of course, I’d be surprised if he really was that old. I think our winner thus far is George Abbott.
While she wasn’t an actress herself, Jolie Gabor made many TV and panel-show appearances and was a “jeweler to the stars” and for movies. She was also, of course, the mother of Eva, Zsa Zsa & Magda and mother-in-law of George Sanders (who married first Zsa Zsa and later Magda) among many others. (She was also the step-great-great-grandmother of Paris Hilton.)
She died in 1997 at the age of 103, though I’m guessing she was a jewelled cabbage for the last few years. (She never knew that her daughter Eva was dead [the family didn’t tell her] or that Magda was terminally ill [she died a few weeks after Jolie]), thus Zsa-Zsa lost both sister and her mother in less than two years (which had to have been a major blow, especially considering that she was almost 80 and from what I’ve read her daughter isn’t much of a comfort.)
Connie Hilton (ZsaZsa’s daughter, supposedly by Conrad Hilton but he had doubts) is the only child of the Gabor sister’s 20 marriages. Odd. Her father left her a $100,000 trust fund out of his $200 million estate, though her inheritance from her mother and aunts will probably dwarf that.
Moses
Sampiro writes:
> Connie Hilton (ZsaZsa’s daughter, supposedly by Conrad Hilton but he had
> doubts) is the only child of the Gabor sister’s 20 marriages. Odd. Her father left
> her a $100,000 trust fund out of his $200 million estate, though her inheritance
> from her mother and aunts will probably dwarf that.
And she didn’t even get the $100,000. The will had a clause that anyone who contested their share in court wouldn’t get anything. She contested it and thus didn’t get anything.
IIRC, he also claimed to be the last survivor of the Boston Tea Party.
I am impressed.
(By the way: poor old Zsa Zsa’s blobby and unglamorous daughter is
“Francesca,” not “Connie.”)
And i know for a fact she never took part in the Boston Tea Party.
(Her name is ‘Constance Francesca’; I confused her with Barron’s daughter, Connie- Barron received only about $500,000 from his father’s estate but successfully sued for much more- veddy veddy bad man, incidentally [used to work for a hotel he owned and he was a total prick, the total antithesis of his father when it came to managing people]).
:dubious: I’m afraid the afomentioned Methusalah already has him beat. As do Noah and Adam (and probably Eve if she were worth mentioning) and a number of others. Hell, actually Jeanne Calment beats out Moses.
I suppose if you go by the Book of John and say he was with God at the beginning of the world, Jesus is the oldest celebrity to die. Although I think if you come back again you forfeit.