OCR Text |
Show : If You Can't Kick as High as Your Head, YouVc Getting Old, Says Veteran Actor at f?7 Years B) 1 M THI1 NKW TORK, -Tan. -'0. ('an you' kick as high as your head'.' If you can't, you're Kilting old. Francis Wilson i n mere hop, skip and jump from man's allotted three-ncore three-ncore ears and ten. 11c II be on t I'ebrtiary :i7. Vet he dances as nimbly as Ann ' Pennington And nightly he does a high kloH over his head. 1 Graj heads in ,lu audience at Wll BOn's revival Ot "lCrmlnle." thf- comic i In which h created the role of Cadaaux 35 years ago. marvel at lux youthful antics. "How do you do it?" I asked Wil-I Wil-I son in his dressing room. The star had removed bis brown wig, peycaling gray hair thin on top land pushy behind. The close-up d-I d-I closed a face deeply lined and -s that ma ha-., lost ihHr sparkle but not their laugh. "Whv shouldn't 1 do It?" smiled Wilson "I had to do that dance and high kick when Krmlnie' was younst and I'Ye pevor let It occur to mo that 1 was gftUhig old so I couldn't kick: ithe cliandeltera "I don't know whether it has any-thiiiK any-thiiiK to do with It or not. But To never taken alcoholic, drinks I "I never smoked in my life. nfipr drank tea or coffee. ' I never eat more than two meals a day; I Wilson was talking with a mouthful! of hard candy. "Have a piece, he offered "1 always al-ways eat candy brtween the acts. It! helps my teeth." The nimble Wilson maintains ev-l erybodj ought td be able lo kick hau-i high at CT--lf tluy have the right' Ides of living- 'l always have bceh active,1 be said "I used to be quite a swords -man and won the amateur championship champion-ship ears ago. I fried for the boxing box-ing championship, too. But I gave up sparring when It got too rough for, me." u Uaon i'-n't a bit sensitive about hisl ace. He and DeWolf Hopper, co-star in the "Ermlnie" revival, joke about it In a curtain Speech nlgbtl. "I've forgotten ages," said Wilson "It's a good thing t" Keep one's mind off ihojt,- things. Say am 1 older than Hopper?'' 1 He's four years older, fo' 1 lopper ' will be .' March S 0 . And Hopper ' Is almost as actlxe, for 11 mountain of! a man, as Wilson. "I couldn't keep the gray out of I my hair but 1 have kept It out of my; heart and' head!" That's the boiled-down explanation! I couldn't keep the gray out, of my hair but I have kept it out of my heart and head." Francis Wilson. of why Wilson can kick higher than his haltered plug hat, can dance, can take many encores on his Jig. and can turn a somersault into the lap of Jen- nle Weathersby the one othr-r member mem-ber of 'he 1 JI who was in the original orig-inal "hi ml rue " Tills is Wilson's first appearance on the stage for six years, during which ho has aided in the formation and sucoeae of (he Actors Equity ,league Wilson is also an author, a dramatist and H lecturer He's wealthy weal-thy And lives In Gra::n rcy park. |