An Unsettling Realization about Myself

[beamjockey]

I just wondered something. And looked up the answer.

Abe Vigoda, the talented actor on the series Barney Miller who played the superannuated Detective Fish, was born in 1921.

So in 1974, the year Barney Miller first aired, Abe Vigoda was 53.

I'm older.

Comments

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

They say you're as old as you feel.

I tend to hit those people with my cane.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

So am I. It happens to us all, if we live long enough.

[tceisele.livejournal.com]

Along those lines: a few years back I was listening from some of Bob Hope's radio shows that aired during WWII. He was already using "being an old man" as part of his schtick. On the one hand, he was in his early 40s at the time (which was younger than I was at the time I was listening to the shows).

On the other hand, he lived for about another 60 years *after* he started calling himself "old", so that's encouraging. For that matter, I see that IMDB says Abe Vigoda is still alive, too.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

There are some people who just have always looked old. Abe Vigoda is one of them. Another one, lesser known (cause he didn't appear in The Godfather and Barney Miller*) is the excellent actor Phil Leeds. When he died in 1998 at age 82, I was stunned that he was that young, since he looked like he was in his 70s when he appeared in an episode of The Dick van Dyke Show in 1962.

*Actually, Phil did appear in seven episodes of Barney Miller, but played a different character in each one...consistency of supporting characters wasn't a huge factor in 1970s television.

[avram]

As a kid, watching Barney Miller, I thought those recurring bit actors were just the same fictional characters, getting into trouble again. (I think maybe some of them actually were.)

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Some may have been, but on Barney Miller, Phil appeared as:

1. Arthur Bloom
   
2. Lou Hector
   
3. Harry Kruger
   
4. Horace Chandler
   
5. Gilbert Letier
   
6. Louis Nash
   
7. Brent LaMear
   

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Some people just looked really old at a relatively middle-aged age. Walter Brennan was playing old men in his 40s (and winning Oscars for it).

I'm older than Vigoda was back then too. And it's always good to remember that rumors of Vigoda's death have been wildly exaggerated.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

While Angela Lansbury was once young and glamorous, it seemed like she was capable of looking somewhere between 45 and 55 for about fifty years of her life.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

A prominent example of this: In 1962, when she played the mother of Laurence Harvey's character in The Manchurian Candidate, she was 37. Harvey was 34.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

But you're still younger than Fish, whom I think was 66 in-universe in the show's first year.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Yes, but he still looks the same now as he did back in 1974.

What hit me hard was a few years ago, when I realized that I was older than Ross Pavlac was when he died.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ross went way too soon.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I have over a year before I reach that venerable age. I feel so, uh, not exactly young.

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind also the wonders of make-up and lighting.

For what it's worth, I turned 53 last year.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

But how old was Abe when he died? (Oh 1982-1921=61)

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

But how old was Abe when he died? (Oh 1982-1921=61)

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

I recently channel-surfed an episode of Maude where Bea Arthur ranted about turning 47 years old. So this is what we've come to: Older than Fish, older than Maude. I'm probably older than all those mothers-in-law, too. Endora? Is it time for me to enter my Endora period? How much fun THAT will be! I'm afraid to check on Colonel Potter, but I expect someone else will do it for me.