Dang! She was not only one of the most iconic members of my glittering, dwindling group of 31 (now 30), but I was also meant to run her adorable picture as the featured image for the piece, my visual hood ornament for this whole unwieldy enterprise.Īfter the unfortunate Fontaine/O’Toole departure, I considered making the list shorter, but the mere thought of cutting people from a list meant to hedge against anonymity made me feel ungrateful and cold, so I continued chipping away at my bloated nostalgia choo choo train, prayerful that the cast would hold their positions and just stop dying long enough for me to finish the tribute. After weeks of toiling, I was finally about to publish it yesterday, February 11, when I read the news that Shirley Temple had passed. I lost two: Peter O’Toole and Joan Fontaine, in one week, which was both terribly sad and structurally inconvenient, forcing a rewrite. Portrait of Olivia de Havilland in “The Heiress” by AlvaroĪnd then just as the piece startled to settle-horrors-the honorees began to expire. I decided somewhat arbitrarily that in order to qualify, the actor had to have made their film debut before 1962 and preferably been under contract during the studio era. As I began my research, I was surprised at the number of times that I was unsure myself if someone was alive, which imbued my mission with an even greater sense of purpose. I immediately began to write this loving listicle of movie stars who have completely ignored Cher’s advice. One of the best moments of Cher’s last sit-down with David Letterman was her quip-and I paraphrase, “Sometimes the best career move is to die young.” This got me to thinking about some of the actors of Hollywood’s Golden Era who have not heeded Cher’s advice and are still alive.

Older movie stars still living