# Still alive???
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 20, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952 "2015-09-20T15:14:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/1 "2015-09-20T15:14:16Z")
Inspired (sort of) by the thread about Tom Lehrer.
Are there any celebs that shock you by tenaciously clinging to life?
“Extra points” for learning of a living celeb who you long thought had shuffled off the mortal coil. I was surprised yesterday to see the George Kennedy still lives when I would have sworn on the proverbial stack of bibles that I’d read his obit many years ago.
Oh, and I’ll get Abe Vigoda out of the way right now.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/2 "2015-09-20T17:33:19Z")
There’s absolutely no reason for me to have believed her dead, considering that she was a child actor in her most famous role back in the 50s, but I was shocked when a horror-fan friend of mine posted a pic of him with Patty McCormack at a recent con. For some reason I had assumed she was gone.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/3 "2015-09-20T18:12:02Z")
Zsa Zsa comes to mind.
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/4 "2015-09-20T18:31:55Z")
In the recent thread about the death of actor Dean Jones, someone mistook him for Dean Stockwell, which reminded me not only of Stockwell’s longevity, but also of his incredible career, which began in 1945 when he appeared with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in _Anchors Aweigh_. It’s amazing to me that seventy years later he is still regularly appearing in film and on television at age 79.
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### Author:  [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/5 "2015-09-20T18:48:03Z")
Stan Lee, 92 and still making cameos in the Marvel movies.
Carol Channing is still alive at 94.
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### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/6 "2015-09-20T18:52:40Z")
Betty White is older than sliced bread.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/7 "2015-09-20T18:54:37Z")
I’m reading rock journalist Lisa Robinson’s memoir _There Goes Gravity_, and was surprised to realize during the chapter about Led Zeppelin that Jimmy Page is still alive.
I’m (obviously) not a Zeppelin fan and the band’s heyday was before I was born, but I knew that John Bonham had been dead for a long time and that Robert Plant was still alive. I would not have been certain about John Paul Jones (also still alive), but my best guess would have been that Page was dead. I vaguely remember that he’d recorded and toured with Plant as “Page and Plant” in the 1990s, but I don’t think I’ve heard much if anything about Page since then.
As a teenager in the 1990s I had the vague impression that Bob Dylan was not only dead, but had been dead for years. I realized my mistake when his 1997 album _Time Out of Mind_ was released and have been aware of his continuing not-deadness since then, though.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/8 "2015-09-20T18:55:17Z")
Olivia de Havilland, 99 years young.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/9 "2015-09-20T19:02:11Z")
> [@Lamia](#):
>
> I’m reading rock journalist Lisa Robinson’s memoir _There Goes Gravity_, and was surprised to realize during the chapter about Led Zeppelin that Jimmy Page is still alive.
>
> I’m (obviously) not a Zeppelin fan and the band’s heyday was before I was born, but I knew that John Bonham had been dead for a long time and that Robert Plant was still alive. I would not have been certain about John Paul Jones (also still alive), but my best guess would have been that Page was dead. I vaguely remember that he’d recorded and toured with Plant as “Page and Plant” in the 1990s, but I don’t think I’ve heard much if anything about Page since then.
Jimmy Page is not only still alive, he wanted to get Led Zeppelin back together to play some shows for Richard Branson for some $800 million, but Plant was resistant to the idea.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/10 "2015-09-20T20:14:12Z")
Angela Lansbury – who played a middle-aged dragon lady in _The Manchurian Candidate_ in 1962! – and an elderly writer-detective in _Murder She Wrote_ 1984-96 – is still alive at 90.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/11 "2015-09-20T20:16:35Z")
Harlan Ellison is 81 – one might be forgiven for thinking him dead, because he has published no new SF in so long.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/12 "2015-09-20T20:20:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Angela Lansbury – who played a middle-aged dragon lady in _The Manchurian Candidate_ in 1962! – and an elderly writer-detective in _Murder She Wrote_ 1984-96 – is still alive at 90.
