I adore this guy. The article says he’s extremely weak from having hip surgery, but there are rumors he has liver cancer. Either way, he’ll be missed by me.
However, I have heard so many stories on how he lost his sight. Does any one know the true facts on this?
This article says he went blind from glaucoma. But the one I heard (which he also commented on) says it is hysterical blindness brought on by his witnessing his brother drown. Another story said it was the byproduct of another illness.
I’ve always heard it was glaucoma, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me considering how young he went blind. Isn’t glaucoma usually an old person’s disease?
Also, I’d imagine if it were hysterical blindness it would have cleared up by now.
No, it’s not just an old person’s disease. I’ve been “at risk” for glaucoma since I was 18. Every time i get my eyes checked, the doctors get all alarmed and make me go through various more tests to make sure I don’t have it…(yet).
I remember reading back in the sixties that although he was blind he did have sight until 5 years of age. It was mentioned that he saw his brother drown but I don’t recall anything having been said about his brother’s death causing his blindness. The hysterical blindness thing, while possible, is more than likely a publicist’s idea or a figment of someone’s imagination that was repeated often enough to gain credibility. At any rate, I’ve always heard his blindness was caused by glaucoma.
[Hijack]
When I was a kid, I was always that it was sex itself that caused blindness, not masturbation. When I hit my teens, my eyesight started failing in my right eye only. Being the worrier that I am, I assumed that, since I was going blind in ONE eye, it was the product of sex without a partner.