# Oldest film with a completely living main cast **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370 "2010-09-20T04:05:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/1 "2010-09-20T04:05:18Z")
What’s the oldest movie in which all the principals (take them out, leaves big plot holes), are still with us. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/2 "2010-09-20T04:16:17Z")
It’s no longer the case but _The Lion in Winter_ held this record for a long time. It was made in 1968. The first member of the main cast who died was Katharine Hepburn in 2003. (Nigel Stock died in 1986 but he only had a couple of lines in the film.) All of the other main cast members and director Anthony Harvey are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/3 "2010-09-20T04:30:09Z")
A WAG but it would probably be some porn movie. Most porn movies have small casts which means fewer people to die. And most porn movies have relatively young casts so old age won’t be as big a factor. Granted, porn actors probably have a higher death rate than mainstream actors. But hundreds of porn movies are made every year. Somewhere back in the seventies there must have been some porn movie which beat the odds and had a cast of five or ten people all of whom are now still alive in their fifties and sixties. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/4 "2010-09-20T04:33:39Z")
I think all the principles from 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/5 "2010-09-20T04:40:30Z")
Can you be more specific about the principals? The 4 main leads in The Graduate (1967) are still around. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/6 "2010-09-20T04:42:47Z")
As I said, cast members whose abscence would render the movie incoherent/leave out MAJOR plot points. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/7 "2010-09-20T04:46:08Z")
Wouldn’t it be a kids’ movie starring children almost exclusively? ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/8 "2010-09-20T04:47:43Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Can you be more specific about the principals? > > The 4 main leads in The Graduate (1967) are still around. Anne Bancroft is no longer with us. She passed away in 2005. ---
**Author:** ![TomGorstaad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@TomGorstaad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomGorstaad)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/9 "2010-09-20T04:49:00Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I think all the principles from 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde are still alive. Now we get into a debate about the meaning of “principal” but – Denver Pyle and Dub Taylor are both dead. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/10 "2010-09-20T04:55:39Z")
1962 - _Lawrence of Arabia_; Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif 1963 - _Move Over Darling_; James Garner and Doris Day are still alive. 1965 - _Dr. Zhivago_; We still have Rod Steiger, Julie Christie, and Omar Sharif. Almost any movie that had Kirk Douglas as the main character… ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/11 "2010-09-20T05:00:14Z")
> [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > 1962 - _Lawrence of Arabia_; Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif > 1963 - _Move Over Darling_; James Garner and Doris Day are still alive. > 1965 - _Dr. Zhivago_; We still have Rod Steiger, Julie Christie, and Omar Sharif. > > Almost any movie that had Kirk Douglas as the main character… Zhivago and Lawrence both had Alec Guiness, who has since become more powerful then we could ever imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/12 "2010-09-20T05:05:31Z")
> [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > 1962 - _Lawrence of Arabia_; Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif > 1963 - _Move Over Darling_; James Garner and Doris Day are still alive. > 1965 - _Dr. Zhivago_; We still have Rod Steiger, Julie Christie, and Omar Sharif. > > Almost any movie that had Kirk Douglas as the main character… Rod Steiger is dead. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/13 "2010-09-20T05:09:56Z")
Hmmm… plot holes. So the trick is to think of movies with little or no plot. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/14 "2010-09-20T05:14:31Z")
Ooh, I got one, essentially a one man show. _Lt Robin Crusoe, USN_, 1966, with Dick Van Dyke, a comic precursor to _Castaway_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/15 "2010-09-20T06:03:08Z")
Christopher Plummer, Julie Andrews, and the seven children are still alive from _The Sound of Music_. (Richard Haydn and Eleanor Powell are dead- whether they’re main depends on definition.) The Zeffirelli [Romeo & Juliet](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063518/) (1968) is doing really well: Romeo (Leonard Whiting), Juliet (Olivia Hussey), Friar Lawrence (Milo O’Shea), Tybalt (Michael York), and the actors who played Paris, Mercutio, Nurse and other supporting roles are still alive. The most significant characters played by actors no longer still alive are the parents (Lady Capulet’s still alive, the other 3 not so much). A bit obscure, but all of the names on the poster of [Pope Joan](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069110/fullcredits#cast) (1972) are still alive (Maximilian Schell, Franco Nero, Leslie Anne Down, Olivia DeHavilland, Liv Ullmann and Jeremy Kemp). Amazing how many have “all but one”. _West Side Story_ for example: save for the prematurely demised Natalie Wood all of the principals are alive. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/16 "2010-09-20T06:03:13Z")
Which reminds me… _[Robinson Crusoe on Mars](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058530/)_, 1964, only 3 actors listed in IMDB record, all still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/17 "2010-09-20T06:05:31Z")
I’m starting to wonder what’s the most recent movie with all principal actors dead. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/18 "2010-09-20T06:08:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Amazing how many have “all but one”. _West Side Story_ for example: save for the prematurely demised Natalie Wood all of the principals are alive. I checked _2001_; it didn’t have a huge cast, but of the main roles only William Sylvester has died. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/19 "2010-09-20T06:19:14Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I’m starting to wonder what’s the most recent movie with all principal actors dead. _The Whales of August_- which was basically “The Aunts of the Golden Girls Go on Vacation”- probably has a record for the soonest twixt the film’s release and the death of all the principals. Bette Davis, Vincent Price, and Ann Sothern were all almost 80 and Lillian Gish was in her early 90s. (Ann Southern lived 14 more years but the others were, not surprisingly, gone within a decade.) That’s the movie on which- per anecdote of unknown authenticity- somebody on the crew complimented Lillian Gish on her closeup and Bette Davis said “I certainly hope she does good closeups {cigarette drag} she _invented_ the goddamned things”. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370/20 "2010-09-20T12:30:36Z")
The four principal actors in **The Misfits** were dead within 8 years, which beats out **The Whales of August.** Both films still have cast members alive. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-film-with-a-completely-living-main-cast/554370.md?page=2)