Danson’s aging issues

Old age has crept up on Ted Danson, said Jane Mulkerrins in The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.). “I became a grandfather recently,” groans the silver-haired, 65-year-old actor, “and I’ve noticed that younger people will now be kind enough to ‘include me.’ I never used to have to be included.” Danson has been resisting the idea of aging for decades. He remembers how old he felt when a new actor named Woody Harrelson joined Cheers in 1985. “Most of us were about 37 and [Woody] was 25. And for a man, 37 is the age when you realize you are no longer 25. So we would do everything to try to beat him, at anything.” He shot hoops with Harrelson, and lost. “We arm-wrestled, and I still have tendonitis from that.” In another ill-fated attempt to demonstrate his youthfulness, Danson agreed to take magic mushrooms with Harrelson during a cast outing on a fishing boat. Out on the Pacific, “we hit the tail end of a hurricane. Woody and I thought we were going to die for the next three hours. I sat next to George [Wendt]”—who played Norm on Cheers—“and every 60 seconds he’d poke me and go, ‘Breathe.’” Danson shakes his head. “Mushrooms and hurricanes do not go together. My one time on a hallucinogenic, and I blew it.”

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