Julie Newmar was the first Catwoman on the 1960s Batman TV series, and for some of us she will always be the best and the coolest Catwoman. However much love I have for Eartha Kitt, Julie is still my favorite. She has been the subject of musical and film tributes for decades, something I can’t really see happening with more recent screen portrayals of the character.
This month Julie turns 80 (what?!), and here are some excerpts of what she had to say about the experience:
It’s time to rewrite the rules
It was only two years ago that youth left me.
Hate me or not, middle age didn’t happen to me; a privilege undeserved, or unobserved.
In August of this year, I will be 80.
It is time to cross the Rubicon and come to terms with the best of myself.
There is no more time for “unsuccess”.
I give myself four seconds to go from a losing to a winning thought, a life giving one.
What if Sydney Pollock or Elizabeth Taylor lived to be 80?...What’s so great about “agefying”? It is the power that having distance gives us. It’s the view from the top.
At 80, you have patience. Patience is like a magical chess game; the magic part is being able to see six, seven steps ahead. Been there, done that stupid thing.
Don’t need this strife anymore.
As my thinking goes today ― I win and I do, by making sure I always see others as winners…Another great virtue of age is to rise above the need to be seen or carry weight in situations of unnecessary stress.
Strife is wholly unnecessary.
Strife wins you nothing.
It is self-inflicted and tenders depression.Being thin is good, though not necessary.
You don’t see an 80 year old weighing 300 pounds.
Nor any 60 year old weighing 300 pounds who are actually healthy.
Eat less, it’s cheaper. Then you can have, like me, anything you like.The other evening around 8 PM, when the light outside was what cinema photographers refer to as golden, I sat silently for over an hour with my son observing the intense, almost palpitating color of the flowers in my garden. The hummingbirds were still sipping sweet nurture from their favorite tubular blossoms.
Bliss, ecstasy and a good garden can extend life…Perhaps, if we get out of our own way,
we can desire and let be. Yes, that’s it.
To age successfully one must not be in resistance.
Resistance and ill health go together.
So there you have it.
Now let’s have fun.
Via Julie Newmar Writes
Below, ‘Catwoman Goes to College’:
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Julie Newmar Asks “What Turns You On?”
