I was at St Johns Hospital in LA back in 92...a hospital which has a wing renamed the John Wayne wing, and I was at reception while a bedraggled shuffling bent over old man accompanied by his great looking fit blonde wife, were explaining that they had lost their parking validation and therefore could not get out of the carpark. I studied the withered weary sagging face of the old man, and slowly realised that he was none other than Jimmy Stewart. Here he was in a hospital named after his old friend John Wayne. I really wanted to just make contact with him, but didnt think it was the time. I just wanted to say hi and tell him how great he was and how much I admired what he had done with his life, but I didnt. I watched him getting into his old early 80s style down sized Chrysler Le Baron, and was driven away by his beautiful wife...Then a year or so later his fit and gorgeous looking wife was stricken with cancer and died. Poor Jimmy was left on his own. Then when Jimmy died, the person who bought his Beverley Hills home bull dozed it and built a new and bigger house on the plot. Jimmy would not have approved. He was cool, a hero during WW2, and a HOLLYWOOD LEGEND from the HOLLYWOOD GOLDEN AGE. Movie recommendation The Shootist, starring John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, and Jimmy Stewart. Wayne plays a legendary gunfighter, who is dying of cancer, Jimmy plays his doctor. Wayne was dying of cancer in real life at the time. Poignant and a big favourite of mine.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 09:53:45 +0000