And on stage
[https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/Blithe-Spirit/](https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/Blithe-Spirit/)
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/13 "2015-09-20T20:41:30Z")
I came in here to mention Zsa Zsa. Just how old she is depends on which of her stories you believe, but in all of them, she’s in her 90’s.
There have recently been ads about Johnny Mathis coming here to perform. He’s 79.
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/14 "2015-09-20T20:45:05Z")
More for UK Dopers, but
Dennis Norden: wrote the hugely popular (at the time) BBC radio show _Take It From Here_ from 1948, but better known for younger views as being the elder statesman of ITV from the seventies to the mid-naughties and particularly for his outtake show _It’ll be Alright on the Night_.
June Whitfield: Career started in the 1940s and first found fame in 1953 on _Take It From Here_ and then on Tony Hancock’s radio and TV shows. Had a long career which saw her star in sitcom _Terry and June_, appear in several of the _Carry-On_ films. In the nineties played Edwina’s Mother in _Absolutely Fabulous_. She is still active and has appeared on many famous TV shows such as _Dr Who_, _Last of the Summer Wine_, _Friends_, _Coronation Street_ and too many others to fully list.
Galton and Simpson: the writers of _Hancock’s Half Hour_, _Steptoe and Son_ (which was re-imagined as _Sanford and Son_ in the US) and _Dad’s Army_ are both still alive.
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/15 "2015-09-20T21:05:11Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Jimmy Page is not only still alive, he wanted to get Led Zeppelin back together to play some shows for Richard Branson for some $800 million, but Plant was resistant to the idea.
Jimmy Page actually had his first TV appearance as a musician in 1957 aged 13 with his skiffle group (The teen-aged Beatles also started out as a skiffle group at about this time under the name The Quarrymen).
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/16 "2015-09-20T21:53:49Z")
I am shocked by the percentage of cast members from the Dick Van Dyke Show & Mary Tyler Moore show that are still alive.
**The Dick Van Dyke Show** (TV Series 1961–1966)
Dick Van Dyke … Rob Petrie / … (158 episodes, 1961-1966) Alive and working born 1925
Rose Marie … Sally Rogers (158 episodes, 1961-1966) alive, born 1923
Morey Amsterdam … Buddy Sorrell (158 episodes, 1961-1966) died in 1996 but age 87
Larry Mathews … Ritchie Petrie (158 episodes, 1961-1966) Still Alive
Mary Tyler Moore … Laura Petrie / … (158 episodes, 1961-1966) Still Alive
Richard Deacon … Mel Cooley (82 episodes, 1961-1966) only one to die young at age 63.
Ann Morgan Guilbert … Millie Helper / … (61 episodes, 1961-1966) alive and working born in 1928
Carl Reiner … Alan Brady / … (32 episodes, 1961-1966) alive and working born in 1922
so 75% of this cast is still alive.
For the **Mary Tyler Moore Show** 10 of the top 11 actors are still alive. This includes Ed Asner , Cloris Leachman & the unstoppable Betty White that are all still working in their 90s.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/17 "2015-09-20T22:07:51Z")
Hugh Hefner. I believe he’s at least seven years older than the age currently cited by different sources, which would put him well into his 90s. (No, I don’t consider Wikipedia a 100% reliable source of information.)
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/18 "2015-09-21T00:11:15Z")
[IMDB has a list of the 100 oldest](http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075124314/)
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2015, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/19 "2015-09-21T00:19:08Z")
> [@Icarus](#):
>
> [IMDB has a list of the 100 oldest](http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075124314/)
Holy crap! There are at least a dozen on this list I thought had long since shuffled off this mortal coil! :eek:
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-alive/731952/20 "2015-09-21T00:38:37Z")
Mohammad Ali and Kirk Douglas; two guys who have been dying for over twenty years now.
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