Films with entirely dead casts

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

As long promised. So, go on, what do you have?

 

Lifeboat (1944) has 10 castmembers listed on IMDB, all of them have confirmed death dates (the last surviving actor would have been Mary Anderson, who died in 2014)

 

I was going to say "well, obviously, Swimming to Cambodia counts" - one actor, and he killed himself 15 years ago. However, there is archive footage in the film taken from The Killing Fields, and Sam Waterston is still with us and being mildly entertaining in mildly entertaining sitcom Grace and Frankie.

 

The travails of us failing to clarify if everyone from 12 Angry Men is dead can be found here. In short: almost certainly, but we can't prove it.

 

So what can you prove DL?

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

We're waiting on George Segal to go before we can cross Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) off the list: the other five castmembers (Taylor, Burton, Sandy Dennis and two extras) are all gone.

 

I've not seen Heaven Knows Mr Allison (1957)... has anyone watched it? It does only have two actors (Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, both long gone), but apparently the movie ends with a military invasion? Does it count? 

 

And then, if that doesn't count, does the scene when they walk out of the courtroom right at the end of 12 Angry Men and some other people walk past mean that we're a lot further than one person away from crossing that film off?

[msc 18,436]

Despite coming out after Gone with the Wind and Oz, His Girl Friday (1940) is 100% dead for speaking parts iirc. Of course, the youngest cast would be super-centenarians now, even if a bunch of them died fairly young.

 

For 1950s, what about Guys and Dolls? That must be close here.

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

I checked Guys and Dolls a little while ago when the missus was watching it. Obviously it's a clean sweep at the top, but Renee Renor (the singer who performs "A Woman In Love") has very little information online about her. Certainly no death date.

 

 

[Joey Russ 7,220]

I thought that On The Waterfront would be quite close to a clean sweep. Only two actors, both uncredited, are alive as far as I can tell, Katherine MacGregor and Nehemiah Persoff. Though there is another person who I have no idea on whether they’re alive or dead, and that’s Ben Wagner, who played Joey Doyle. I assume that he’s dead, but does anyone have any evidence that we can be certain that he’s dead? 

[Death Impends 7,955]

Revisiting that old post of Ulitzer's

 

On 4/17/2009 at 21:04, Ulitzer95 said:

Not really sure if this belongs here but here are some of the last survivors of early Hollywood films... I got really bored so I spent ages going through IMDb rounding these up...

 

1930s

 

 

**Dracula (1931)... Carla Laemmle (born 1909) - last surviving cast member

**Frankenstein (1931)... no surviving cast members

**M (1931)... Hanna Meron (born 1923) - last surviving cast member

**Freaks (1932)... no surviving cast members; Josephine Joseph (born 1913) may still be living although it seems unlikely

**The Mummy (1932)... no surviving cast members

**Duck Soup (1933)... no surviving cast members

**The Invisible Man (1933)... Gloria Stuart (born 1910) - last surviving cast member

**King Kong (1933)... difficult to tell but at least 2 surviving cast members - John Crawford (born 1920) / Malcon Potts (born 1925)

**Bride of Frankenstein (1935)... Mary Stewart (born 1914) - last surviving cast member

**Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)... no surviving cast members

**A Star is Born (1937)... Leon Holmes (born 1913) - last surviving cast member

**Bringing Up Baby (1938) - 2 surviving cast members - Buster Slaven (born 1922) / Karl Slover (born 1918)

 

1940s

 

**Pinocchio (1940)... Dickie Jones (born 1927) - last surviving cast member

**Casablanca (1942)... Madeline LeBeau (born 1923) - last surviving cast member

 

1950s

 

**The African Queen (1951)... Theodore Bikel (born 1924) - last surviving cast member

 

 

I'll add more the next time I get hideously bored.... additions and corrections welcome...

 

I believe all of the following are down to a clean sweep now as far as IMDB listed casts go. FWIW Mary Stewart turned out to have died in the 90s and Josephine Joseph now has a 1960s death date on IMDB. Leon Holmes has no death date but the trivia section says he's believed to have died in the 50s.

 

Ulitzer's post also mentioned Citizen Kane survivors, at a glance two of the names there have no IMDB death date (Frances E. Neal and Edward Ryan) but I recall when Kathryn Trosper died the articles were adamant she was the last survivor of the Kane cast. So another toughie...

[Death Impends 7,955]

3 minutes ago, Joey Russ said:

I thought that On The Waterfront would be quite close to a clean sweep. Only two actors, both uncredited, are alive as far as I can tell, Katherine MacGregor and Nehemiah Persoff. Though there is another person who I have no idea on whether they’re alive or dead, and that’s Ben Wagner, who played Joey Doyle. I assume that he’s dead, but does anyone have any evidence that we can be certain that he’s dead? 

 

OTW also still has a living major cast member, Joey! Eva Marie Saint.

[time 8,586]

2 minutes ago, Joey Russ said:

I thought that On The Waterfront would be quite close to a clean sweep. Only two actors, both uncredited, are alive as far as I can tell, Katherine MacGregor and Nehemiah Persoff. Though there is another person who I have no idea on whether they’re alive or dead, and that’s Ben Wagner, who played Joey Doyle. I assume that he’s dead, but does anyone have any evidence that we can be certain that he’s dead? 

