Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld had recurring roles on The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis back in '59, which (a) is admittedly the wrong side of '58, but (b) came after both of 'em had gotten TV work in '57. (Which is also true of Dobie Gillis himself – stretching back through '56 and '55 and ‘54 for ol’ Dwayne Hickman.)
Lauren Bacall, who’s 89, appeared in a live TV version of The Petrified Forest in 1955.
He just looks that way.
Oscar winner Cloris Leachman started in the late 1940s, was working TV shows regularly in the early 1950s and is still appearing as a regular on a prime time network show. Was nominated for a 2011 Emmy. She was even a contestant on Dancing With The Stars in 2005!
Doris Roberts won all those Emmys for Everybody Loves Raymond after a TV career dating back to '51 – which reminds me that Jerry Stiller, like Anne Meara, was also getting television work well before '58.
Oh, and in his twenties Dean Stockwell got pre-'58 television work – from Climax! to Matinee Theater to Schlitz Playhouse to The United Steel Hour to Wagon Train – and was still in his twenties when he landed that recurring role on Dr Kildare, and in his thirties when he popped up in episode after episode after episode after episode of Police Story, and after a lot of movies in his forties was in his fifties during Quantum Leap, followed by yet more movies in his sixties followed by yet more TV work on Battlestar Galactica in his seventies, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down, which is pretty good for someone who got his start as a child actor on the silver screen circa 1945.
Angela Lansbury appeared on Your Show Of Shows in '54, after other TV work dating back to 1950 (on Robert Montgomery Presents and Lux Video Theater).
And, after a quick check at IMDB, I see that Rose Marie is still alive and working, with pre-'58 TV credits on Gunsmoke and The Red Skelton Hour.
Don Pardo was announcing for NBC before they even had a television network.
Angela Cartwright was acting on TV as early as 1957.
James “Officer Rosco P. Coltrane” Best got plenty of work in TV westerns before 1958, from Have Gun, Will Travel to Trackdown to Red Ryder to Frontier to Annie Oakley to The Adventures of Kit Carson to The Adventures of Champion to Hopalong Cassidy to The Gene Autry Show to Buffalo Bill Jr to The Lone Ranger to Stories of the Century.
(Man, this country just could not get its fill of westerns in the '50s.)
Johnny Crawford from The Rifleman is still around. That started in '58, I believe.
I saw Norman Lloyd in something recently. He’ll be 100 this year if he makes it to November, and he has a 2014 acting credit in his IMDB filmography. He was a regular in all the early anthology shows (Kraft Theater, etc.)
David Attenborough.
He’s worked (with a few gaps) for the BBC since 1952- behind the scenes at first, then in front of the camera from 1954, and he’s still regularly presenting stuff in the UK today.
Before people figured out what Barbara Eden was put on this planet to do, she was all over the place on pre-1958 TV; in '57, during her first year as a castmember on How To Marry A Millionaire, she did an I Love Lucy episode and a Perry Mason episode and a Gunsmoke episode and so on for Bachelor Father and Crossroads and Highway Patrol and December Bride. And in '56…
Back before Honor Blackman was Pussy Galore, or even Cathy Gale, she was getting television work on Boyd QC and The New Adventures of Charlie Chan in '57, and the ITV Play Of The Week and Rheingold Theatre in '56, and The Vise in '55 and '54.
Mart Tyler Moore is still around.
Eva Marie Saint appeared in DuMont network television in the late 1940s.
Goerge Kennedy was in The Phil Silvers Show (called Bilko in syndication) in the late 1950s.
Hugh Downs really got his start in 1957 on The Jack Paar Show (aka The Tonight Show)
Holy moley. I thought George had died several years back. Good to hear he’s still with us.
Queen Elizabeth II made her first Christmas TV broadcast in 1957, and she’s still lookin’ fine on television.
Rod Serling is still around even though he died in 1975.
As is his older brother Bob who first appeared on television in 1949
Hugh O’Brian starred in “Life and Times of Wyatt Earp” 1955-61. He will be 89 in April. Wiki says he got married for the first time at age 81 and his official website says he will call you for a three minute conversation for $100.
Ummm…that’s significantly more than a porn line…so it’s likely that most people will just say “Thanks, but no…”