esrosedotblog

USTINOV

This is a later picture of Peter Ustinov who died yesterday at 82. They say he never stopped talking. The obit said that he would keep on going until he died; that he was not afraid of it and had gotten enough out of life. He just didn't want to know when it would happen. I guess he got the wish more or less.

I just remember him as a very funny, intelligent, and fascinating man. We last saw him a couple months ago in TOPKAPI (here on the roof freaking out) and he saves the picture. I remember him on the Paar show which I think made him a popular figure. Jack Paar died earlier this year. Funny that another person that Paar 'made' died the other day; Genvieve. And so on. Ramble ramble. It happens. These are all people a bit older than me who were part of my growing up. They are all showing me how to keep on doing so. I figure that growing up is a process that goes right to last breath and as best as I can figure all three of these people did that.

Look at him. He is up on the chair carrying on. The soft shoes and the cane are a bit of a tip off to the age, but the sparkle is in the gestures and I am sure, the eye. He is still fat. He always packed an extra layer. I guess it didn't kill him, at least not too soon. He has shaved clean. He used to play with beards and mustaches. It heightened his eccentric charisma. Someone I would have liked to meet, but then, after all those years watching on teevee and the movies, feel like I did.