Every obit of Eddie Albert mentions that he starred on “Green Acres” and was 99 years old when he died Thursday. I haven’t seen any that noted the irony of his dying the day before the “Longest Yard” remake opened. Albert played the sadistic prison warden in the original. Back to that in a moment.
My mother’s aunt Eva was 99 when she died. She was only four days from being 100 and wasn’t terribly ill, but she decided that “nobody should be 100 years old,” and died peacefully that day.
Maybe the reason Eddie Albert died is that he decided “nobody who is 99 should live to see an unfunny remake of a classic in which he co-starred.” Either that or, like in a real football game, the leap from 99 to 100 is The Longest Yard.