Who are our current "Abe Vigodas"? (people you might be surprised to learn are still alive)

George Ross, Trump’s advisor on the TV show Apprentice, is still alive at age 96.

Almost a year later, Coach Levy is still with us, and just turned 99 a month ago. At this time, he is the oldest living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I don’t see too much of Marv Albert anymore, but he’s alive at age 83.

Yeah, he’s on my themed celebrity death list.i think he’s immortal.

Marv Levy.

It looks like he retired from announcing NBA games in 2021, having previously stepped back from other announcing roles (NCAA basketball tournament, NFL games) a few years earlier.

Diane Rehm is turning 88 on September 21st.

She still hosts that podcast (it’s weekly. Her last episode was August 14th; she’s been on vacation these last few weeks (I hope that’s not ominous). Regardless, she is not slowing down)

Her counterpart in Bewitched, Elizabeth Montgomery, has been gone for 28 years. [she would have been 91 this year]

Hey, she sounds pretty good. I thought she had a degenerative voice problem that would eventually take her voice. Glad to hear she sounds more or less how I remember her.

I’m not sure how famous she is, but Betty Brosmer is 95. She was a popular pin up girl in the 1950s and a frequent subject of muscle magazine photoshoots in the 60s and 70s.

Her husband was Joe Weider, who created professional bodybuilding (including the Mr Olympia contest) as a conduit to sell his muscle magazines. He also brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to the States.

Here’s a magazine cover featuring Arnold and Betty Brosmer, from 1969.

My local newspaper does a list of celebrity birthdays every day. (Yes, I still get a newspaper, get off my lawn :rofl:) I was surprised to see Jose Feliciano listed in today’s birthdays. I thought he had died years ago. And he’s only 79. It’s too soon to link to “Feliz Navidad”…

How about “Light My Fire” instead?

I just read that Alan Oppenheimer is still alive. He did a lot of guest starring roles in tv series back in the sixties and seventies. I was just a kid back then so I registered him as “old” so I was surprised to see he’s still around fifty years later.

Good example. 94 years young. Still doing a bunch of voice work. His last regular acting work seems to be from 2007. He did The Doris Day Show, The Paul Lynde Show (memorably bad) and Here’s Lucy back-to-back.

First credit is from 1963. IMDb’s count is 346 shows/movies. Probably a lot of small roles in the 60s and 70s are missing.

He’s 3rd cousin of Robert.

Anyone remember him a a major in Little Big Man? While Jack Crabb in the movie was (allegedly) 121 years old, I doubt Alan’s going to make that.

Oppenheimer, like Abe Vigoda or Norman Lloyd, is one of those people who looked old at a relatively young age. Here’s an image of him doing a guest appearance on The Andy Griffith Show in 1968; Oppenheimer was thirty-eight years old at the time. The same age as Shia Labeouf or Robert Pattinson are now.

TBH, I don’t think Oppenheimer looks old in the 1968 image. Sure, he has advanced male pattern baldness and grey hair to boot, but his face is as smooth and vigorous as any. Put a wig on him, and he’d look like someone in his early 30’s. Or see the baldness for what it is and still consider him young looking.

“There!! Are you satisfied NOW Major!?”

Here’s one to watch as a future Abe Vigoda. At 77 William Otay is on the young side, comparatively, but has looked old for a long time.

He played Dan’s gofer-bum Phil/Will on the old Night Court and was a long running recurring mad scientist character Rolf (last name) on Days of Our Lives.

While IMDb lists him as being on DoOL recently that appears to be in error. Someone else took over the role. Otherwise the last credit is Modern Family in 2017.

One that’s hardly in the category at all is Max Baer Jr., best known as Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies. He’s only 86 right now, he was fairly young when he played that role, but I was even younger and expected him to be older right now. Even Donna Douglas was older than him. I also thought he was no longer alive for some reason. He is the last surviving major character from the show though.

I have one. Chester Karrass, the guy who you always used to see advertised in Airplane magazines because of his negotiation seminars.

He’s alive and 101.

With the recent death of Tito Jackson at the age of 70 of The Jackson 5, I was surprised to learn his mother Katherine Jackson was still alive at 94,