"We love a rose because we know it'll soon be gone. Whoever loved a stone?"
Kevin McCarthy
As Walter Jameson on The Twilight Zone
Actor Kevin McCarthy died yesterday at the age of 96.
He had quite a career in films and on TV. Dennis McLellan correctly points out in the Los Angeles Times that McCarthy is probably best known for appearing in the 1956 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" — and I'm sure that is true.
But, with a few exceptions, I generally have not been much of a sci–fi movie fan.
I am, however, a fan of The Twilight Zone TV series, and when I think of McCarthy, I think of an episode from the very first season of the original Rod Serling series — "Long Live Walter Jameson" — in which McCarthy played a history teacher whose lectures were so vivid you could swear he had lived through the events of which he spoke.
Now, many of us have encountered teachers like that, teachers whose passion for their subjects far exceeded that to which we were accustomed. Sometimes those teachers ignite the flames of passion for a subject within some of their students as well.
But in The Twilight Zone universe, Walter Jameson (who was played by McCarthy) actually did live in the times he lectured about. And one night, one of his colleagues confronted him about it. Jameson walked over to a bust of Plato and said, when asked how old he was, "Old enough to have known this gentleman personally."
Turned out Jameson was given the gift of eternal youth by an alchemist. Jameson submitted to his "experiments" and fell into a coma for several weeks. When he revived, the alchemist was nowhere to be found. It was only with the passage of time that Jameson realized what had happened.
By that time, he had seen his friends age and die while he remained young, and he decided he didn't want to live indefinitely. But he lacked the courage to end his life.
I always enjoy watching that episode. It's very cerebral, and it combines two things I can't resist — history and speculation about the supernatural.
As the years have gone by, though, I have reached the conclusion that I enjoy the episode for other reasons as well. For one, it addressed a fear that all men have about what happens when we die — even those who believe in an afterlife.
What lies beyond? No one knows. You may strongly believe in the existence of an afterlife, but you don't really know.
I contend that, no matter how certain one may be of the existence of God and an afterlife, there is always a portion of our brains that resists, that maintains a sliver of doubt about the unknown.
And the episode spoke some important truths about changing perceptions of death as we get older. Jameson was candid about his eagerness to obtain immortality when he was young. And he was equally candid about his wish to die, after at least 2,000 years of life, but he confessed that he was a coward.
In the end, a lover from his past (played by Estelle Winwood) did the dirty work for him.
And, at last, he was released.
In its way, I suppose, the episode is a metaphor for McCarthy's life. Winwood and the actor who played his colleague have been dead for years. The only member of the cast who is still living is the woman who played his colleague's daughter. In the episode, she was his fiancee.
She was in her 30s then; she's in her 80s. Who knew they would both live half a century after filming that episode?
