TV Stars: Dead or Alive?

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Do you know which of these TV stars are still with us, and which have gone to that big green room in the sky?

Marica Wallace ("Carol Kester", The Bob Newhart Show)
- Dead
- Alive
Alive

Marcia Wallace (b. 1942), who played the chatty, lovelorn receptionist from the ’70s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show, is not only still around, she is still on TV. For the past twenty-one years, Wallace has supplied the voice for another lovelorn character, Mrs. Krabapple, on The Simpsons.
Abe Vigoda ("Detective Phil Fish", Barney Miller)
- Dead
- Alive
Alive

Abe Vigoda (b. 1921), known for his stint as the crotchety old detective Phil Fish on Barney Miller and his own spin-off, Fish, is still at work, lending his voice to several video games and even making appearances in movies.
Mary Frann ("Joanna Loudon", Newhart)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

Mary Frann’s (1943-1998) biggest success was as Joanna Loudon, wife of Bob Newhart on the ’80s sitcom Newhart. Frann died in her sleep of apparent heart failure. She was 55.
George Lindsey ("Goober", The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D.)
- Dead
- Alive
Alive

Although George Lindsey (b. 1935) continues to work, he has never quite broken out of the Goober Pyle mold; he has reprised the role several times, most recently in the 1986 made-for-tv movie, Return to Mayberry.
Werner Klemperer ("Colonel Wilhelm Klink", Hogan’s Heroes)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

German-born Werner Klemperer (1920-2000) will forever be known as the inept commandant of Stalag 13 in Hogan’s Heroes, though he appeared on more than a dozen TV shows after that show ended, most memorably as Homer’s guardian angel on The Simpsons. Klemperer died of cancer at the age of 80.
Frank Gorshin ("The Riddler", Batman)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

Although Frank Gorshin (1933-2005) has more than 135 screen credits to his name and was one of the best impressionists in Hollywood, his stint as The Riddler in the 1960s TV show, Batman is by far his most memorable role. Gorshin died of lung cancer at the age of 72.
John Astin ("Gomez Adams", The Addams Family)
- Dead
- Alive
Alive

After The Addams Family, John Astin (b. 1930) has continued to play kooky, weird characters in recurring roles on several TV shows, including The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Taz-Mania, Eerie, Indiana, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and Night Court.
Barbara Eden ("Jeannie", I Dream of Jeannie)
- Dead
- Alive
Alive

Although Eden (b. 1934) starred in a few sitcoms in the early 1960s, it was I Dream of Jeannie that put her on the map. Since then she has done several TV movies, and even a guest stint on Dallas in the ’90s with her I Dream of Jeannie co-star, Larry Hagman.
Dana Plato ("Kimberly Drummond", Diff’rent Strokes)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

At the age of 14, Dana Plato became an overnight sensation in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. Her life after that TV show read more like a bad soap opera—drugs, arrests, homelessness, and even a stint in adult films. Plato died in 1999 of what appeared to be an accidental overdose, but what was later ruled a suicide.
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (Hosts, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In)
- Both Dead
- Both Alive
- Alive (Rowan) and Dead (Martin)
- Dead (Rowan) and Alive (Martin)
Both Dead

Part vaudeville act, part love-in, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In was a watershed TV program that reflected the zeitgeist of the ’60s. Hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, a comedy duo who had been touring the comedy circuit since the ’50s became megastars because of it. After the show was cancelled the team split up; Martin appeared on game shows such as Match Game before becoming a sitcom director, helming such shows as Newhart. A Type II diabetic, Dan Rowan made a few game show appearances but pretty much retired from show business. Rowan died of lymphatic cancer in 1987 at the age of 65; Martin died of respiratory failure in 2008 at the age of 86.
Ann B. Davis ("Alice Nelson", The Brady Bunch)
- Dead
- Alive
Alive

Ann B. Davis has pretty much made a career out of the character “Alice Nelson,” the Brady Bunch’s bubbly maid—she played Alice in the original show that ran from 1969 to 1974; the short-lived shows The Brady Bunch Hour (1976-1977), The Brady Brides (1981), and The Bradys (1991); not to mention a handful of cameos (as Alice) on other sitcoms and the inevitable Brady made-for-tv movies. Most recently she was seen playing Alice once again on a commercial for Swiffer.
Earl Hindman ("Wilson Wilson, Jr.", Home Improvement)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

Before he was the neighbor without a face on Home Improvement, Hindman had stints on a variety of shows from soaps (Ryan’s Hope) to action dramas (The Equalizer). Hindman passed away in 2003 from lung cancer, just four years after Home Improvement went off the air. He was 61.
Eva Gabor ("Lisa Douglas", Green Acres)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

Considered “the good Gabor” of the trio of Gabor sisters, Eva had been working in Hollywood and on Broadway since the 1930s, but it wasn’t until her stint as the ditzy socialite-turned-farmer’s-wife on Green Acres that she became a household name. After Green Acres Gabor made appearances on dozens of TV shows, from Ellery Queen to Love Boat. The youngest of the three Gabor sisters, Eva was the first to pass away, in 1995. She was 76. (Sister Zsa Zsa is the only surviving sister.)
James Arness ("Marshall Matt Dillon", Gunsmoke)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

James Arness had a fairly stable track record in Hollywood before he reluctantly accepted the role of “Matt Dillon” in the TV drama, Gunsmoke. It turned out to be the best decision of his career. Gunsmoke was on the air for twenty years (the longest-running dramatic TV show in U.S. history) and he has played the character in several made-for-tv movies. Arness retired from acting in 1994, after the last Gunsmoke movie. He passed away on June 3, 2011.
Agnes Moorehead ("Endora", Bewitched)
- Dead
- Alive
Dead

Agnes Moorehead was a big star in radio during the 1930s and ’40s; it was radio that brought her to the attention of Orson Welles. She appeared in several of his movies, including Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. Still, it was her turn as Endora, the flamboyant witch-mother of Samantha on Bewitched that made her a household name. Moorehead died in 1974 at the age of 73. Her death from uterine cancer made headlines, for a very disturbing reason. Moorehead starred in the film The Conquerer in 1956. Over the next two decades, scores of cast and crew members died of cancer, including stars Susan Hayward, Dick Powell, and John Wayne. It was discovered that the movie was filmed on a nuclear testing site and the entire set had been contaminated by nuclear fallout.