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Famous People - Alive or Dead?

Can you guess whether these celebrities and world leaders are still with us?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: August 14, 2022
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First submittedAugust 17, 2019
Times taken49,904
Average score75.0%
Rating4.19
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1. Elizabeth Taylor
Alive
Dead
d. 2011
2. Willie Nelson
Alive
Dead
3. Margaret Thatcher
Alive
Dead
d. 2013
4. Rick Moranis
Alive
Dead
5. Martin Sheen
Alive
Dead
6. Lucille Ball
Alive
Dead
d. 1989
7. Sophia Loren
Alive
Dead
8. Nick Nolte
Alive
Dead
9. Patrick Swayze
Alive
Dead
d. 2009
10. Ian McKellen
Alive
Dead
11. Judi Dench
Alive
Dead
12. Catherine Zeta-Jones
Alive
Dead
Very much alive. Born in 1969.
13. Carrie Fisher
Alive
Dead
d. 2016
14. Neil Armstrong
Alive
Dead
d. 2012
15. Muhammad Ali
Alive
Dead
d. 2016
16. Keith Richards
Alive
Dead
17. John Cleese
Alive
Dead
18. Boris Yeltsin
Alive
Dead
d. 2007
19. Rodney Dangerfield
Alive
Dead
d. 2004
20. Olivia Newton-John
Alive
Dead
d. 2022
100 Comments
+18
Level 82
Aug 17, 2019
Oops got Moranis wrong. If I kill him, do I get that fifth point?
+2
Level 85
Dec 12, 2019
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!
+1
Level 36
Sep 9, 2022
oh gosh
+1
Level 19
Sep 9, 2022
OMG!!!
+1
Level 49
Sep 9, 2022
That will count, but you will see your perfect score in prison
+1
Level 47
Dec 19, 2022
#16 is a trick questions. Keith Richards is dead but no one has the heart to tell him.
+4
Level 90
Aug 17, 2019
Broadest appeal for a pop culture quiz ever.
+10
Level 89
Aug 17, 2019
This one will need plenty of updating over the years.
+6
Level 75
Aug 19, 2019
Only 11 times. After that it can rest in peace
+2
Level 74
Aug 17, 2019
Sophia is the only one I got wrong. I hadn't heard about her in so long I was certain she was dead.
+1
Level 45
Aug 17, 2019
Good one!
+4
Level 77
Aug 17, 2019
I think I would be insulted if people thought I was dead and I was still alive
+5
Level 60
Aug 17, 2019
yes, and vice versa!
+5
Level 72
Aug 27, 2019
Interestingly, Alfred Nobel's own premature obituary caused him to feel remorse for his invention of dynamite, and spurred him on to create the Nobel Prize

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premature_obituaries

+3
Level 67
Sep 17, 2019
I think it would be an honor if random people around the world even recognized my name. Legends never die.
+1
Level 45
Aug 17, 2019
Good one-got 100%.
+19
Level 78
Aug 17, 2019
I don't see the "undead" option for Keith Richards.
+8
Level 85
Aug 17, 2019
He should count for both alive and dead.
+4
Level 78
Aug 17, 2019
That photo. I don't think I realized how much current Al Gore looks like old Boris Yeltsin.
+1
Level 69
Aug 18, 2019
Merde! I never saw it before, but you are totally right!
+4
Level 73
Aug 18, 2019
I saw John Cleese's stage show 'Last Time To See Me Before I Die.' But then he did another tour. I'm so confused!
+1
Level 74
Sep 17, 2019
I saw that show too.
+2
Level 83
Aug 19, 2019
Kirk Douglas, Donald Sutherland, Jack Nicholson, ...?

Also everybody here

+1
Level 85
Dec 9, 2019
Kirk - still alive - turns 103 today!
+1
Level 91
Feb 6, 2020
Two months later, goodbye Kirk.
+1
Level 44
Jan 1, 2021
Spoke too soon
+2
Level 79
Aug 19, 2019
I can see Keith Richards outliving everyone on this list...
+3
Level 74
Sep 17, 2019
He was on the rolling stones list of "people most likely to die this year" for like 10 years in a row before they just gave up.
+1
Level 44
Jan 1, 2021
That man will outlive life itself haha
+1
Level 83
Aug 22, 2019
17% think Lucille Ball is still alive? She'd be 108!
+4
Level 73
Aug 29, 2019
Or like me they have never heard of her.

Rodney Dangerfield could probably do with being replaced. Those of us from outside North America have limited chance of knowing who he is. I had to Google him and I still wouldn't have recognised him.

