Last week, we also lost an icon of the silver screen, Sidney Poitier. He wasn’t just an Academy Award-winning actor; he was an ambassador, director, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, British gentleman, novelist, and Grammy winner. He died at age 94 on January 6 at his Beverly Hills home, where he was cared for by his wife of 45 years. Next to him were his five daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ideally, many of us aspire to stay active and healthy for as long as possible, live comfortably into our 90s or even 100s, and then die of natural causes while surrounded by loved ones. Unfortunately, for the famous and the not so famous, this is often not the case.For the past few weeks, our column has been discussing celebrities and, more importantly, the common mistakes stars make, especially with their finances. Many celebrities are great role models of how to live well in old age. James Earl Jones and Rita Moreno recently became nonagenarians. They are joined by celebrities Mel Brooks, Harry Belafonte, and Angela Lansbury, all in the mid-1990s.