Actors can "live on" for decades because their works are recorded. For example, there's an oldies channel that shows four episodes of Perry Mason every day. Everyone in those episodes is dead, but we can see and hear them nonetheless.
Authors can exceed even that. We still read and see inside the minds of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Chekhov, and even Plato.
So true, last night I was watching a couple of small documentaries on James Cagney. They’re all dead, I grew up watching them with my grandmother grandfather my mom and my dad. My neighbor stopped by to borrow something, 28 years old he said what the hell are you watching! I said Jimmy Cagney he says who the hell is that :-) Brings back great memories watching those old movies.