A stroke had rendered Jack speechless around a year ago. It would be only thing that could, but even though Jack was deprived of his favorite pastime, telling a story, he could still enjoy his second favorite, hearing one.
Jack showed his understanding and appreciation by smiling largely with his eyes.
In those last months his insatiable curiosity never flagged. I would often visit him in a nursing home with Gene Wilder. He once told me introducing him to Gene was the best thing I had done for him. He was kind enough not to say the only thing.
Between Gene and me, I’m the talker and Gene is the more affectionate, so Gene held Jack’s hand as he lay there, and I would tell him one story after another about what was going on in the social world that Jack could no longer be a part of.
When there are three people in a room, and one can’t speak, the other is the retiring type, the talker of the group better think of plenty to talk about and I did, but even I eventually ran out, and Jack would look at Gene to hear what he had to say. Gene would look at me, and I’d tell him to tell Jack about such and such which he did, Jack would then look at Gene with a raised eyebrow as if to say what else? Gene again would look at me, and I would interpret Jack’s raised eyebrow as a desire to know Gene’s travel plans. Gene going along with the gag launched into his next planned itinerary. When Gene finished Jack would give him a quizzical look. Again Gene developing the bit looked at me. I said “He wants to know if you have any movies coming up?” Gene launched into career talk and soon all three of us were laughing. Jack, of course, without a sound.
When I began my cable talk show in 1995, Jack wrote me a letter saying he felt I was about to ask him to be a guest but he couldn’t, because “The way to remain a legend is to never appear.” Eventually he chose to anyway, but his legendary status remained intact. It always will.
Charles Grodin is an award-winning stage and screen actor whose credits include the films “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Heaven Can Wait,” and “Midnight Run.” He has also hosted his own cable talk show and written an autobiography titled “It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t Here.”
