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People You Thought Were Dead

You've both just googled him haven't you? You're tempting fate, y'know.
Nope. God help me but some algorithm on Facebook decided when the tickets went on sale that was an advert I needed to see. Needless to say Cliff's music is not my normal choice of listening.
 
I'm probably tempting fate but I was watching Bullitt last night and wondered if composer Lalo Shiffrin was still alive. He is and is 90.
 
For reasons I can't remember, I checked to see if Tommy Steele was still alive earlier this week. He was: aged 85 and still married to Ann his wife of 62 years. Haven't seen any updates since.
Princess Anne's heart-throb when she was a teenager apparently (see post #873 & #878). Tommy should still be good for a few more years.
 
So I had a night filled with some bizarre dreams featuring actually really rather mundane things last night, none of which I can remember in any great detail so not worth posting in the 'dreams' thread.
But I did have one scene in which these two guys were talking to each other (as though I was watching it on a TV) and they were talking about the 'hits' they had written together, and listed some of them, and were then saying about one of their best songs was originally going to be called something like "The way you make me love you" but that it felt awkward and didn't 'scan' properly, so they changed the title to "The way you do the things you do".

Now, upon waking this morning, the words were stuck in my head, along with a snippet of music that I thought matched it.
So I looked it up. It was written by 'Robert Rogers / William Robinson Jr.' for The Temptations in 1964.
William Robinson Jr is, of course, Smokey Robinson.
And I thought "I'm sure he carked it 5 or 6 years ago?"
Nope. Still going at 82.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson

Or at least he was, at the time of writing this.
 
Oh, and I just Googled Kenneth Cope - not to wish the Curse of the Forteana Forum upon him, but because I wanted to double check his age.

He's 91.

I'm so sorry, Kenneth...
 
Oh, and I just Googled Kenneth Cope - not to wish the Curse of the Forteana Forum upon him, but because I wanted to double check his age.

He's 91.

I'm so sorry, Kenneth...

Thank you! I remembered the reason: Mike Pratt.

Me said:
For reasons I can't remember, I checked to see if Tommy Steele was still alive earlier this week. He was: aged 85 and still married to Ann his wife of 62 years. Haven't seen any updates since.

I googled the other half of Randall and Hopkirk and Wikipedia told me he was a successful musician and songwriter as well as an actor and that "Pratt collaborated with Lionel Bart and Tommy Steele on many of Steele's early hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s"
 
The death of Bill "Arthur Fowler off of Eastenders" Treacher was announced yesterday - I was sure he died about 10 years ago.
So did I! Thought it was cancer - but actually I must have been thinking of Pete Beale.
 
I was really surprised when I saw Bill Treacher’s death announced yesterday too as I was absolutely convinced he‘d passed in the early 2000s.

For years both my husband and I thought Connie Booth had tragically died in her late forties, no idea why.
 
Some time in around 2010 or 2011, I am watching Frenzy with a friend. 'Isn't it a shame Jon Finch died so young' I say several times throughout the film as I was convinced he died in his 40s. I get home and check to see when and how he died only to discover he was still alive.
Fast forward to New Years Day 2013 and I relate this story to someone and add 'We'll probably find out he died over Christmas now'. He did indeed die in December 2012 though it wasn't announced until later on in January 2013.
 
I wondered where they had got to. Glad I was able to loan them to you so you could complete your set

Yes had them for ever and ever and eeeeeeeverrrrrr.
 
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There was low-level panic on Twitter today because David Soul was trending (he's fine, btw), and I was absolutely convinced that either Paul Michael Glaser and/or Antonio Fargas were already dead.

Nope, turns out they're both still around too. No idea who I'd got either of them confused with.
 
There was low-level panic on Twitter today because David Soul was trending (he's fine, btw), and I was absolutely convinced that either Paul Michael Glaser and/or Antonio Fargas were already dead.

Nope, turns out they're both still around too. No idea who I'd got either of them confused with.
David Soul looked like death last time I saw him.
 
There was low-level panic on Twitter today because David Soul was trending (he's fine, btw), and I was absolutely convinced that either Paul Michael Glaser and/or Antonio Fargas were already dead.

Nope, turns out they're both still around too. No idea who I'd got either of them confused with.
Paul's wife and child died years ago from HIV via a blood transfusion. I wonder if that had got mixed up in your memory perhaps?
 
There was low-level panic on Twitter today because David Soul was trending (he's fine, btw), and I was absolutely convinced that either Paul Michael Glaser and/or Antonio Fargas were already dead.

Nope, turns out they're both still around too. No idea who I'd got either of them confused with.
Back in the day he was often compred to Dennis Waterman who died recently. Both blonde, had recorded songs and played a TV detective.
 
Thank you! I remembered the reason: Mike Pratt.
I googled the other half of Randall and Hopkirk and Wikipedia told me he was a successful musician and songwriter as well as an actor and that "Pratt collaborated with Lionel Bart and Tommy Steele on many of Steele's early hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s"
Recently, I've been watching the 'original' Father Brown series with Kenneth Moore, on You Tube. I saw a heavily made-up face that I thought I recognised and waited for the credits - yup, it was Mike Pratt playing an elderly American frontiersman and indian hunter.

Incidentally, every time I hear of a celebrity death, I think "Oh ... I did think they were dead already!"
 
I know what you mean. F'r instance, in the Petherbridge productions of Lord Peter Wimsey, his trademark Lagonda rarely started and had to be filmed either running down a shallow slope or after the crew had given it a damn good shove! As soon as it did start, they hurriedly changed the shooting schedule to parts where the car had to be seen to move. :)
 
I thought Pope Benedict XVI died years ago (after he stood down from being Actual Pope to become Not Exactly Pope) - turns out he's still alive, but very sick, according to a quick Google...
 
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