Hollywood's Oldest Working Actor, 100, Reveals His Secret To Longevity

After an 80-year career in Hollywood, Norman Lloyd is still making films at 100 and is showing no signs of slowing down. The centenarian can be seen on screen today in theaters across the country in Judd Apatow's raucous comedy, "Trainwreck."

While it's a far cry from his earlier works, including Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Saboteur" -- and working with Apatow is no doubt totally different from doing theater with Orson Welles -- Lloyd's ability and willingness to adapt is doing him a lot of good. 

"When Judd asked me to be in the picture, I thought, ‘What a grand experiment for me, after 80 years, to work this way!’” Lloyd said in a recent interview with The Daily Beast. The veteran actor says that at first, improvising dirty jokes in Apatow's classic manner made him blush. But soon enough, he was making dick jokes as well as anyone. "I realized that we’re in the world of today. This is par for the course."

Though he's getting acquainted with new Hollywood, Lloyd still gushes and reminisces about Hollywood's golden age. He started his career during the Great Depression as a theater actor, picking up any jobs he could, doing what it took to get by. "If I may say so, we had wonderful stars. I don’t think we have them today," he told The Daily Beast. "Fame, back then, came from great performances." 

He's arguably one of Hollywood's oldest active actors, with his 101st birthday coming up later this year. (To put it into perspective, he's been around longer than both Kirk Douglas and Zsa Zsa Gabor, who are 98.)

Lloyd has appeared in film and TV for over eight decades, starring in everything from "Murder, She Wrote" and "St. Elsewhere," to "Dead Poets Society" and "Star Trek." He only makes the odd appearance nowadays -- his last film prior to "Trainwreck" was 2005's "In Her Shoes," and he made a TV appearance in 2010 on an episode of "Modern Family." 

His longevity secrets are something we can all learn from. "I don't eat shellfish, I drink wine moderately and have one whiskey every evening before dinner," Lloyd told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview to mark his 100th birthday. "I eat meat, poultry and fish in proper proportion, nothing to excess." (He's also an avid tennis player who once was partners with Charlie Chaplin.)

But he chalks it all up to more than just a healthy lifestyle. "I think the word that I might apply here is 'attitude.' You must be active, you must be positive, even if things don't go the way you want them to. I think if you allow yourself to mope and feel sorry for yourself, it can take years off your life.”

 Well said.

Also on The Huffington Post