I don’t mean, like, “You mean no one’s beaten Eve to death YET?” I mean people you see in the obits and thought, “Jeez, I thought she was dead ages ago!” For instance:
Gertrude Ederle (b. 1906), who swam the English Channel in 1926
Madame Chiang Kai-Shek (b. 1897)
Mitch Miller (b. 1911), “sing along with” bandleader
Jazz musician and serial husband Artie Shaw (b. 1910)
Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (b. 1908)
Boxer Max Schmeling (b. 1905)
Ronald Reagan
Strom Thurmond
Bob Hope
Katherine Hepburn
All those Big Band singers that PBS trots out during Pledge Week
Art Linkletter – who seems to have caught a second wind and is doing commercials again
We play the “Dead Celeb” game all the time. Get yerselves an almanac that has celebrated persons and celebrated persons of the past and start tossing the names around. It is truly amazing how sturdy the geezer population is in this world. And great fun for those who are easily amused (like myself, for instance!)
But, Kunilou, those people still get press coverage—as do Brooke Astor, Leni Riefenstahl, Fay Wray. I’m talking about people you never hear of anymore, then one day they show up in the obits (and, while I am being unecessarily picky and unpleasant, it’s Katharine Hepburn) . . .
Oooh, thought of another one: Paige Morton Black, the “Chock Full o’ Nuts” lady.
It used to be Sir John Gielgud, till he died. I was sure I’d seen reports of his death and then there he’d be. Now it’s Art Carney. I am a little shocked my Mme. Chiang Kai-Shek.
Spike Milligan, who I am convinced is just never going to die.
And Henri Cartier-Bresson is still alive? Blimey.
When I saw this thread title, I assumed Eve must’ve just seen Keith Richards on the cover of the current Rolling Stone. There he is, standing upright, and I’m still amazed he’s still alive. My god.
Just FYI:
“Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. . .”
Tripler
Just to let you know.
When I saw this, I was hoping nobody would say Keith because that’s what everyone says. There was even an article in the Providence Journal about it. I wanted to tell the author “No doi”.
For a while, I thought Edward Teller was dead. I mean I just knew was dead.
He ain’t.
Yeah, I know, it’s kind of a cliche to talk about how Keith looks like he’s dead. But have you SEEN that picture? It’s like they went out of their way to make him look as zombie-like as possible…
He does look pretty darn bad, I agree. And I meant no offense to people fond of discussing Keith’s being alive.
Al Hirschfeld, cartoonist. Hell, his daughter, Nina (you know, "find the Ninas in the Hirschfeld cartoon), must be 100 years old herself.
Al Lewis (aka Grandpa, from the Munsters. What was his last name? Wasn’t he Lilly’s father?)
Carol Channing.
Hello, Dolly
Well hello, Dolly…
<shudder>
Lady Bird Johnson is still kicking around, amazingly.
Leni “I’m a filmaker, not a Nazi” Reissensthal (and no, I obviously have no idea how to spell her last name)
I was quite surprised to find out that Billie Bird is still alive. Since I haven’t seen her on TV for about a decade, I was sure that she was dead… but I was wrong.
Zev Steinhardt
Is Francis Crick still alive? I guess not, but I’m not sure.
Buddy Ebsen
Eve, are you using us for when you join a celebrity death pool?
Alistair Cooke, and God Bless him, when I went and found him, I found out he’s still writing better than everyone else in the world put together.