Happy 91st to Nancy Olson, the last surviving cast member of "Sunset Blvd."
Sunday, July 14, 2019 at 11:31AM by Nathaniel R
It seems like we've been losing lots of Classic Hollywood people in the past year so we wanted to wish Nancy Olson of Sunset Blvd a very happy and healthy 91st birthday today. She's the last surviving member of that stone cold classic which netted her an Oscar nomination when she was just 22. Olson was such a success in Sunset Blvd that she went on to be paired with co-star William Holden in a few more pictures. Olson has long since retired, her last significant acting gig being in the shortlived primetime soap opera "Paper Dolls" in the 1980s.
Olson's birthday, paired with Olivia de Havilland's incredible 103rd birthday earlier this month (wow) got us thinking about who is still with us from all time classics pre-1960s because there aren't a lot of them *sniffle*. So after the jump, a quick perusal of some gigantic classics and the (credited) cast members who are still around to be endlessly grilled about them...
Last Surviving Cast Members of Gone With the Wind (1939)
Olivia de Havilland as "Melanie Hamilton Wilkes" (103 years old)
Mickey Kuhn as "Beau Wilkes" (86 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Members of Mrs Miniver (1942)
Clare Sanders as "Judy Miniver" (83 years old)
Christopher Severn as "Toby Miniver (83 years old)
The two smallest Miniver children are still with us...
Last Surviving Cast Member of Meet Me in St Louis (1944)
June Lockhart as "Lucille Ballard" (94 years old)
Margaret O'Brien as "Tootie Smith" (82 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Member of Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Nancy Olson as "Betty Schaefer" (91 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Member of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Mickey Kuhn as "The Helpful Sailor" (86 years old). This famous child and teen star of the 1930s and 1940s hit the end of his acting career by the mid 50s in his twentysomething years but he holds the fascinating distinction of being the only actor to share screen time with Vivien Leigh in both of her iconic Oscar-winning roles!
Last Surviving Cast Member of Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rita Moreno as "Zelda Zanders" (87 years old)... though we should probably note that there are a lot of uncredited people in this movie so perhaps a random extra or background dancer is still alive!
Last Surviving Cast Member of On the Waterfront (1954)
Eva Marie Saint as "Edie Doyle" (95 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Members of The King and I (1956)
Rita Moreno as "Tuptim" (87 years old)
Rex Thompson as "Louis Leonowens" (76 years old) -his acting career basically ended after his teenage years
Patrick Adiarte as "Prince Chulalongkorn" (76 years old) - this young Filipino actor later had some success on television with recurring roles on both The Brady Bunch and M*A*S*H but he quit the latter (and apparently acting altogether) after the first season to attend college.
Four of the Seven Brides are still with us!
Last Surviving Cast Members of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Jane Powell as "Milly Pontipee" (90 years old)
Russ Tamblyn as "Gideon Pontipee" (84 years old)
Tommy Rall as "Frank 'Frankincense' Pontipee" (89 years old)
Ruta Lee as "Ruth Jepsen" (84 years old)
Julie Newmar as "Dorcas Gaylen" (85 years old)
Jacques D'Amboise as "Emphrain Pontipee" (84 years old)
Nancy Kilgas as "Alice Elcott" (88 years old)
There's so many of them still. The cast was young, but still: Musical theater is good for your health!
Last Surviving Cast Members of Giant (1956)
Carrol Baker as "Luz Benedict II" (88 years old)
Earl Holliman as "Bob Dace" (90 years old)
Fran Bennett as "Judy Benedict" (84 years old)
Elsa Cardenas as "Juana Benedict" (83 years old)
Noreen Nash as "Lona Lane" (95 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Member of Vertigo (1958)
Kim Novak as "Madeleine/Judy" (86 years old)
Haya Harareet, an Israeli actress, co-starred in Ben-Hur (1959)
Last Surviving Cast Member of Ben-Hur (1959)
Haya Harareet as "Esther" (87 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Member of Psycho (1960)
Vera Miles as "Lila Crane" (89 years old)
Joanna Barnes in the center from Spartacus though she's surely best remembered today as the would be stepmother in "The Parent Trap"
Last Surviving Cast Members of Spartacus (1960)
Kirk Douglas as "Spartacus" (102 years old)
Joanna Barnes as "Claudia Marius" (84 years old)
Last Surviving Cast Members of The Apartment (1960)
Shirley Maclaine as "Fran Kubelik" (85 years old)
Hope Holiday as "Mrs Margie McDougall" (85 years old)
Reader Comments (13)
Here’s a few more:
Gaslight (1944)
Angela Lansbury
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Margaret O’Brien
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Karolyn Grimes- the daughter (“Look, Daddy! Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!”)
