Anyone else surprised that he was still alive?
I remember being surprised years ago by how much younger he was than he appeared. He was only 50 when filming Cocoon and was much closer in age to Brian Dennehy than to the other older actors and actresses, Don Ameche was 26 years older than Brimley and Jessica Tandy was 25 years older. Between the commercials and other movie roles like in The Firm, he always seemed much older than he was, so, yeah, I can see being surprised that he was still alive.
Maybe the same thing with Abe Vigoda. Since he was already looking old in his most famous roles in The Godfather and Barney Miller, despite being in his 50s, he famously spent decades dealing with rumors or jokes that he was already dead from the 1980s until he finally passed away in 2016.