# Who are our current "Abe Vigodas"? (people you might be surprised to learn are still alive) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** actor-characters\ **Created:** [September 7, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985 "2020-09-07T01:18:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/481 "2024-01-15T21:43:55Z")
  The ending to _On her Majesty’s Secret Service_ is brutal.  However many times I’ve seen it, it always hits me like a punch in the gut every time I see it.   I guess that’s what she gets for leaving John Steed and running off to be a Bond Girl. Cathy Gale did the same thing, but somehow, it ended better for her, even though, in the Bond world, she started out as a villain.   When I saw _SPECTRE_ for the first time, I was certain, as it got to the end, that it was going to end the same way as _On her Majesty’s Secret Service_, but it didn’t.  I guess they saved that for a whole other movie, _No Time To Die_. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/482 "2024-01-15T22:44:16Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I guess. I mean I do think of him along with Daniel Craig as Bond. Still, I do like Roger Moore the most…after Craig. I’d go: > > 1. Craig > 2. Moore > 3. Connery > 4. Brosnan > 5. Dalton \<–had crappy movies no fault of his own > > I haven’t seen George Lazenby’s one. I know! Of all the actors who have played the role, I think Brosnan was by far the best suited to the role, but his time came when they seemed to be rather badly scraping the barrel for good James Bond story lines. Dalton, rather the opposite. I think he’s the actor, of those who ever played the role, who was least suited to it. In _The Living Daylights_, I got the impression that he couldn’t decide whether he was supposed to be playing Sean Connery or Roger Moore, and that he alternated between rather poor impressions of each.  I think _License To Kill_ is my favorite of all the movies, and Dalton did much better in it; perhaps because the movie put the character in so different a situation than in previous movies, that Dalton couldn’t look to his predecessors for examples on how to play the character in that situation, and was forced to put his own take on the character.  Not the cold professional played by Sean Connery, nor the wisecracking buffoon of Roger Moore, this was an angry, vengeful James Bond, with no other purpose than to avenge the maiming of his best friend, and the murder of that friend’s new wife.  It almost seems to me, thinking of it now, that this is almost the movie that they should have made after _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_, with him out to avenge the murder of his own wife.  As it was, his efforts to avenge Tracy ended up taking place around his professional duties, repeatedly running into and trying to kill Blofeld, and not succeeding until several movies later. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/483 "2024-01-18T02:39:38Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I was surprised today to learn that Peter Schikele, the man who is the read PDQ Bach, is still alive. > **[Peter Schickele Dies: ‘P.D.Q. Bach’ Parodist And Film/Broadway Composer Was 88](https://deadline.com/2024/01/peter-schickele-dead-p-d-q-bach-parodist-film-broadway-composer-was-88-obituary-1235795823/)** > > Peter Schickele, whose comedic parodies of classical music overshadowed his own strengths as a serious composer, died Tuesday at his home in Bearsville, N.Y. at 88. His daughter confirmed the death… ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/484 "2024-01-18T04:13:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Mike Nussbaum (age 99) Mr. Nussbaum left us on 12.23.2023. [NYTimes gift link.](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/29/theater/mike-nussbaum-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ok0.16-S.JE2SNV54gbac&smid=url-share) Loved him in everything I saw him in. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2024, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/485 "2024-01-18T04:20:41Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > Mike Nussbaum (age 99) > > Mr. Nussbaum left us on 12.23.2023. I have an alibi. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/486 "2024-01-18T04:45:04Z")
You always do. Hmmm 🧐 ---
**Author:** ![ThatCanadianGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/487 "2024-01-18T16:24:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Maybe a whoosh here but Isaac Asimov commented on several occasions about how he was the only person with his name in the country. I know that’s not the case for me. My last name is not a very common one but neither is it unheard of. I’ve actually met two others with the same name as me as well as that of my brother, thanks to my father creating a family association and organizing reunions. There was a kind-of-famous plane builder in early 1900s with my name, there’s a cheese brand using my name and there was the main character in a movie with my name (never seen it however). I’m not sure how Asimov would know for sure. It would be easier today I suppose to find out. What works in his favor is a foreign name, he was born in Russia. We had Belgian friends in my family growing up. They said their last name is found only in Belgium. I asked a Belgian I met about it and he didn’t seem so sure nor have heard the name before. I meet people of all cultures all the time and often their name is new to me and may seem unusual but probably not in their country of origin. To say it’s unique in a country, maybe, but hard to prove. In the world, much less likely. In history, even less so. ---
**Author:** ![ThatCanadianGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/488 "2024-01-18T16:28:32Z")
Keeping with the subject of the thread, Tom Lehrer is 95. Sorry to hear about Peter Schikele’s passing, I have a record of him but never knew or checked if he was still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/489 "2024-01-18T19:58:41Z")
