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

My spelling died.

It’s buried next to mine

glynis johns, who played the mother in mary poppins, is 94

another one i was surprised by the obit for, Steve Ditko. Thought he was long gone.

Kenneth Kaunda

For some reason I had been under the impression that Dee Snider passed away a few years ago. I must have confused somebody else for him.

Possibly D. Schneider (Pat Harrington, Jr., d. 2016) from the hit CBS sitcom One Day at a Time?

glynis johns, who played the mother in mary poppins, is 94

She's also one of the handful of still-alive villains from the Batman TV series. Iirc, the others are John Astin, Joan Collins, Barbara Rush, and Julie Newmar (and Lee Meriwether, if you count the movie).

another one i was surprised by the obit for, Steve Ditko. Thought he was long gone.

2018 Ditko had put out three comics and kickstartered a Mr A 50th anniversary book before dying, meeting his usual four-comics-annually output just in the first half of the year

I think we can take it as an unspoken given that posters itt have not kept tabs on the recent activities and output of the famous person they mention.

'I am surprised that Leonardo DiCaprio, who just tweeted yesterday about wrapping his latest film, is still alive.' -- not a post we are likely to see itt

Paul Anka

Otis Rush

I think we can take it as an unspoken given that posters itt have not kept tabs on the recent activities and output of the famous person they mention.

No doubt, it's not an error or failing of anyone not to know*. I just think it's notable that this 92-year-old who hasn't been commercially successful since his '30s has spent the last five years being as productive as most alternative cartoonists were in the 1990s. Especially as many of the thread subjects have been retired for decades before their appearances herein.

*Albeit it's odder to have a specific, active opinion that someone so notable in the field you're considering did die a long time ago, vs not having thought about them at all.

Hal Linden

He was on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast a year or two back. The guest list for that show could double as this thread.

Nancy Sinatra Sr!

wtf! Was she found in that black sarcophagus?

Tommy Docherty

Lester Piggott

yeah i was mildly surprised

you can't help having the phiz you are born with, but there is an aristo-haughtiness to that ugly bassa that I always found deeply irritating. Looking at his wiki it seems his family's involvement with horse racing goes back to the 18th century, probably bred like horses in the same stables! I once ripped the piss out of a work colleague who did a tribute painting to Piggott in their workplace, it was a badly drawn montage and was entitled The King of Epsom or something like that!

Richard Hell - for some reason I thought he died around when Jim Carroll did

in solidarity?

He seems to stil be writing, did a memoir a few years ago.
Not sure about playing. I did see an interview with him when the reissue of Blank Generation happened ast year too thouogh.

yeah. You not thinking of Robert Quine?

Phil Donahue

Richard Hell still does readings a lot at local events.

John Dean

Marge Champion

Andre Previn

James Hong, Chinese-American actor. I know him from various appearances on the original Hawaii Five-O, but he was also in Chinatown, Airplane!, and a zillion other things. He was a Chinese restaurant waiter in a 1975 episode of All in the Family as well as the maître d' in the Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant." Daniel Dae Kim claims he has more credits than any other actor, living or dead.

L.Q. Jones (it's his 90th birthday)

Gervasio Gallardo - the artist who painted most of the cool covers for Ballantine's adult fantasy line in the 60s/70s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gervasio_Gallardo

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lovecraft/images/f/f3/Lovecraft-Sarnath-front.jpg

always rly loved james hong

funny bit in tank girl-- like a parody of cameos-- where a nameless character enters with face covered speaking thru a voice modulator, and then is dramatically revealed to be james hong

hope that daniel dae kim claim is true because it certainly feels right. will never forget seeing a direct-to-tv apocalyptic-space-artifact movie in the early 2000s (think maybe something was inexorably drilling towards the earth's core?) and feeling a sudden powerful premonition when someone shouted "call the chinese ambassador!"-- CUT TO the chinese ambassador staring grimly out a rainy window, and yup, sure enough

Hah, he played an Ambassador 4 times in 2000-2002 - Epoch (which I think is the one you're thinking of), Wesley-Snipes-with-a-gun The Art of War, and two episodes of The West Wing. Also Dallas, in 1981.

I like that for a new generation, he's Po's dad in Kung Fu Panda.

Roger Corman

'cheep cheep'

Roger Corman OTM.

Mavis Nicholson.

Overheard a couple talking about PJ Proby being interviewed and I thought, hang on he's dead. Nope, still going.

Hadn't heard from James Darren in a while, but he's still around and looking pretty damned good. Has been married to Miss Denmark 1958 for 58 years now.

Corman did a new Death Race in 2016 with Malcolm McDowell as an unsubtly-coiffed god-emperor of the USA

http://thenewswheel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-Chairman-Malcom-McDowell-400x222.jpg

https://i0.wp.com/scifimonkeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Screenshot-36.png

Huh, I had to look that up - he was the producer of Death Race 2050, and he has an executive producer credit on the 2018 Death Race: Beyond Anarchy. Last directed a film in 1990 (not that I'm suggesting you were suggesting that he directed Death Race 2050 - I think I misinterpreted the 'did' in your sentence.)

yes, I didn't mean to suggest that -- but he initiated the film, licensed the rights back from Universal who are still making remake-sequels regularly (that's the exec producer credit for 2018), actively produced it etc. one assumes (possibly unfairly) a lot of the Sharktopus / Pirahnaconda stuff he produces for cable is more plug-and-play into a spreadsheet template of budgets and shooting days.

(he didn't direct the original Death Race 2000 either)

Interesting - and impressive in its way, that his hucksterish impulses are still p strong at the age of 92!

Have never seen a Sharktopus/Pirahanaconda film - am I missing out?

Death Race 2050 is the only post-70s Corman anything I've seen. (It's good! Or good at what it's intending to be. I saw it projected from DVD in the back room of a pub, which was a suitable audience and setting.)

Joe Biden's mother

John mccains mother

I've has a beer, soz

I.M. Pei. 101 years old!