Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[2jakes]

I don't necessarily want a "long life" -- making it to 70 will be fine. That gives me another seventeen years to wrap things up and maybe get my spare room cleaned out. But I absolutely *don't* want a long, miserable, lingering death.

I watched my grandparents die that way -- my grandmother, who only made it to 69, was in and out of the hospital constantly with heart issues for the last decade of her life, and experienced absolutely no joy in living thru that period. My grandfather had it even worse -- his last decade was spent sitting on the edge of his bed coughing bits of his lungs up into a slopjar. They might have been biologically alive, but they were in no way living, and however I myself end up dying, it's not going to be like that.

Well gosh-a-mighty my dear Lizzie !
I’m in a pickle !


I turned 70 last September. I’ve been playing tennis, jogging,
driving my ’46 pick-up all over the back-roads and riding my 1952
Schwinn bike 24/7. I still enjoy doing camera work when I feel like it.

I eat all kinds of foods even junk food. But with moderation.
Long ago, I stop eating three heavy meals a day.
I eat all the time in small amounts & drink plenty of water.
I do suffer from an occasional sore muscle but a good
body stretch & sleep. I’m ready to go.
My doctor told me last week after my physical checkup that I’m near
perfect health & she wishes all her patients be as active as me.

I’m having a blast...while it lasts!

 

[Zombie_61]

I'm with the above view as, in NYC, I regularly see celebrities, but...wouldn't even enjoy just "saying hello"...

Yes, that's the other issue. Most of the "celebrities" I've seen were people I recognized but wasn't particularly familiar with, so what could I possibly have to say that would interest them? "Hi, I liked that movie you did where you played that guy/girl who did that thing, and...uhhh..."

 

[Trenchfriend]

YIKES!

And Yaphet Kotto 79.
And Sir Ian Holm 85.
And Harry Dean Stanton 90.

 

[Fading Fast]

I eat all kinds of foods even junk food. But with moderation.
Long ago, I stop eating three heavy meals a day.
I eat all the time in small amounts & drink plenty of water.

I've done the same thing. It wasn't a conscious decision, just my body telling me it didn't like big meals anymore and prefers smaller meals - really snacks - several times a day. I have felt so much better since I've been eating this way. And, like you, I eat "junk" food and other "bad" foods, but only in moderation. I also hydrate a lot and exercise regularly, but changing the way I eat has made a big difference in how I feel.

A few years back, I was out with a friend - a health fanatic - who, when I told her my "new" way of eating, said that is the way everyone "should" eat. I have no idea if she is right, but it was funny to see her reaction.

 

[tonyb]

I'm with FF in my reluctance to be any bother to a celebrity, and I'm embarrassed yet of the one occasion, going on 40 years ago now, on which I probably was. I take some solace in knowing that it was my companion who intruded on this person's privacy, in a context in which he might have reasonably expected privacy.

I've crossed paths with a few famous sorts -- athletes, musicians, politicians. The most remarkable of those encounters was with a person of some minor mainstream celebrity -- Herb Score, the former pitcher who went on to a long career in sportscasting. We met at one of my favorite watering holes in Seattle, a place at Ninth and Madison called Vito's, which had the look of a '50s steakhouse, and whose clientele fit that environment: quiet, "mature," etc.

Score had just finished his night's work down at the Kingdome, where he had called the Indians vs. Mariners game. (Score was a regular on the Indians' broadcast team.) I didn't know any of this. He and I sat beside each other at the bar, talking about nothing and everything.

It was only after he had departed that the bartender told me who he was. Turned out that Score was friends with the bartender, a fellow named Al Black, one of those old school, white-shirt-and-black-pants, neatly-cut-and-combed-hair bartenders, who has since shuffled off this mortal coil himself.

Vito's ain't what it used to be, either, not since it got "discovered." As Yogi would put it, nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded.

 

[BlueTrain]

I have little connection to anything but my wife has a few.

Celebrity-wise, one of her first cousins (out of a grand total of two) went to high school with Chris Maloni, who attended his wedding in Belgrade. One of Chris Maloni's co-stars on television was Mariska Hargitay, daughter of Jayne Mansfield.

Non-celebrity-wise, my wife's grandmother's grandfather was the last private owner of Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home in Virginia. She is also a direct descendent of George Mason of Virginia. I think he is her great-great-great-great granddaughter, for what it's worth.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I was living in Montecito, CA in 1979 during the Oil Embargo and found myself in a gas line (remember gas lines?) behind a blue pickup truck. Eventually the pickup made it to the pumps and Robert Mitchum got out of it. Montecito is home to a sizable Hollywood community, mostly retired or semi-retired and I knew Mitchum lived there. A while later I sat in a restaurant next to a table where Mitchum and some other men were having lunch. Most movie stars, when you see them in person, are all but unrecognizable: fatter, older, shorter or with features that just don't look the same on film. Mitchum is the only actor I ever saw who looked and sounded exactly the same in real life as he did on film.

