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

Boris Johnson

Dr. Know from Bad Brains. I guess he recovered from that serious health scare a couple of years back?

I think his health problems were 2015? Harley Flanagan did a big fundraiser for him in 2018 I think.

Jean-Luc Godard, 89. For some reason I thought he died a few years ago.

Tom Lehrer (92)

Wow, I saw birthday posts for him on Twitter and assumed they were of the posthumous type that are always about.

whoa had no idea godard was still alive

Mike Yarwood.

I am too young to remember Mike Yarwood being on TV and I will be 41 in a few months.
What has he been doing with half of his life?

He is not as old as you think for someone whose career was over 30-odd years ago.

The wikipedia entry is kind of fascinating

Yarwood career declined from the early 1980s. Most of his most famous subjects, such as Heath and Wilson, retired from public life or died and he was unable to master new prominent figures, most significantly, the country's first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher (she was played on his show by Janet Brown). As late as 1985 he was still sending up Heath, Wilson and Callaghan, years after all three had left frontbench politics. Also with the emergence of alternative comedy in the 80s which took a far more mordant and satirical attitude towards politicians (Yarwood saw himself as an all round family entertainer rather than a satirist), his career never recovered and the loss of some of his most loved characters and its fragility was directly linked to the politicians he impersonated. In addition, his battle with alcoholism and stage fright further affected his career, making him unreliable and affecting the quality of his output. It also contributed to the break-up of his marriage in 1985.[citation needed]
In February 1986, Yarwood was banned from driving for two years and fined £200 after being found to be nearly three times over the drink drive limit.[4]
His Thames TV show was cancelled at the end of 1987,[5] and he concentrated on stage work. However, subsequent attempts to resurrect his television career failed, although he did make an appearance on the satirical show Have I Got News for You in November 1995.[6]
In the mid-1990s, Yarwood had the chance to return to the stage as prime minister John Major, but failed to re-establish himself before Major's premiership ended. He claimed that one of the difficulties in impersonating John Major and Tony Blair was that they were "nice guys".

his impressions got so good you just don't spot him when he's on TV, which is all the time

Connie Francis, 81

max gillies, 78

frances sternhagen (cliff’s mother in cheers), 90

bob dole, 96

^ would make a good bumper sticker for some.

sandy nelson, 81

i keep seeing a car in my neighborhood with a bob dole '96 bumper sticker on one side and a bernie sticker on the other, and i feel just as confused every time i see it

is the car old enough for the Dole '96 to have been affixed to it in 1996? If not I figure there's a 95% chance of irony

like people born in 1996 can vote now and Bob Dole is a guy from a Viagra commercial that they are also too young to remember, basically a camp figure

i didn't know penderecki was still alive until he died

Bamber Gascoigne, I could swear he died but it seems not

Maybe J.D., they're just big fans of pineapple and chicken.

Beverly Cleary is 104 today.

Sweet Beezus!

crazy that she was born 6 months before Roald Dahl!

I'm a little surprised every time I google Walter Wangerin and find that he's still alive. he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2006 and has been staring death down as long as I've been aware of him. saw a video of him from a couple years ago where he's giving a sermon with an oxygen tank strapped to his back

Kenneth Cope

https://i.imgur.com/mmTUFEC.png

Herb Alpert, again

who is not only alive but was still playing gigs as of this year

I had the same experience when I saw the "save City Lights bookstore" notice recently on fb, Lawrence Ferlinghetti is still alive.

Saw Herb Alpert play a cabaret gig last year and he looked great and was chatty, in a good way (December 2019, which now seem like ages ago)

Quentin Blake!

'Sunshine Travellers'The first in a new series of illustrations by Quentin, drawn during lockdown #IsolationArtwork pic.twitter.com/bDnW2JYb23

— Sir Quentin Blake HQ (@QuentinBlakeHQ) May 2, 2020

William Smith, B-Movie action legend.

xp I didn't realise he was more than 16 years the junior of Roald Dahl, assumed they were roughly the same age, but of course they aren't.

By looking into many things Fred Willard today, I discovered his fellow early Second City trouper Mina Kolb is still going in her mid-90s!

I might've put Willard down as around 72, maybe 75. Not freakin' 86.

I hadn't seen him in anything for ages and was surprised how frail he appeared on Modern Family in the last ep he appeared in, but he was as hilarious as always.

think my favorite role of his was in Waiting for Gufman, but his cameo in Spinal Tap always cracks me up

French actor, Michael Lonsdale, 88 - who it turns out isn't 'French', having an English father and Irish mother, hence the name.

Eva Marie Saint, 95.

I know she is a regular on here but

Olivia de Havilland rides a bike at age 103. pic.twitter.com/TQzvCcP8yn

— Larry Karaszewski (@Karaszewski) May 25, 2020

*trike

in a skirt!!
what moxie <3

O....H MY GOD!!!

Jerry Adler, the guy who played Hesh on The Sopranos, turned 91 in February.

He also had a great recurring role on The Good Wife for its entire run AFAICR

I noticed he was still working as of last year when I checked him IMDB page. He looked very familiar to me when I watched The Sopranos the first time, five years ago, but when I look at his credits, I can't see anything that would explain that. He was part of some famous TV series, but I didn't watch any of them. Possibly Synecdoche, New York, which he did after The Sopranos but before I caught up with it, but doubtful--I don't remember anything about that film.

Paul Morrissey (82)
Joe Dallesandro (71)

I just assume all Warhol Factory types died a young and beautiful death, seems not.

Paul Morrissey didn't indulge. In anything. Funny, but I was just thinking about Gerard Malanga (77) the other day. And then there's Viva, who is 81!

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mA0MbST0-b4/VC8Wsm8zhBI/AAAAAAAACbw/bKZDumw6dgo/s1600/viva.jpg