# Who were the most famous people when you were growing up who have completely disappeared? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761 "2016-11-22T19:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/201 "2016-11-29T20:30:21Z")
Tommy Chong has hardly fallen off the map. He did voicework for _Zootopia_\* which came out this year and has had several other recent [projects](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001045/) plus at least one in the pipe-(ahem)-line. Regarding his prison time a while back. While in prison he started writing an autobiography (it’s fairly interesting, considering). This inspired his cell mate to write a book about what got him into prison. That [book](http://www.businessinsider.com/jordan-belforts-prison-bunkmate-was-tommy-chong-2014-2) got a _lot_ more attention. - Stoners in kids’ movies. Why not? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/202 "2016-11-29T23:37:40Z")
[Rich Little](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/rich-little-4.png). You couldn’t turn around in the Seventies without hitting him doing his impressions (which I always thought sounded like Rich Little trying to sound like Nixon even when he wasn’t doing Nixon, but whatever) [Doug Henning](http://www.compumagic.com/magic/dh/images/WalkThruWall.jpg), the magician. With his huge mustache, long curly hair and polyester jumpsuits, he was like the Seventies distilled into its essence. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/203 "2016-11-30T00:08:34Z")
The last I heard of Rich Little was in the _Futurama_ movie _Bender’s Game_. He played his own head in a jar imitating Howard Cosell. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/204 "2016-11-30T00:42:35Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > [Rich Little](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/rich-little-4.png). You couldn’t turn around in the Seventies without hitting him doing his impressions (which I always thought sounded like Rich Little trying to sound like Nixon even when he wasn’t doing Nixon, but whatever) > > [Doug Henning](http://www.compumagic.com/magic/dh/images/WalkThruWall.jpg), the magician. With his huge mustache, long curly hair and polyester jumpsuits, he was like the Seventies distilled into its essence. Good examples. They were both ubiquitous when I was growing up in the 1970s. Little apparently still performs some, though I suspect that he still does the same impressions he was doing 40 years ago. Henning retired from the stage in the 1980s, getting more involved in Transcendental Meditation, and in a couple of very unsuccessful runs for political office (in England and Canada). Died of cancer in 2000, which would explain why he’s been so quiet of late. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/205 "2016-11-30T03:09:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Little apparently still performs some, though I suspect that he still does the same impressions he was doing 40 years ago. After the notorious White House Correspondents’ Dinner in which Stephen Colbert dismantled George W. Bush to his face, they invited Rich Little for the subsequent event a year later in an attempt to make sure the entertainment was COMPLETELY inoffensive (which it was, since the vast majority of Little’s repertoire is people who have been dead for quite some time at this point). ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/206 "2016-11-30T05:16:11Z")
Reggie Jackson, Dr. J, Carl Lewis? Maybe not completely. But sport is like that. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/207 "2016-12-01T05:49:44Z")
Madame was a regular fixture on panel game shows and morning TV throughout the 70s, then fell off the radar. After a brief return to stage in the early 2000s, she sadly lost her battle with dry rot in May of this year. (Puppeteer Wayland Flowers actually died of AIDS in 1988. The Madame puppet did appear in a stage show in the 2000s, though). ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/208 "2016-12-01T05:54:31Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > I haven’t read the thread, but I’ll throw in Father Guido Sarducci, Harry Anderson, and Willie Tyler and Lester. Looking up Sarducci, I was surprised to learn his sister-in-law was US Surgeon General. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/209 "2016-12-02T05:38:37Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Fawn Hall She has had a rather chaotic life in the years since, and wishes to keep her life quiet and private nowadays. > **[Fawn Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawn_Hall)** > > Fawn Hall (born September 15, 1959) is a former secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North who gained fame for her role in the Iran–Contra affair by helping North shred confidential documents. > Born in Annandale, Virginia, in 1959, Hall graduated from Annandale High School in 1977. She began working part-time in a clerical position for the United States Navy, beginning in January 1976 while she was in VGA high school. After graduating, she began working full-time for the Navy at the Pentagon.... ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/210 "2016-12-02T17:08:11Z")
Jan-Michael Vincent was famous for a tv show in the 80’s, ‘Airwolf’. His real-life story should be titled ‘Trainwreck’. Decades of alcohol and drug abuse, DWI’s. arrest after arrest, health problems, a leg amputation. Something was badly wrong with him from the get-go. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/211 "2016-12-02T17:18:10Z")
I don’t see a mention yet of Erin Moran of _Happy Days_ & _Joanie Loves Chachi_. Between the two over 250 episodes. Really went downhill. At one point living in her husband’s mother’s trailer and getting into drug problems. Her career effectively ended in 1986 and has done very few random/cameo things since. Nothing since 2010. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/212 "2016-12-02T18:27:41Z")