S2
I've noticed that about older movies - only the star names are mentioned in the closing credits- it's not like today in which closing credits seem to run on longer than the movie and and everyone seems to have a listing
Thank you and God bless them!
I know she's a celeb and probably has quite a bit of money (which always helps), but Eva Marie Saint always looks stunning.
Is Margaret O’Brien still around for MMISt.L?
TOM -- she is, yes
I loved it when Eva Marie Saint and Rita Moreno presented awards at recent Oscar ceremonies. They need to call up Margaret O'Brien, Jane Powell, and/or Russ Tamblyn to present in 2020. Maybe Tamblyn because of the West Side Story remake.
The 30 oldest Oscar nominated actors and actresses are Olivia de Havilland (103), Kirk Douglas (102), Glynis Johns (95), Eva Marie Saint (95), Cicely Tyson (94), Hal Holbrook (94), Cara Williams (94), Lee Grant (93), Angela Lansbury (93), Cloris Leachman (93), Sidney Poitier (92), Rosemary Harris (91), Estelle Parsons (91), Stuart Whitman (91), Nancy Olson (91), Ann Blyth (90), Terry Moore (90), Max von Sydow (90), Don Murray (89), Fernanda Montenegro (89), Joan Plowright (89), June Squibb (89), Christopher Plummer (89), Gene Hackman (89), Joanne Woodward (89), Clint Eastwood (89), Gena Rowlands (89), Sean Connery (88), Armin Mueller-Stahl (88), and Robert Duvall (88)
And the 30 oldest Oscar winning actors and actresses: De Havilland, Saint, Grant, Leachman, Poitier, Parsons, Plummer, Hackman, Woodward, Connery, Duvall, Olympia Dukakis (88), Rita Moreno (87), Joel Grey (87), Ellen Burstyn (86), Michael Caine (86), Alan Arkin (85), Shirley Jones (85), Shirley MacLaine (85), Louise Fletcher (84), George Chakiris (84), Sophia Loren (84), Judi Dench (84), Maggie Smith (84), Julie Andrews (83), Glenda Jackson (83), Louis Gossett Jr. (83), Vanessa Redgrave (82), Jack Nicholson (82), and Morgan Freeman (82). Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen would have made the list, but their Oscar wins weren't for acting.
West Side Story (1961)
-Richard Beymer (Tony), 81
-Russ Tamblyn (Riff), 84
-Rita Moreno (Anita), 87
-George Chakiris (Bernardo), 84
-Tony Mordente (Action), 83
-Eliot Feld (Baby John), 77
-Bert Michaels (Snowboy), 75
-Robert Banas (Joyboy), 85
-Harvey Evans (Mouthpiece), 78
-Susan Oakes (Anybodys), 75
-Gina Trikonis (Graziella), 80
-Carole d'Andrea (Velma), 82
-Gus Trikonis (Indio), 81
-Yvonne Wilder (Consuelo), 81
-John Astin (Glad Hand), 89
It seems David Bean (Tiger), Jay Norman (Pepe), Eddie Verso (Juano), Jaime Rogers (Loco), Nick Covacevich (Toro), Joanne Miya (Francisca), and Maria Jimenez Henley (Teresita) still may be living, but I can't verify that, nor their ages. And it seems David Winters (A-Rab) passed away this past April. RIP.
Patricia Hitchcock from Psycho is still kickin', and slightly older than Ms. Miles. Haven't seen an interview with her in a while, but she's always a lot of fun discussing her dad's movies.
Olson’s chemistry with Holden is one of my favorite things about Sunset Blvd.