David Niven on Having Tuberculosis As A Child | The Dick Cavett Show

[@TheDickCavettShow]

What is your favourite David Niven movie?

[@oldhatcinema]

He appeared in a lot of great films, so it's hard to pick. "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937), and "The Guns of Navarone" (1961) would probably be at the top though.

[@deanstuart8012]

A Matter of Life and Death. (1945)(Stairway to Heaven in the US, I think)

[@alexandradane3672]

This was one of the last interviews he gave as he had recently been diagnosed with AML or Lou Gehrig Disease hence the slurred sounding speech. Such a marvellous man and actor. RIP.

[@shanekilpatrick3378]

Could listen to conversations like these all day. Men that have lived life to the fullest 😀

[@Rumms-Bumms69]

David Niven - the slightly cheeky gentleman who doesn't take himself so seriously.

[@cynthiaennis3107]

I think the world also of Mr. Dick Cavett! I had watched his show as a girl & loved the show back then & here I am 50 yrs later still living it & catching up on what I missed! Thank you so much for great fun & most interesting content!

[@oldhatcinema]

David Niven is great. Such a gentleman. Just watched "Death on the Nile" (1978) the other night, in which he gave a fantastic performance.

[@barbaradascalos4411]

Check out Bonjour Tristese by Otto Preminger..bit of a downer warning.

[@oldhatcinema]

@@barbaradascalos4411 Sounds interesting; I hadn't heard of it before. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@garethcraddock9971]

Fantastic guy. Remember reading his biography, 'The Moon's a Balloon' in my 20s... Loved it. Never read the other one but will do...

[@cynthiaennis3107]

I’m started to listen to the first one online! I love that it’s in his own voice!

[@roberthayes9842]

You should read Bring On The Empty Horses great read

[@garethcraddock9971]

@@roberthayes9842 Thanks, Robert- I'll give it a go

[@HandlingItAll]

Love the jokes that AREN'T landing with the crowd... It's fucking HILARIOUS 😂 and I'm a Texan born in 1981....

[@chrisgay9623]

I've been hoping for years that someone would post this. I watched it when first broadcast and remember it as being very funny. Could you post the rest of the interview?

[@dnorfed]

A wonderful man in every sense of the word. I wish he’d been my dad

[@Spicedforlife]

Lovely comment.

[@gailcrook2687]

So do I, I'm 76 but still suffering PTSD from my cruel father

[@brainflash1]

Laughter is the best medicine.

[@James18925]

He really was a Great Actor

[@seesnap]

I watched the other Niven interviews. I think he seems a little slower speech in this one. He’s such class

[@georgea2409]

Unfortunately, the slurred and slower speech was due to the effects of ALS, with which Niven was diagnosed right around this time.

[@StaffordLaw-v2i]

Sad that you can hear the MND beginning to take hold. My father told me that he met him in the Savoy Grill around this time, and described him as being one step removed from the world.

[@brainflash1]

I can hear the slurred words now. Are the sunken cheeks also a symptom?

[@oldhatcinema]

Mind if I ask what you mean? What's MND?

[@StaffordLaw-v2i]

@@oldhatcinema Motor Neurone Disease.

[@StaffordLaw-v2i]

@@brainflash1 I'm not sure about the cheeks.

[@barbaradascalos4411]

Yes..the neurons disintegrate and the muscles waste away..he had alot of good fortune in WWII and in Hollywood but ALS Was a tough way to go out.

[@nigelwatts7998]

His motor neurons disease can be heard in his soft pronunciations, something he would later die from. At his funeral the porters at Heathrow Airport sent a reef saying , 'The finest gentleman that ever walked through these halls. He made a porter fell like a king.'

[@junesilvermanb2979]

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. About 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kills about half of those affected. Typical symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. It was historically called consumption due to the weight loss. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.

[@Fiawordweaver]

I knew a little of this disease and thank you for expanding on the information.

[@Fiawordweaver]

When I was a kid I wanted to marry him when I grew up. Alas he was way too old plus I didn’t know how to meet him. Haha. I love his stories and Dick Cavett is an old time great host.

[@garyfrancis6193]

It’s odd that he mentions his operation as a child as being 150 years ago then in the 1970’s. Now it is indeed getting much closer to 150 years ago. Maybe about 110 years. I remember the 70’s well and no one could ever imagine that 50 years later anyone could watch this interview whenever they wanted almost anywhere in the world except maybe Arthur C.Clarke. I was in college then and writing comouter software for statistical analysis when few people had even seen a computer. Even I am surprised that I am watching this on an iPad in South Korea after living here for 23 years. As Arthur C. Clarke said about predicting the future “ if people don’t think you’re crazy you’re probably wrong.”

[@seanford2358]

He’s joking…

[@roberthayes9842]

Poor magnificent David Niven already ill

[@armenian_nightmare33]

David Nivin wa ABSOLUTELY, 120% the inspiration for the Voice of STEWART "GILLIGAN" GRIFFIN (A.K.A. STEWIE FROM FAMILY GUY!)

[@Kaiserbill99]

No. That would be Rex Harrison.

[@cynthiaennis3107]

He surely has the accent of someone born into elegance & wealth of the UK.

[@mickjenner6697]

I'm in my 50s and a boys boarding school was not much better and that was in the 80s

[@thedwightguy]

And the date of this interview is............???

[@deanstuart8012]

25/11/1981.

[@cloudsparrow7729]

why didn't we have David Niven on chat shows every week (like it seems our American friends did)? We had to make do with Peter bloody Ustinov

[@charleswinokoor6023]

Too bad the interview is truncated. I wish someone could finally tell me something about that song that Bobby Rosengarden and the band plays at the end of the show.

[@RobCCTV]

As Brit, I never knew anything about Cavett. Thanks to KZbin, in recent years I dip into his interviews occasionally. Fascinating guests, but Cavett is a really boring interviewer. He never seems to ask a really challenging revealing question to his guests.

[@raylenenielsen5943]

I’m a little girl with an incredible liking for Dick Cavett.

[@garyfrancis6193]

He missed suave, classy, elegant, debonair, eloquent like Harpo Marx.

[@angloaust1575]

Being famous his books sold quite well He had wealth and fame Lived in tax haven country Like many other celebrities Obviously his health deteriorated But cant have everything!

[@paulmasterson386]

He became a tax exile because,as he describes in his book,after working in Hollywood for thirty years he couldn’t afford to have his house painted.

[@Gannooch]

I do have nothing against the other celebs that were on this show but is this channel ever going to show the Dick Cavett shows where he interviews Jackie Gleason or Art Carney? How about any Honeymooners actors that were part of the main cast? These are rare much like all the other Dick Cavett interviews

[@Marcel_Audubon]

Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph were all on the Cavett post last week. Honeymooners' Reunion. Howdja miss it, Ganooch? Pert Kelton even stopped by.

[@Gannooch]

@@Marcel_Audubon I don’t have Decades. When did this air? Did you record it?

[@Marcel_Audubon]

@@Gannooch was just joking, Frank - sorry.

[@cynthiaennis3107]

The same thing must’ve attracted the nuns to the Catholic schools in the US! Pretty much the same!