Chuck Muer. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/213 "2016-12-02T18:54:52Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I don’t see a mention yet of Erin Moran of _Happy Days_ & _Joanie Loves Chachi_. Between the two over 250 episodes. > > Really went downhill. At one point living in her husband’s mother’s trailer and getting into drug problems. Her career effectively ended in 1986 and has done very few random/cameo things since. Nothing since 2010. By an amazing coincidence, just today one of those clickbait things that showed up on my screen was “What Erin Moran looks like now is jaw-dropping!” I did not click on it, thus my jaw remains undropped, but I had heard that things have not gone well for Erin since the end of _Happy Days_. Sad. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/214 "2016-12-02T19:19:08Z")
Arthur Godfrey has been mentioned, but not how ubiquitous he was in the 1940’s-50’s. Not only did he host an hour-and-a-half radio talk/variety show 5 days a week, aimed at housewives, he also had a weekly talent hour on TV, not unlike _America’s Got Talent._ I think _his_ only talent was playing the ukulele, which put him one-up on Ed Sullivan. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/215 "2016-12-02T20:49:08Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Arthur Godfrey has been mentioned, but not how ubiquitous he was in the 1940’s-50’s. Not only did he host an hour-and-a-half radio talk/variety show 5 days a week, aimed at housewives, he also had a weekly talent hour on TV, not unlike _America’s Got Talent._ I think _his_ only talent was playing the ukulele, which put him one-up on Ed Sullivan. Still, Sullivan is better remembered today because he introduced America to The Beatles and provided one of the first live national broadcast appearances for Elvis Presley. Oddly enough, Elvis tried out for Godfrey’s “Talent Scouts” but failed to make the cut for the show. If that had not happened, Godfrey likely would be remembered today as the man who introduced Elvis to the world. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/216 "2016-12-02T22:23:40Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Arthur Godfrey has been mentioned, but not how ubiquitous he was in the 1940’s-50’s. Not only did he host an hour-and-a-half radio talk/variety show 5 days a week, aimed at housewives, he also had a weekly talent hour on TV, not unlike _America’s Got Talent._ I think _his_ only talent was playing the ukulele, which put him one-up on Ed Sullivan. Didn’t he also fire a guy live, on the air? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/217 "2016-12-02T22:50:44Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Didn’t he also fire a guy live, on the air? Yes, [Julius La Rosa.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_La_Rosa) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2016, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/218 "2016-12-03T04:32:39Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I don’t see a mention yet of Erin Moran of _Happy Days_ & _Joanie Loves Chachi_. Between the two over 250 episodes. > > Really went downhill. At one point living in her husband’s mother’s trailer and getting into drug problems. Her career effectively ended in 1986 and has done very few random/cameo things since. Nothing since 2010. Ice skating champion Debi Thomas has not done well either; among other things, in recent years she has been unemployed and broke despite having an MD degree. ☹ [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-mystery-of-why-the-best-african-american-figure-skater-in-history-went-bankrupt-and-lives-in-a-trailer/2016/02/25/a191972c-ce99-11e5-abc9-ea152f0b9561\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-mystery-of-why-the-best-african-american-figure-skater-in-history-went-bankrupt-and-lives-in-a-trailer/2016/02/25/a191972c-ce99-11e5-abc9-ea152f0b9561_story.html) ---
**Author:** ![alanthemanofchicago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@alanthemanofchicago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alanthemanofchicago)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/219 "2016-12-05T20:36:50Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > I was stunned when my cousin’s kids had no idea who Clark Gable was. He was just a little bit before my time, though. > > About 25 years ago, I met a couple of teenagers who thought that Mel Brooks was the voice of Bugs Bunny. I might have been slightly impressed by the fact that they confused him with Mel Blanc, except that Blanc’s death had been in the news not too long before. The Fall of the Mighty: Clark Gable’s grandson is the host of Cheaters, and was arrested a few years back for shining a laser pointer in a police chopper. My offering (can’t see if they’ve been mentioned yet) 1. Mandrell sisters 2. Jewel (the singer, not the shop) 3. S. Epatha Merkerson (sp?) - all I ever see her in since Law and Order is those cold pill commercials. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761/220 "2016-12-05T20:44:41Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Ice skating champion Debi Thomas has not done well either; among other things, in recent years she has been unemployed and broke despite having an MD degree. ☹ Her first husband (whom she married shortly after the Calgary Olympics) was a high school classmate of mine. The marriage didn’t last very long, which was likely a harbinger of things to come for her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-people-when-you-were-growing-up-who-have-completely-disappeared/772761.md?page=12)