I watched him try to explain Hamlet to one of his grandsons (about 10 years old at the time) while we all stood in line to see the first showing of Branagh's Hamlet in LA on Christmas Day 1996.
I don't think he had enough time before the doors opened.
I looked for him at the interval and after the film but didn't see him so maybe the lad made staying too difficult.
People remember him for Spock but there was so much more.
Also I just wanted to add something about smoking and COPD.
Both of my paternal grandparents died as a result of diseases that today would be immediately blamed on smoking - emphysema (now generally tagged as COPD in the lazy press) in one case and congestive heart failure in the other.
Neither smoked any tobacco in their entire lives nor did they associate or hang around with people who did. They were fundagelical missionaries for whom smoking was a sin as serious as sins come and they were brutal about their opposition to sin. I don't use the word brutal casually.
It may well be that smoking played a part in Leonard succumbing to COPD. Genetics likely played a larger part.
http://www.copdgene.org/
This should not be read as an apologia for tobacco smoke inhalation but rather as yet another mini-rant about the laziness and incuriousity of modern news media.
I watched him try to explain Hamlet to one of his grandsons (about 10 years old at the time) while we all stood in line to see the first showing of Branagh's Hamlet in LA on Christmas Day 1996.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he had enough time before the doors opened.
I looked for him at the interval and after the film but didn't see him so maybe the lad made staying too difficult.
People remember him for Spock but there was so much more.
He spoke for our better angels.
ReplyDeleteAlso I just wanted to add something about smoking and COPD.
ReplyDeleteBoth of my paternal grandparents died as a result of diseases that today would be immediately blamed on smoking - emphysema (now generally tagged as COPD in the lazy press) in one case and congestive heart failure in the other.
Neither smoked any tobacco in their entire lives nor did they associate or hang around with people who did. They were fundagelical missionaries for whom smoking was a sin as serious as sins come and they were brutal about their opposition to sin. I don't use the word brutal casually.
It may well be that smoking played a part in Leonard succumbing to COPD. Genetics likely played a larger part.
http://www.copdgene.org/
This should not be read as an apologia for tobacco smoke inhalation but rather as yet another mini-rant about the laziness and incuriousity of modern news media.