8mo ago

Which celebrity were you sure had already passed away but has not?

A family member put on a game show that included Brian Blessed and I commented it 'must be old as he's been dead for a while'?

Nope. 88 and going strong.

Who else has surprised you?

78 comments

Dick van Dyke turns 99 in a few weeks.
- I swear to God he's the first person that came to mind, and here it's currently the first post - thank you for reminding me that he's still alive!
  
  Kick your knees up, step in time!

Bob Barker only died a year ago. I thought for a long time he had gone in, like, 2010 or so.

James Earl Jones prior to him actually passing away.
- Yes. I think his character dies in one of the Jack Ryan films (clear and present danger?) and for years my brain thought that was real life..

Donald trump. Unfortunately.
- You... thought Donald Trump was dead? Unless you don't live on this planet, I don't believe you.
  
  Might have been a joke.

I had the opposite situation with Jim Varney/Ernest. I was so sad when I found out why there weren't any new Ernest films at the time :(
- jim varney was a gem. he also made an amazing jed clampett in the beverly hillbillies movie. just an all around funny guy. he reminded me a little of jim carrey in the way they portray physical comedy all over their face.
  
  True story. His brother inspected my house. Very very thorough and very very serious guy, which I suppose is what you want in a home inspector.
  Suffice to say, Jim took all of the funny gene in that family.

Whenever we would hear "Crimson and Clover" growing up, my dad would comment how Tommy James (the singer) killed himself in the 70s. Cut to like 5 years ago when I see Tommy James, in his 70s, still kickin', on some random public access programming lol.
My dad has been repeating this "fact" for so many years that there's a solid chance he's forgotten it isn't true and still says it whenever he hears "Crimson and Clover."
- Tommy Lee Jones is gay.

Morgan Freeman.
Though in hindsight I realized he probably would've given his own eulogy.

In a conversation the other day the film Contempt came up, and we looked up the movie and were surprised Brigitte Bardot is still around at 90.

Brian Blessed (88) is still alive, so is John Rhys-Davies (80). But we did lose large, loud, Scotish actor Robbie Coltrane (72). :(

The day James Earl Jones died I was talking to my girlfriend about him and wondered if he was still alive.
He was.
30 minutes later he died. Literally 30 fucking minutes.
I feel like I manifested it..
- He was probably dead when you thought of it, it just hadn't been announced yet. You didn't manifest it, you felt a disturbance in the Force.

Somewhat related: there's a classic electro clash song Frank Sinatra by Miss Kittin & The Hacker that came out in 1998, with cynical/funny lyrics:
We talk about Frank Sinatra "You know Frank Sinatra?" He's dead! Dead Hahahahaha.
Except he wasn't dead yet, unbeknownst to the band, for another three months.

The biggest shock for me was Vera Lynn. She recorded her biggest hit song in 1939, and I was most familiar with it from the ending of Dr. Strangelove from 1964, and the Pink Floyd song, "Vera", from 1982. I guess people in the UK would've known better, but the song implied a long-bygone time, so of course she had to be dead by the '90s, right?
Imagine my shock when she released a new compilation album in 2014, while still very much kicking.

Lionel Richie and anyone who was bald or over 30 when I was less than 10. Like Steve Ballmer

I'm not sure why I thought this, but I thought Carole King died in the late 80s. Nope, she's still kickin'.

I know this isn't exactly what this is for as this person is dead, but i was certain harold reimis (egon from ghostbusters) died in the early 90s but it turned out he died in 2014. I had it in my head that they didnt make a ghostbusters 3 back in the 90s because he had died.