Christy will forever remain young in our memory.
The Cheers actress joked about her worries she’d be 98 and still wanting to wear a tube top and go out dancing during a 2014 appearance on Ellen
Kirstie Alley had plans to live to 98 — and maybe even go clubbing while she was at it.
During a 2014 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Alley — who died Monday of colon cancer at age 71 — reflected on not feeling her age after celebrating her 63rd birthday.
«I just think it’s so weird. You know, after 40, everything’s weird,» she told host Ellen Degeneres.
DeGeneres, now 64, asked how the Cheers actress was feeling as she got older, to which Alley energetically replied that she didn’t really feel too different — at least on the inside.
«Everything that I took for granted, you have to work at a little bit. Everything!» Alley said with a laugh.
«But then, the hardest part is this: that I thought, when I was 20, I thought, ‘Oh, when I’m 60, I’m gonna feel…’ I don’t know, I had the image that I would feel, ‘Oh well, how you doing, Ellen? Oh yeah, kids come over and Grammy will make you some cookies,'» she said, putting on a scratchy voice to indicate an old lady. «I don’t feel like that.»
DeGeneres agreed with the actress about the «weird» feelings that come with aging: «I think everybody, when you’re younger, you think that’s so old, and then you get to a certain age and you’re like, ‘Oh I don’t — that’s not old anymore.'»
Alley took it one step further, sharing her worries that she may be close to 100 years old and still want to go out dancing.
«What if I’m 98 and I should die, and I just feel like, ‘Wow! Let’s go out, let’s go do this!'»
Alley laughed as she swung her arms around in a dance, imitating herself at a club wearing a «tube top» in her 90s. «That would be wrong,» DeGeneres told her. «There’s an appropriate way to dress, but you could still [go out].»
The actress worried that «there’s a certain age where you’re really old, you’ll look stupid doing the things I feel like doing.»
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News of Alley’s unexpected death came as a shock to much of Hollywood and the world as her two children shared a statement that their mother had succumbed to «a battle with cancer.»
«She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead,» the statement read. «As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.»
«Our mother’s zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating, were unparalleled and leave us inspired to live life to the fullest just as she did.»
