Every week I watch an episode of Wings and an episode of The Jeffersons. When I watch them I check to see if Rebecca Schull (age 96) and Marla Gibbs (age 93) are still alive, in case I miss the announcement.
I was going to say that Wings is a great candidate for oldest show with zero death in its cast, but it looks like Farrah Forke, who was in 35 episodes, did die.
I don’t know I remember her from Wings, which I only watched when it was airing new episodes.
Still, looks like nearly the entire main cast who appeared in almost all episodes is still alive.
Edit: Never mind. I was too quick with my Googling. David Schramm has died as well.
Apparently, an off-beat movie is in theaters this week with a role for K Callan, who — well, yeah, thirty or so years ago she was the sixtysomething mom to a thirtysomething Clark Kent, so I guess it’d make sense that she’d be around ninety now. But we don’t have to go back nearly that far, since you maybe remember her in KNIVES OUT: trying her level best to seem old enough to be Christopher Plummer’s mom, which I can’t readily do the math on.
If Wings would have been in the running for oldest show with no deaths, Living Single may eventually fit that. The oldest cast member is 66.
It was Love Boat for a long time, impressive considering its huge cast.
Now…maybe Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Some shows older have small casts and probably make it.
And we say good journey to veteran actor Clive Reville, who fell a month short of 95.
I think I only knew him from Star Wars, but I do agree I had no idea either way if he was alive.
N.B. It’s “Revill”.
IMDb link. Voiced the emperor in TESB.
Julian Glover. Thought he was long gone from this mortal coil. Glad he is not.
Sir Rhosis
Sugarfoot?
Getting back to the thread title, Alex Henteloff was a recurring guest star on Barney Miller (he played Arnold Ripner, the shyster lawyer). I just learned Henteloff is still alive at age 82.
At that, sticking with the thread title: Will Hutchins, who starred in “Sugarfoot” — and, for all I know, thereby makes it the oldest primetime television series with one hundred percent of its cast still alive — is, what, 94?
Of course, it helps that Will Hutchins was the only regular. The IMDb says that he was in 69 episodes, which was every episode. No other actor was in more than 5 episodes. Three actors were the only ones that appeared even in 5 episodes. Those three are now dead.
How many episodes does an actor have to appear in to be considered a regular? Was Vernee Watson a regular in The Big Bang Theory since she appeared in 6 episodes as a character named Althea Davis (who was a nurse), one of which was the pilot. She also appeared as the same character in a discarded pilot. She, Sheldon, and Leonard were the only actors who appeared as their characters in that discarded pilot. She also appeared as a nurse named Robinson in 2 episodes of Young Sheldon. Was that the same person, whose maiden name was Althea Robinson? Were they instead relatives who were both nurses? She hasn’t yet appeared in Georgie and Mandy’s First Wedding.
I feel a good rule of thumb is an actor has to be listed in the show’s opening credits to be considered a regular.
So using MASH as an example; Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson would be considered regulars because their names were included in the opening credits of some of the seasons, even though they each only appeared in 72 episodes. But Jeff Maxwell, who appeared in 48 episodes, or Kelly Nakahara, who appeared in 44 episodes, would not be considered regulars because they were never listed in the opening credits.
That said, it’s not a perfect rule. Look at Star Trek; only William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley were listed in the opening credits. But I’d have a hard time arguing that James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and George Takei weren’t regulars.
I was surprised to learn that Walter Koenig is 88 but Hosato George Takei will not be turning 88 for about a month. Koenig always seemed younger than Takei to me. Of course, he has outlived Anton Yelchin by quite a lot.
Richard Chamberlain (mods, please backdate post).
Koenig was brought on to attract younger viewers in the second season, so they intentionally made him look as young as possible, mimicking Davy Jones of the Monkees.
I’ll never forget Shatner introducing the cast and saying, “Here is…the gentleman who plays Chekov…” when he couldn’t remember Koenig’s name.
Koenig did an interview about the time both he and Shatner were in the same episode of another show(Columbo?) and the only interaction they could have had was when they were riding along in a golf cart to go film something. Koenig said Shatner said nothing to him because, “I think he had forgotten my name…”
William Daniels turned 98 today.