Are they dead and gone or alive and kicking?

For those who like to get into the predicting game of which celebrity will most likely
bite the dust in the new year: a primer.
And this warning: better make sure who you think is dead is really, really dead.
Oh, and try not kill anybody along the way.


by Thomas Dimopoulos
published in The Saratogian Jan. 14 & Jan. 21, 2005

Kitty Carlisle Hart spent more than 70 years entertaining millions of people, and I killed her.

You might know her as perennial game show panelist Kitty Carlisle of 'To Tell the Truth' in the 1950s, and 'Password' and 'What's My Line?' in the '60s. She was chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts for 20 years, appeared alongside Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx in the 1935 film 'A Night at the Opera,' and with Will Smith in the movie 'Six Degrees of Separation,' 60 years later.

In Albany, at the Empire State Plaza, Gov. Pataki dedicated a theater to her, and here I was, killing her off.

When once highly visible celebrities fall off the pop culture radar screen, the natural assumption is to bury them. But at 94 years old, Hart is alive and well thank-you-very-much, and appearing in a cabaret performance at the Grassmere Estate in Rhinebeck on Jan. 29 as a press
release received here stated. Its arrival met with an 'I-thought-she-was-dead' moment.

Inspired by this, I thought it might be a good idea to take the pulse of some other celebrities of note and see how they're doing these days.

Larry Hagman? Alive.
Ernest Borgnine? Alive.
You may recall George Burns and Bob Hope both died shortly after celebrating respective
100th birthdays, but did you know that World Heavyweight Boxing Champion of 1930 Max Schmeling will be celebrating his centennial this year? (R.I.P. 2005). Or that Art Linkletter, Merv Griffin and Peggy Lee are still with us?

Remember Charo, the 'cuchi-cuchi' girl? Alive.
Eddie Albert? He's 97 and still going strong.
Art Carney has passed, as has game show host Gene 'Match Game' Rayburn - although Bob Eubanks of 'Newlywed Game' fame is still on the earthly plane.

OK, it's your turn.

Remember the Addams Family TV series? The show centered around the doings of Gomez (John Astin) and Morticia (Carolyn Jones) Addams, Lurch (Ted Cassidy) and Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan)?
Of the four main characters, who is the only one still living?
John Astin, last seen touring in his one person play, 'Edgar Allan Poe - Once upon a midnight.'

Fellow TV-era goth idol Fred Gwynne (who played Herman Munster) is gone, although Grandpa 'Al Lewis' is still very much alive.

Here's another quiz: Of the seven shipwrecked members of the 'Gilligan's Island' crew, which three are gone?

Thurston and 'Lovey' Howell (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer in real life)
and Alan 'The Skipper' Hale, Jr., all gone.

Of the 'Batman' TV series, crime-fighters Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward)
are still going at it, while bad guys The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Mr. Freeze (Otto Preminger) are gone, proving perhaps, that good trumps evil - at least in
regards to longevity.

There may be something to comedians and longevity.

Compare those tortured artists of rock 'n' roll with the characters on the cheesy TV series
'The Love Boat.'

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Kurt Cobain all died at the age of 27. The Love Boat squad meanwhile, is still cruising along, a cast that includes Captain Stubing (Gavin MacLeod) and Dr. Bricker (Bernie Kopell), to 'Gopher' Smith (Fred Grandy - a
member of the U.S. House of Representatives by the way) and Isaac the bartender (Ted Lange).

While New York City tough guy Lt. Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) and real life brother George Savalas (who played Detective Stavros) are both gone, the giddy air of 'Happy Days' survives today, a cast that includes 'the Fonz' (Henry Winkler) and Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), and Howard and Marion Cunningham (Tom Bosley and Marion Ross).

As you're making your way around the Capital Region, try not to act so surprised if you see Albany native Andy Rooney today. Don't say something like, 'Geez, you're Andy Rooney. I thought you were dead.'