I was watching an old Alfred Hitchcock Presents last night when I saw an actor who I couldn’t place. I knew I’d heard his voice before but didn’t recognize him. It turned out to be Edmund Gwen. I didn’t recognize him outside of his Santa suit and beard. Turns out the Alfred Hitchcock episode was his last appearance and that he was so crippled by arthritis that they actually worked it into the script, where he said he could barely move from his arthritis … this was to explain why he remained seated for most of the show.
Isn’t that sad? To be so crippled by arthritis back in those days? There was no medication for it.
Made me think of Vivien Leigh dying of TB in 1967. There was medication for TB at that time, but who knows if she smoked or had other problems. Still, it’s unusual that a movie star died of TB in 1960s.
And Peter Lorre suffering so much from gallbladder disease. Why couldn’t they just remove it? Poor old Bela Lugosi was a drug addict by 1937. And Dick York had to cut his career short due to back problems and drugs.