the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually still alive

well what an unfortunate event to end the celebrity year, goddamn

I just don't agree that it happens every year, it's absolutely a lot more.

I went a bit mad in 2014 and made a collage of everyone from the Wikipedia deaths page for that year (this took a long time and nobody was interested, think it might be my biggest waste of time ever, I'm even ashamed to be thinking about it now) but it was actually a slow year for celebrity deaths. If I had waited two years this may have been a worthwhile project... nah, who am I fooling

https://haonowshaokao.com/2014/12/30/obituary-for-2014/

I made this yesterday

http://i.imgur.com/7PY6ewR.png

Patricia Morison

Whew. Thought this was the 2016 obit thread.

saw a couple of places "wishing a happy birthday" to carol reed & was like no fucking way, almost came to this thread but luckily I checked first and nope, dead 40 years

rick barry

joan collins

donald trump

already mentioned, but i could have sworn valerie harper had died and there had been a big to do about her death

nah you were thinking of harper lee, picked up by a valkyrie after clogpopping in #2016

that was it, definitely

Valerie Harper was diagnosed with terminal cancer some time ago but has then gone on to live for longer than people expected I think, kind of like Clive James

half of the cast of the Mary Tyler Moore show are candidates for this thread tbh, until a few minutes ago I hadn't realised that Ed Asner, Gavin MacLeod and Cloris Leachman are all still alive

cloris leachman! fabulous

this is one of my favourite threads

William Goldman

plus Norman Lear, Chuck Berry, Angela Lansbury and Herman Wouk (101!) all live to see another year

Super Bowl I MVP Bart Starr

Damn, Herman Wouk. They've shown a few What's My Line? eps on Buzzr that he's on--in the first one, it's mentioned he used to write for Fred Allen's radio show in the early '40s.

Wouk has kept a personal diary since 1937.[21] On September 10, 2008 Wouk formally presented the Library of Congress with his journals, which number more than 100 volumes as of 2012

wouk wouk wouk

Super Bowl I MVP Bart Starr

I've mentioned this before but even crazier is that the two head coaches from Super Bowl VII (1974) are still alive: Bud Grant and Don Shula, 89 and 87 respectively

Willard Scott (who isn't actually as old as I thought)

Al Alvarez

xxp that's Super Bowl VIII, although Shula was in VII too

Vera Lynn

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/01/dame-vera-lynn-to-mark-her-100th-birthday-by-releasing-album

john ashbery

ken dodd

Bobby Vinton.

I was at a quiz the other night, we were asked a question about a singer who died last year to which the answer was Bobby Vee. Subsequently got in discussion about Bobby Vinton & Bobby Vee, friend insisted both were dead. Finally decided to look it up tonight to clarify - I also sort of thought Bobby Vinton had died years ago and assumed Blue Velvet's revival was some sort of tribute, but turns out it was in an advert for Nivea.

Anyway, aye, he's 81. And not dead.

he was in a Gidget movie i watched with friends awhile back. he really sucked.

protect ya neck, Bobby Rydell!

A friend is seeing Bob Dorough (93)("3 is a Magic Number) tonight in Minneapolis.

milton berle

he dead

manuel noriega

xp - it was a while ago

Modestly famous I guess, but the production team of Bernie Orenstein and Saul Turteltaub. They wrote a bunch of episodes of That Girl and later produced the last three seasons of Sanford and Son.

86 and 84 respectively.

Not "famous" but that article going around about the passing of one of the co-founders at Waffle House at 99, where the other co-founder, also 99, is still alive, blew my mind. I mean that's the kind thing where if you'd asked me I'd have figured they'd have passed away in like 1983.

howard hodgkin :(

:( I like his work a hell of a lot more than some of the other "living legends" of Brit art.

Drag Racers Shirley Shahan & Shirley Muldowney

len deighton, spy novelist and inventor of the cookstrip

Clifton James, portrayer of stereotypical small-town sheriffs in The Silver Streak, Superman II, and two Roger Moore Bond films, is 95. His marriage is 66. Wowie.

^also a Method actor and stage purveyor of Mamet (I saw him in American Buffalo with Pacino)

He'll always be Carr from Cool Hand Luke to me...his "...spends a night in the box" monologue is all time

right!

Clifton James, portrayer of stereotypical small-town sheriffs in The Silver Streak, Superman II, and two Roger Moore Bond films, is 95. His marriage is 66. Wowie.

Which reminds me that Monty Hall is also 95 and is about to have his 70th wedding anniversary this year

hef: 91 today, smoking in any jacket

I knew he was still alive; more surprised to learn he's 91!