+6
Level 78
Sep 17, 2019
Yeah, like the man said, he gets no respect.
+1
Level 84
May 15, 2020
I'm from outside the USA and know of the legend that is Rodney Dangerfield. he gets no respect at all,I tells ya ,no respect at all.seriously look him up on YouTube he was great.
+2
Level 69
Sep 17, 2019
If Ian McKellen gets his 'Sir', surely Judi Dench should get her 'Dame'?
+1
Level ∞
Sep 17, 2019
Good point. Removed the "Sir" from Ian McKellen's name.
+1
Level 68
Sep 17, 2019
She has
+2
Level 22
Sep 17, 2019
19/20 with 3:21 to go. Sorry Sophia Loren, my bad.
+3
Level 75
Sep 17, 2019
Famous??? I've only heard of 4!
+4
Level 71
Sep 17, 2019
That doesn't make them not famous.
+4
Level 74
Sep 17, 2019
Interestingly, fame has nothing to do with whether or not YOU have heard of them and everything to do with the fact that millions of people do know who these people are.
+3
Level 74
Sep 9, 2022
Admittedly a lot of actors among the 20 but I still think it is incredulous that you would only have heard of 4 of these people
+2
Level 74
Sep 10, 2022
Incredible, not incredulous. Don't bother to thank me.
+1
Level 60
Sep 17, 2019
I cried a little inside as i clicked "dead" for Muhammad Ali. What an amazing person. I still can't believe he actually existed.
+3
Level 36
Sep 17, 2019
It's amazing how many people revere Mohammed Ali, and barely remember the other great fighter, Joe Frazier, whom the fictional character "Rocky" was modeled after. Ali had the gift of gab, but Frazier had the gift of jab.
+1
Level 67
Dec 9, 2019
Really? I thought the fictional Rocky was largely modeled after real life Rocky Marciano...
+1
Level 85
Dec 12, 2019
Ostensibly based upon Frazier Marciano Chuck Wepner, the "Bayonne Bleeder".
+3
Level 71
Sep 17, 2019
The picture of Boris Yeltsin looks like Al Gore in an alternate universe where he won the 2000 U.S. Presidential election
+1
Level 61
Dec 23, 2022
Al Gore IS Boris Yeltsin in an alternate universe.
+1
Level 80
Sep 17, 2019
Why am I not surprised that Keith Richards features on this list. At this point, we're all pretty much assuming that he CAN'T die.
+1
Level 74
Sep 10, 2022
I remember, when seeing him in Godard's "Sympathy For The Devil" around 1970, thinking that it was surprising even then that he was still alive.
+1
Level 66
Sep 17, 2019
Like a record, baby.
+1
Level 66
Sep 17, 2019
I am sorry, Sir Ian McKellen, I thought you were dead.
+1
Level 68
Sep 18, 2019
LOL Keith Richards! He cannot NOT be in such a list even if everybody knows that he can't die! As for Dangerfield I didn't know who the hell he was either (I'm from Italy). After I googled him I instantly recognized his face, even remembered a couple movies he did, I just didn't know that that face was called Rodney Dangerfield.
+3
Level 81
Sep 18, 2019
Are we voting on whether or not these people get to live?
+1
Level 90
Dec 8, 2019
Well, seeing as I always get Ian McKellen wrong, whoever he is. It would help me get 100%.
+1
Level 57
Dec 9, 2019
do you seriously not know who he is? XMen and he said You shall not pass!
+1
Level 90
Mar 16, 2020
Still no clue. I know X-Men has a guy with ridiculous sideburns and Halle Berry has white hair. I don't watch computer animation except an occasional bona fide cartoon and cannot stand comic book crap.
+1
Level 90
Mar 16, 2020
Iron Man was made for this quiz however.
+1
Level 81
Sep 9, 2022
Yeah, he wouldn't know. IAH has made a point of letting everyone know, repeatedly, often multiple times on the same quiz, that he doesn't watch good movies. So he has likely never seen anything accomplished and beloved actor Sir McKellen was in, but he will go on for paragraphs about how horrible whatever movie starring him (that he hasn't seen) was.
+2
Level 85
Sep 9, 2022
To paraphrase Wikipedia: The title Sir is used with the holder's given name or full name, but never with the surname alone. So, whilst Sir Ian and Sir Ian McKellen would be correct, Sir McKellen is not.