With the 50th anniversary of Happy Days passing a few days ago, I was surprised to see that Marion Ross is still with us. She is 95. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/490 "2024-01-19T00:06:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Isaac Asimov commented on several occasions about how he was the only person with his name in the country There are 25 of them: > **[Asimov Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History](https://forebears.io/surnames/asimov)** > > Learn the fascinating origin of the Asimov surname; its meaning & distribution. Unlock your family history in the largest database of last names. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/491 "2024-01-19T00:15:24Z")
Darth Vader’s voice turned ~~7~~ 93 yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/492 "2024-01-19T00:19:41Z")
There are 106 that spell it Azimov: > **[Azimov Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History](https://forebears.io/surnames/azimov)** > > Learn the fascinating origin of the Azimov surname; its meaning & distribution. Unlock your family history in the largest database of last names. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/493 "2024-01-19T00:20:06Z")
I was just coming in here to post that. I honestly thought he had died and was surprised when I heard it was his birthday. ---
**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:** [January 19, 2024, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/494 "2024-01-19T01:54:09Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > Isaac Asimov commented on several occasions about how he was the only person with his name in the country > > There are 25 of them: He had a family so he knew several people with the same surname. His claim was that he was the only person in the world with his combination of first and last name. If it’s not true, take it up with Isaac Asimov not me. Except he died in 1992. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/495 "2024-01-19T02:30:08Z")
Well, I know for a fact that Albert Brooks was not the only guy in the country with his name, for at least the first seven or eight years of his life. And that other guy, some of us have heard of him. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/496 "2024-01-19T06:27:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > His claim was that he was the only person in the world with his combination of first and last name. I assumed that you were quoting Asimov as saying that he was the only person in the U.S. with the last name Asimov. That’s not the case. He says that his father spelled the name as Asimov when he emigrated to the U.S. from Russia. His father didn’t know that much about the Latin alphabet as opposed to the Cyrillic alphabet. He says that most other people who had the same name when they emigrated to the U.S. spelled the name as Azimov since that’s closer to the pronunciation of it. That’s why there are now more people in the world who spell it as Azimov than who spell it as Asimov. If what he was saying was that he was the only person in the U.S. with the first and last names Isaac Asimov, that’s probably true, but I don’t know how to check that. Incidentally, I don’t know how many living relatives he has in the U.S. Both of his wives are now dead. He had two children, Robyn and David. Robyn is alive. I don’t know about David. Did either of them get married or have children? He had a brother Stanley who is now dead. Stanley had three children, one of whom is named Eric. Eric has two children. That’s all I’ve been able to figure out from my search. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/497 "2024-01-19T07:32:53Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I don’t know about David. A brief ddg [turned up a 25-y/o article](https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/charges-shatter-asimov-son-s-reclusion-3099867.php) saying he was found to have the most extensive collection of child pornography in Sonoma County. ---
**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:** [January 19, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/498 "2024-01-19T22:59:40Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > You always do. Hmmm 🧐 I feel like Columbo is going to show up any minute and tell me he has just one more thing. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/499 "2024-01-20T17:55:38Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > > > I don’t know about David. > > A brief ddg [turned up a 25-y/o article](https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/charges-shatter-asimov-son-s-reclusion-3099867.php) saying he was found to have the most extensive collection of child pornography in Sonoma County. I remember that. I also remember something Isaac Asimov wrote about his son being troubled and about how he set up a trust fund for the son. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985/500 "2024-01-20T19:41:37Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Isaac Asimov wrote about his son being troubled and about how he set up a trust fund for the son That’s what I remember from the third volume of his autobiography too. That and some websites I’ve searched through say that it appears that both Asimov and his son were what’s now thought of as being on the autism spectrum. It wasn’t called that back in those days though. Asimov thought that he and his son had the same psychological problems that made it difficult for them to interact with other people. Asimov was smart enough that he could get around those problems. His son wasn’t. That’s why he set up the trust fund for his son. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-our-current-abe-vigodas-people-you-might-be-surprised-to-learn-are-still-alive/919985.md?page=26)