Jerry Gill's Enduring Questions

Three Card Draw

For the past several years, I have been playing my own little mind game about whether I can outlive my favorite movie and sports stars. Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall were in the “Final Five,” along with me, Willie Nelson, and Bob Cousy. In recent years, both Hackman and Duvall have passed on to the “other side.” Now it seems Willie, who is a couple of months younger than I, is also nearing the end. After he departs, that just leaves me and ‘the Cooze” “dashing”: O) for the finish line.

For many years, Hackman and Duvall were my favorite actors. The number and diversity of roles they each played throughout their long careers are truly amazing: everything from detectives and basketball coaches to cowboys and gangsters, they could do it all with skill and character. De Niro and Dustin Hoffman are right up there, but they aren’t old enough yet to be in my own special “Hall of Fame” of greats. Of course, De Niro usually played “tough guys,” soldiers, gangsters, or boxers, while Dustin’s range, from “Tootsie” and “Ben” the graduate to the street bum Ricco Ratzo, remains over the top.

These were my main favorites over the past 50 years, but Willie and Cousy remain alive and at the top of my list. Cousy was the dominant point guard for the fantastic Boston Celtics throughout the 1950s. A little guy from Holy Cross College, he razzed and dazzled fans and opponents for over a decade alongside Bill Russell and other Celtic stars. He is now 98 and still kickin’, though no longer on the hardwood. For a genuine treat, check out some films of his skills and antics from his prime. He lives in the greater Boston area and occasionally attends a Celtics game.

Willie, as we all know, will soon turn 94, just a couple of months before me. I never got to see or hear Willie in person, but I did get to see Cousy display his magic in the Boston Garden back in the day. I truly hope that I die before he does, because he was “the greatest with the mostest,” whether on the checkered court of the Boston Garden or anywhere else. He deserves to win this silly hypothetical contest of “three-card draw” I have dreamed up:O)