Say Uncle! by Jake Shannon

Author:Jake Shannon [Shannon, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Published: 2011-04-18T14:32:25+00:00

out to eat, he’d say, “Well, I’m going to buy,” and of course I’d end up with the check some fucking way.

Before he got sick he did extra work. He wanted to go to the actors’

home because they take real good care of you and they weren’t charg-

ing at that time. He tried for six months. He knew a lot of big movie

stars, but they couldn’t get him into the Screen Actors Guild home.

I used to hire him because I was running stunts. I hired him on

California Split. He was an extra and I was a stunt guy, and they wanted somebody to throw a punch at an actor, which was me. I

thought, “Oh, he’ll throw a nice, working punch,” and he did it, and I

thought, “Well, everything’s okay. He didn’t try to cause trouble.” He’s over with the director, telling him I’m a screaming fag, that I shouldn’t be on the set, and he’s going to run the stunts from now on in all his

movies.

JS: [ laughs]

112 SAY UNCLE

GL: Then the first assistant comes up to me, and he said, “Well, the

director doesn’t like fags,” and I said, “So? What’s that have to do with me?” So that went on.

JS: Oh my gosh.

GL: I mean, that went on for years, but when he got sick—he lived

only a mile from here. A couple of times he fell out of bed. He called

me up, and I had to go over and pick him up, to put him back in bed.

Undress him. I called a doctor friend of mine who worked at the actors’

home. I said, “Do you know anybody that has enough clout to get a

guy in?” And he said, “Geez, it’s impossible. But I’ve got a guy there

that will probably die within a day or two, and I’ll see what I can do.”

The guy died the next day, and he shoved Vic in there.

JS: Wow.

GL: So he was there for a few months. I used to visit him every other

day. The day before he died, I went there. He was in a depression. His

legs had turned purple because of lack of circulation. He had cancer

and every other damn thing, and he said, “I’m going to die.” And I

said, “No, you’re not going to die because I just talked to a doctor and he’s moving you to one of these outside bungalows in a couple of days,

and, boy, it’ll be really nice there.” And he was really happy, and he

said, “I want you to get a picture of you and your wife, and we’re going to pin it on the wall.” I’m trying to make him happy . . .

JS: Yeah.

GL: . . . And everything like that because he was a big part of my life. I went back the next day, and they said he’d just passed away.

JS: Oh.

GL: And that was a tearjerker.

JS: Yeah. So you guys were really close.

GENE LEBELL 113

GL: Oh, yeah. He wanted to be next to Ted. He had a plot of ground.

His nephews got the money and had him cremated and sold the plot.

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