# Who's the oldest celebrity now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770 "2003-07-29T23:22:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![alimarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/21 "2003-07-30T17:54:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by audit1 \* > \*\*Charles Lane Character actor 98 (best known as Homer Bedloe on Pettycoat Junction > Fay Wray 95 King Kongs Friend > Leon Askin 95 General Burkhalter on Hogans Heroes > Eddie Albert 95 Green Acres \*\* Hmmm, Fay Wray aside, I just _knew_ there was a connection between bad '60s sitcoms and immortality. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/22 "2003-07-30T22:11:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rysler \* > **I can’t believe Lauren Bacall (78) has been left out thus far.** Since we’re looking for the oldest, and we’ve already named several celebrities who are in their late 90s or over 100, celebrities in their 70s aren’t even in the race. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/23 "2003-07-30T22:28:10Z")
I was just looking at this thread and thinking about my great-grandchildren looking at something similar someday: Leonard DiCaprio 109 Brittney Spears 102 Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen 97 etc. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/24 "2003-07-30T22:35:41Z")
I was just looking at this thread and thinking about my great-grandchildren looking at something similar someday: Leonard DiCaprio 109 Brittney Spears 102 Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen 97 etc. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/25 "2003-07-30T22:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kelly5078 \* > **Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen 97** Mary Kate, 97. Ashley died in that unfortunate face-lift disaster back in '38 . . . ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/26 "2003-07-30T22:49:45Z")
Since there are as many definitions of celebrity as there are posters here, I’ll move this thread to Cafe Society. The Leni Riefenstahl debate would probably be best continued in Great Debates. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/27 "2003-07-30T23:04:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by braintree \* > \*\*Leon Askin is still alive? Jeez the porker looked like a walking cardiac arrest on Hogan’s heros and he looked a lot older than Bob Hope did at the same time. Good for him. > \*\* Not only alive but doing well. He still performs on stage and television in his native Austria. He’s one of the last surviving stars of the pre-Nazi cabaret scene, worked with everyone from Billy Wilder to Marlena Dietrich to the Monkees and Gary Coleman, and went back to the country that he had to flee from (he’s a Jew; his parents were confined in Theresienstadt and murdered in Auschwitz) as an old man to resume his stage career. He played King Lear at 90 in a wheel chair and in German. I find him endlessly fascinating and would love to meet him. He’s also a newlywed and he has [his own website](http://www.askin.at/) . (Eve: he’d be a great one to interview to tap some memories before he expires.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/28 "2003-07-30T23:13:54Z")
I remember Leon Askin on PBS, an episode of Steve Allen’s _Meeting of Minds_. He played Martin Luther. I sure wish I had a copy of that episode, or any of the others in the series. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/29 "2003-07-30T23:13:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > **Robert Blake of the Our Gang comedies is not quite 70.** Unfortunately, I understand that the poor old guy recently lost his wife and now lives in a home run by the state. Here’s an oddity: When she’s in her 30s, Blake’s daughter Rose will probably be the youngest person on Earth who can say “my dad was a movie star 100 years ago.” The only others who’ll be near her age and can say the same will be Antonia and Ryan Quinn (the two youngest of the 119 known children of Anthony Quinn, born when he was 79 and 81 respectively- for perspective, Ryan Quinn is 7 years old and his older half-brother drowned in W.C. Fields’ swimming pool more than 60 years ago), though Saul Bellow’s daughter Anna will be younger than Rose Blake and able to boast that “my dad was writing MORE than 100 years ago.” ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/30 "2003-07-31T02:38:04Z")
Feb. 6, 1911 Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Ill. to Nelle Wilson and John Edward (“Jack”) Reagan. The Reagans had one previous son, Neil (“Moon”) Reagan. That’d make Ronnie 92, if you call that living. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/31 "2003-07-31T23:24:06Z")
Bruce Bennett is 97. Was in “Treasure of The Sierra Madre.” Currently the oldest living Tarzan by 21 years (Gordon Scott will be a paltry 76 in a few days). Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/32 "2003-07-31T23:28:29Z")
Maureen O’Hara is still alive and still lovely. Now 83, she’s been a major star since appearing in Charles Laughton’s THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Trivia: She’s extremely wealthy (even by celebrity standards) due to marriage and her own business sense, and Irish Gaelic, not English, was her first language. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/33 "2003-08-01T00:08:56Z")
Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe was a Negro League baseball Star for 20 years from 1928-1948. Damon Runyon gave him his nickname. He is 101. Boxer Max Schmeling is still around and is 98. In his day he was an A-List name. He won the title in 1930 in Yankee stadium. Hitler wanted to use him as sort of ‘Nazi Jesse Owens’. He fought and KO’ed Joe Lewis, who was undefeated at the time in 1936. Lewis-Schmeling II in '38 on the eve of WWII was one of the most anticipated and politically important fights of all time. FDR and Hitler met personally with each respective Boxer. Schmeling was used by but wasn’t a Nazi. In 1946 British military authorities cleared him of any complicity in war crimes. In 1993, University of Rhode Island researchers produced evidence that Schmeling put himself at great risk by hiding two Jewish teenagers in his Berlin hotel room, protecting them from Nazi violence and perhaps ultimately saving their lives. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/34 "2003-08-01T04:00:16Z")
Most people think he is already dead, but **Abe Vigoda** is still around. Born in 1921. Also, **Charlton Heston** is up there…born in 1924. If you can count former non-actor presidents on this list, **Gerald Ford** just turned 90. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/35 "2003-08-01T04:01:28Z")
On second thought, Gerald Ford did do a pretty good job of _acting_ like a president, so I guess he could be considered an actor…?? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/36 "2003-08-01T04:20:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* The only others who’ll be near her age and can say the same will be Antonia and Ryan Quinn (the two youngest of the 119 known children of Anthony Quinn, born when he was 79 and 81 respectively \*\* **119??** :eek: :eek: :eek: Can you imagine how many diaper changes that comes to? According to [the IMDB](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Quinn,%20Anthony) , he only fathered 13. Where’d you get 119 from? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/37 "2003-08-01T04:45:59Z")
He was joking, **Morgyn**. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/38 "2003-08-01T04:50:04Z")
_sigh_ I need elevator shoes, I guess. whooooooooooosssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/39 "2003-08-01T12:04:31Z")
I thought Max Schmeling was dead. I’m still looking. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770/40 "2003-08-01T12:12:07Z")
Penny Singleton from Blondie ( not the group) is still alive. Born 1908. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-oldest-celebrity-now/191770.md?page=3)