+1
Level 81
Sep 9, 2022
I care about this a lot. Thanks.
+3
Level 85
Dec 12, 2019
Just wanted to point out that Willie Nelson is still not dead again today.
+1
Level 61
Dec 20, 2020
Duly noted. Not today either.
+2
Level 71
Sep 9, 2022
He astonishes me. He's 89 years old and still out there pumping out albums (of which he has 72!) and touring all over the place. Honestly though, good for him. I'm glad he's happy and healthy enough that he's still able to devote time to the thing he loves most.
+1
Level 43
Jan 28, 2020
I wish Patrick Swayze was still alive.
+2
Level 57
Apr 28, 2020
Wow - several of these I'd never heard of, but I still got them right! Must be my lucky day. Willie Nelson... Rodney Dangerfield... Carrie Fisher... I am so ignorant
+1
Level 61
Dec 20, 2020
You're not ignorant just because you haven't heard of every person on a random list. Carrie Fisher was Debbie Reynolds' daughter, and I'm guessing many people won't know her either.
+4
Level 66
Jun 28, 2021
I think Carrie Fisher was famous for reasons beyond being someone's daughter lol
+1
Level 74
Sep 10, 2022
And her mother Debbie died a day after Carrie died.
+1
Level 68
Jan 26, 2021
Soon all of these people will be dead...uh oh
+2
Level 79
Sep 9, 2022
Zeta-Jones will probably be alive in 40 years!
+2
Level 66
Jun 28, 2021
Not me confusing Yeltsin for Gorbachev (who is amazingly still alive at the age of 90)
+1
Level 70
Feb 17, 2022
Yeah facts
+3
Level 90
Sep 9, 2022
Not anymore.
+1
Level 44
Jul 22, 2021
Dunno anyone except Elizabeth Taylor, Neil Armstrong and Margaret Thatcher. Just called everyone dead except Taylor.
+3
Level 70
Feb 17, 2022
Interesting, you should watch more movies lol
+1
Level 70
Feb 17, 2022
Wait I actually didn't know Patrick Swayze was dead, also missed Boris Yeltsin
+2
Level 69
Aug 9, 2022
Sadly needs updating for Olivia Newton-John...
+2
Level 93
Aug 14, 2022
RIP OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN
+1
Level ∞
Aug 14, 2022
Updated
+5
Level 79
Sep 9, 2022
Unless someone dies in an unforeseen comedic way, this quiz is just going to get more depressing with time. Why not add Putin or Bill Cosby to give us something to root for?
+10
Level 64
Sep 9, 2022
this on the front page cos the queen died LMAOO
+1
Level 77
Sep 9, 2022
rotfl lawlawl
+2
Level 74
Sep 9, 2022
33 % thought Rick Moranis is dead? Odd. Maybe they were thinking about Harold Ramis.
+1
Level 82
Sep 9, 2022
I won’t lie, being a teenager who hasn’t seen a lot of movies, I don’t know who half these people are and was just randomly guessed for these.
+1
Level 44
Sep 9, 2022
Haha same, I didn't know 7 people and of those 7 I guessed 6 wrong.
+1
Level 89
Oct 6, 2022
@Frodo to be fair, Moranis took a 20+ year hiatus from acting in (live-action) films after 1997, so guessing he had passed was not unreasonable.
+3
Level 39
Sep 9, 2022
why is this on the front page one the day Elizabeth Died that's kinda cruel but funny.
+2
Level 69
Sep 9, 2022
It is cruel. And not funny.
+5
Level 69
Sep 9, 2022
Oh come on it's pretty funny
+3
Level 81
Sep 9, 2022
People die every day. Unfortunately there's little chance we wouldn't have heard about this one, so not really that relevant to the quiz material.
+3
Level 76
Sep 9, 2022
This will be a pretty easy quiz in like 40-50 years
+1
Level 88
Sep 9, 2022
The best part about Yeltsin being on this quiz is his funky dance moves.
+1
Level 27
Sep 9, 2022
Love Rick moranis

Thought Margret Thatcher was Theresa may. I'm an idiot

+1
Level 19
Sep 9, 2022
Great Quiz!!!
+2
Level 56
Sep 9, 2022
omg she died yesterday
+2
Level 58
Sep 9, 2022
Elvis Presley is alive!
+2
Level 74
Sep 10, 2022
After Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, the song "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" shot up the charts to number 2 in the UK. No. 1 in Scotland.
+1
Level 59
Sep 11, 2022
Sorry, Rick Moranis.
+1
Level 56
Sep 13, 2022
How are most of these considered "famous"?