Unless she has a TV credit predating Lloyd, I still give it to him. There were many film and stage actors who came to TV in the 1950s. The pre-1950 crowd is much more select because it was still considered a step down to act on TV (which is not the same as appearing as a special guest being recognized for your film work). So an earlier film credit is noteworthy but not the same as an early TV credit.
I didn’t know “the Admiral” was still around, though. She was Howard Hughes’ special babe for years.
they also do sort of funny clip commercials. they will take clips from a number of shows with a word or phrase in the script that applies to their commercial for another show. so bits of their current shows become an commercial for another one of their shows. funny in a small way.
Pat Crowley got started on TV in 1950 – Kraft Theatre, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Ford Theatre Hour, The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre – before playing Judy Foster on A Date With Judy during the '51-'52 season; she promptly racked up two dozen other pre-'58 TV credits, including a spot on Sid Caesar’s Your Show Of Shows.
Mickey Rooney’s been acting since the '20s, and appearing on TV since the '40s, so it’s no surprise he headlined The Mickey Rooney Show starting in '54 after appearing on The Milton Berle Show, before starring in a '57 episode of Playhouse 90 as – well, a vaudeville-era entertainer who got his own television show in the '50s.
His earliest credit for TV appears to be 1952. Cites for earlier appearances? (I know IMDb isn’t necessarily complete for things like guest shots on the very early shows.)
It’s there if you check his IMDB credits under ‘self’ instead of ‘actor’.
Likewise, before Bob Elliott appeared on SNL – and long before he saw his son become an SNL castmember, and looong before he saw his granddaughter become an SNL castmember – he was half of the “Bob and Ray” comedy team, who parlayed their '40s radio show into a '50s television show before co-hosting golden-age-of-TV game show The Name’s The Same in '55 and repeatedly doing their schtick on The Ed Sullivan Show in '57, but, again, most of those aren’t listed as acting credits.
We just saw Nebraska the other night. Rance Howard was in it and checking IMDb shows he just makes the cut.
(Ron, OTOH, has a single uncredited part listed pre-1958. Not really fair to include him. But it would be nice to come up with a parent-child match here.)
It’s one thing to still be around, it’s another to still be working in Oscar nominated movies.
Maggie Smith, who has plenty of pre-1958 TV work, was up for a Golden Globe in 2013 for a movie she’d done in her spare time from turning in Golden-Globe-winning work on Downton Abbey. So she’s keeping good and busy.
Joyce Randolph (Trixie on the Honeymooners) appeared on TV in 1949 in “Famous Jury Trials” (never heard of it) and apparently will appear this year on something called "Megaball$).
The Hickman brothers are still alive. Darryl goes back to 1937 version “Prisoner of Zenda” although his most recent non documentary appearance were several episodes of “The Nanny” in the late 1990s.
Younger brother Dwayne goes back to mid 40s, had to deal with Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld on “Doble Giles” which trained him as a tv executive in the mid 80s dealing with Alan Alda and William Shatner. Last appearance was in 2005 “Angels with Angles” playing Maynard G Gilles.
No, it was a Spanish-language variation of the Patty Duke show that revolved around the antics of identical twins Giles and Giles. The actor grew up to be a goat-boy.
Joel Grey performed on The Colgate Comedy Hour a bunch of times from '51 to '54 before appearing on Ponds Theater and Producers’ Showcase and The Steve Allen Plymouth Show before he landed a recurring role on December Bride in '57. And since turning eighty, the Oscar winner has kept active on TV, from Nurse Jackie to Warehouse 13, such that he was in an episode of CSI just last month.
Oh, and Lee “Catwoman” Meriwether won the Miss America pageant on TV in 1954 by performing a dramatic monologue, which is why she spent the rest of the year acting in episodes of The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse before branching out into Matinee Theatre and The Alcoa Hour before '58, with plenty of movie roles in the works for later this year.
I can’t believe that I missed her, but Rose Marie is still alive.
She got her start in vaudeville and she was in films and on television in the 1940s and 1950s.
She’s best known as Sally from The Dick van Dyke Show.
Elaine Stritch was her usual, cranky but lovable self this morning on* Today* (she uses a wheelchair now.) Her TV career dates back to 1948 and she was one of the several actresses who played Trixie Norton.
Donna Douglas (Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies) turned 80 last September. First TV appearance, 1957. She made two pilots for a children’s show in 2005.