Eva Marie Saint will be most disappointed you've killed her off.(As would I, she's in one of my teams).

 

Can't help with Ben Wagner though.

[Joey Russ 7,220]

2 minutes ago, Death Impends said:

 

OTW also still has a living major cast member, Joey! Eva Marie Saint.

Whoops. Wasn’t showing on the IMDB page for me for some reason, and I thought I already clicked on all the articles that Wikipedia shows, but I missed her apparently. Tbf, I am not feeling the greatest today, so that might’ve been part of the reason I missed her...

[msc 18,436]

 

6 minutes ago, Death Impends said:

 So another toughie...

 

Mind you, you know what'd be a toughie here? Symbiopyschotaxiplasm Take One! 

[Torva Messor 278]

Rose Marie's December 2017 death means now that all the cast of 1933's International House have left us.

[Handrejka 1,903]

I believe everyone who was in Blithe Spirit (1945) is dead. 

 

Edit - Just checked they are all dead. Jacqueline Clarke was the one I wasn't sure about but she died in 1994.   

[Prophet 251]

I think every actor from A Trip to the Moon (1902) has died.

[Toast 16,129]

In one of the only two threads that I have started on here, we are keeping a watch on the cast of A Night To Remember (1958).

[Death Impends 7,955]

7 minutes ago, Prophet said:

I think every actor from A Trip to the Moon (1902) has died.

 

I think we can safely assume any film released before 1918's Station Content has achieved the clean sweep. (Station Content still has one surviving cast member nearly a century later, as Fay McKenzie appeared in it when she was only a few weeks old, and turns 100 in two weeks!)

[Drewsky1211 4,729]

Last time I checked, The Wizard of Oz has only two known living cast members.

Jerry Maren (the green Lollipop Guild member; born 1920) and Caren Marsh Doll (dancing stand-in for Judy Garland; born 1919).

[Mad Hatter2 85]

3 hours ago, Spade_Cooley said:

We're waiting on George Segal to go before we can cross Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) off the list: the other five castmembers (Taylor, Burton, Sandy Dennis and two extras) are all gone.

 

Based on watching the Goldbergs I can tell you that its going to be a long before George Segal shuffles this earthly coil. 

[Handrejka 1,903]

I thought we could cross of Kind Hearts and Coronets as well but Jeremy Spenser still seems to be alive though he hasn't acted for 50 years. There's also this guy who doesn't have a d.o.d so it's always going to be in limbo.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0384545/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t23

 

There must some episodes of TV shows were all cast members are dead. I'm thinking some episodes of Porridge (original), Steptoe and Son and The Man in Room 17. 

[The Ashes Urn 1,354]

Singin' in the Rain has only one living cast member: Rita Moreno.

[SSWDeathlistfan1996 27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)

 

Anyone mention the original oz?

[the_engineer 1,415]

When Olivia de Havilland dies I imagine a fair few movies from 1930s will lose the last cast member.

 

Interesting a movie from 1966 is close to a clean sweep.

 

The problems we're having with old movies can still happen with more modern ones too. Take Blair witch project 1999 only ten cast members 1 is already dead and 4 other cast members only appeared in that movie with no info on them.

 

Another one to keep an eye on is cube 1997 only  7 cast members in it one already dead.

 

For the 1st movies in the 21st century (1st Jan 2001) to lose all their cast I'd say:

 

(Tape 2001)  uma Thurman , Ethan hawke and Robert Sean Leonard only cast members all alive

 

(Open water 2003) 8 cast members all alive

 

 

[Bentrovato 1,085]

Plays as films:

 

"Give 'em Hell Harry". 1975. Sole cast member listed as James Whitmore who passed in 2009.

 

"Sleuth" has only Michael Caine to go. But "Deathtrap" has himself and Dyan Cannon (born 1937).

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

Murder By Death (1976) is the kind of film we're after - remote county house setting means that there's no extras or crowd scenes, and it has a very high star ratio for its cast (including, yes, Peter Falk). Only three actors still with us as well. who all play sidekicks in the film: Maggie Smith, James Cromwell and Richard Narita.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

7 hours ago, Bentrovato said:

Plays as films:

 

"Give 'em Hell Harry". 1975. Sole cast member listed as James Whitmore who passed in 2009.

 

"Sleuth" has only Michael Caine to go. But "Deathtrap" has himself and Dyan Cannon (born 1937).

 

 

Ah Dyan Cannon - totally forgot she's with us and into her ninth decade; thanks for that

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

Here's one: Lady and the Tramp, 1955. Now, you'd assume skimming the cast list that, with the death of Stan Freberg in 2015, the cast is all gone. However, the "dogs at the pound" were played by the vocal group The Mellomen, who featured, among others, Thurl "Tony the Tiger" Ravenscroft.

 

Now assuming the Mellomen line-up in the film was the 1955 line-up, we know Max Smith died in 1999 and Ravenscroft in 2005. But Bob Hamlin vanishes after he left the Mellomen, and even the Disney fansites don't have a clue. Anyone got a lead?

 

Side note: The Mellomen were also the first act to release R&B records under the Columbia imprint, despite former Deathlist favourite Mitch Miller attempting to sabotage the project.