 

[BlueTrain]

When you see a celebrity, they are always going to be older than they were on the screen. There seem to be some exceptions, however. A few movie stars like Bob Cummings, never seemed to age, although even he eventually died. Some actors avoided having photos taken of themselves as they aged because (they would say) it would shock their fans.

My son works in the motion picture industry in California and has met a few well-known actors but more who are less well-known.

 

[skydog757]

Yes, that's the other issue. Most of the "celebrities" I've seen were people I recognized but wasn't particularly familiar with, so what could I possibly have to say that would interest them? "Hi, I liked that movie you did where you played that guy/girl who did that thing, and...uhhh..."

Whenever I've gone to a signing, I try to come up with a question that the person hasn't heard a million times (For instance, I'm sure Doug Flutie is sick of talking about the Hail Mary pass), or bring up something minor that shows them that I've paid attention to them. This worked great for Mitch Album when I brought up a column of his from a few years back that had stuck with me and when I asked Dave Bergman (Tigers firstbaseman) about his hidden ball pickoff move. It failed me miserably when I asked Al Kaline about some minor detail about his playing days and he started talking to me enthusiastically until he mentioned "After I broke my finger . . ." and I must have looked totally confounded (Kaline broke it in 1967 when he slammed a bat into the batrack after striking out). I was unaware of this incident and, Mr. Kaline having determined that I was not as knowledgeable about him as I at first seemed, was left to mutter my thanks and shuffle off.

 

[BlueTrain]

In a few of the old cowboy B-movies, particularly Roy Rogers, they sometimes played characters who were entertainers or actors in the movie with little boy fans and everything, yet would be called upon to do something like they did in so and so movie. Of course they did. Gene Autry literally played himself in most of his movies, with additional plot elements thrown in to create a story.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Soul- and R&B-man Aaron Neville is already 75 years old.

 

[Fading Fast]

When you see a celebrity, they are always going to be older than they were on the screen. There seem to be some exceptions, however. A few movie stars like Bob Cummings, never seemed to age, although even he eventually died. Some actors avoided having photos taken of themselves as they aged because (they would say) it would shock their fans....

When I met Richard Gere in '11 or '12, he was in his early 60s and looked good for his age, but older than I'd ever seen him. His hair was thin in a still-full-coverage-of-his-head way, but you saw through it - basically, normal hair for a 60ish year old man. Then, when the movie he was filming at the same time came out - his hair was incredibly thick and full (and his face was less wrinkled, etc.). I believe it was someone on FL who told me at the time that his hair was probably CGI.

Hence, not only do stars look older since we, usually, are seeing them years after the movie came out, but they, now, do so much to "enhance" their look that we are really shocked when see what they look like day to day.

 

[BlueTrain]

Sometimes an actor becomes so identified with clothing or mannerisms that it is strange or startling to see them differently. Or perhaps when there is something wrong with their outfit (out of character, so to say). It can even be laughable. Older movie stars, if they haven't continued to work and appear on screen as many do, will appear a little sad to us because we remember them from when they were younger. A few, like George Gabby Hayes, we never remember from when they were younger. Grandpa Jones, the musician and entertainer, always appeared made up as "grandpa" and in his case, eventually grew into the role. He is one of the few entertainers I ever met in person. I also met Peter Schickele when I was in college, in case anyone has ever heard of him. That was 45 years ago.

The oddest image I can recall of an older actor--in fact I can't get it out of my mind--was of Duncan Renaldo, who was television's Cisco Kid. There was a photo of him in his fancy Cisco Kit black outfit taken outside somewhere, I think, standing by a barn or fence or something. Instead of boots, however, he was wearing black loafers.

Duncan Renaldo was supposedly actually Romanian.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I'd read that Reynaldo was actually a Greek sailor who jumped ship, made his way to California and made it to Hollywood just when every studio had to have a Latin Lover, so they gave him that name. When he starred in Trader Horn (1931) he was recognized and it came out that he was in the country illegally. He actually did some jail time but he resumed his career and became one of the earliest tv stars.

 

[BlueTrain]

Another interesting thing about him was that, in spite of him not being Mexican (or Californian), the character of the Cisco Kid was Latino. In the same way that Charlie Chan (also not played by an Asian, much less Chinese) was the hero and main character, so was the Cisco Kid. There were a few others, like Mr. Moto (also not played by an Asian), but not many.

 

[BlueTrain]

Oh, by the way, I have seen Trader Horn. It is interesting but not a lot like the book, which I also have.

 

[2jakes]

A recent one...

 

[GHT]

A recent one...

Oh yes, there's a jack ass around every corner.

 

[2jakes]

Oh yes, there's a jack ass around every corner.
View attachment 51461

Yep.

I feel sorry for the animal.

 

[2jakes]

A most disturbing realization: