Thank you to still-surviving classic film stars
 

The recent passing of Richard Widmark and the related discussion in that thread got me to thinking of who might still be alive among classic film personalities of old Hollywood. Actually I’ve considered starting a discussion like this in the past but was leery of putting a hex on anyone. However, it seems discussion of these golden era stars often only comes about with their passing (and I do miss the old days when (now-retired?) DVDTalkers Vampyr, DimensionX, and others used to initiate so many classic film discussions).

So let’s have at it and give thanks for those still among us. To set some parameters, let’s go with the following two guidelines:

1) The film personality in question should have been born prior to 1929

AND

2) This individual should have been active in film or film/TV in the mid-1950s or earlier



Here are some of those that come to mind:

Karl Malden – born 1912
Eli Wallach – born 1915
Olivia de Havilland – born 1916
Kirk Douglas – born 1916
Ernest Borgnine – born 1917
Maureen O’Hara – born 1920
Mickey Rooney – born 1920
Harry Carey Jr. – born 1921
Christopher Lee – born 1922
Richard Attenborough – born 1923
Charlton Heston – born 1924
Paul Newman – born 1925
Tony Curtis – born 1925
Cliff Robertson – born 1925
Jerry Lewis – born 1926
Sidney Poitier – born 1927
L.Q. Jones – born 1927
James Garner – born 1928
Shirley Temple – born 1928



So put your thinking caps on and do some searching over at IMDb, and let’s see what we can come up with…feel free to list directors, cinematographers, music composers, character actors, etc.

He's not a classic film star, but I'm still thankful that Ennio Morricone (1928) is alive and well.

Kevin McCarthy - 1914
Harry Morgan - 1915
Olivia de Havilland - 1916
Carl Reiner - 1922
Sid Caesar - 1922

Why did I think that Karl Malden had died a few years ago? I guess I was thinking of Elia Kazan, who was so closely associated with him.

Dick Van Dyke - 1925.
And still as spry as ever(or at least he was in "Night At The Museum").

Mel Ferrer – born 1917
Joan Fontaine – born 1917 - hadn't realized she was Olivia de Havilland's sister
Nehemiah Persoff – born 1919
Ricardo Montalban – born 1920
Rhonda Fleming – born 1923
Martha Hyer – born 1924
Steve Forrest – born 1924
Leslie Nielsen – born 1926
Roger Moore – born 1927
Hardy Kruger – born 1928
Stuart Whitman – born 1928
Earl Holliman – born 1928



And to DVDTalker MoviePage, you and I were on the same wavelength in regard to Karl Malden...anyway, thumbs up that he's still kicking about.

Patricia Neal-1926
Jane Russell-1921
Esther Williams-1921
Peter Graves-1926
James Arness-1923
A little young, Elizabeth Taylor-1932/Debbie Reynolds 1932

Lauren Bacall-1924

His first film appearance was in 1926 and he has four 2008 credits listed on IMDb.

Hal Holbrook - born 1925

And though he's a 1930 birth, Clint Eastwood owns a huge debt to this list. I'm convinced that man is immortal.