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September 11, 2018

Jacques Pépin

eight over eighty
Older man with gray hair wearing a rust-colored button-up shirt and a black undershirt, standing in a warmly lit room with a window and bookshelf in the background, smiling cheerfully.

Jacques Pépin

Jacques Pépin is world-renowned as a chef and the host of acclaimed cooking programs on public television, and as a respected instructor, prolific author and gifted artist. As a star of France’s culinary world, he became the personal chef to three French heads of state. After moving to the United States, Pépin worked first at New York’s historic Le Pavillon, then served as director of research and new development for the Howard Johnson Company, a position that taught him about mass production, marketing, food chemistry and American food tastes. On PBS, Pépin and Julia Child won The James Beard Foundation’s award for Best National Cooking Show (for Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home) and a 2001 Daytime Emmy. The author of 25 books and a former columnist for The New York Times, Pépin writes a quarterly column for Food & Wine. He is the recipient of three of the French government’s highest honors: he is a Chevalier de L’Ordre National de la Legion d’ Honneur, Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier de L’Ordre du Mérite Agricole. He is a founder of The American Institute of Wine and Food.

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September 11, 2018

Morris W. Offit

eight over eighty
A man with short gray hair is wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and a brown tie. He is smiling slightly and looking directly at the camera. The background is a neutral, gradient gray.

Morris W. Offit

Morris W. Offit is the chairman of Offit Capital and a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. He was the founder and CEO of OFFITBANK, a wealth management private bank, which merged with Wachovia. He began his career at Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company in investment research, then joined Salomon Brothers and was a General Partner, establishing the stock research department with subsequent responsibility for fixed income and equity sales. Offit received a B.A. and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Johns Hopkins University, and received an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. His primary affiliations include serving as a Trustee of The Johns Hopkins University (Chairman of the Board, 1990-1996), Trustee of The Jewish Museum (Chairman of the Board 1987-1991), Trustee of the New York Historical Society, Trustee of the new Museum of the American Revolution opening this month in Philadelphia. He served on the board of UJA-Federation of New York both as Chairman (2001-2004) and President (2004-2007).

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September 11, 2018

Norman Lear

eight over eighty
An elderly person with glasses is smiling. They are wearing a light, casual hat and a blue cardigan over a black shirt. The background is blurred, showing greenery and pink flowers, suggesting an outdoor setting.

Norman Lear

Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film, and as a political and social activist and philanthropist. Known as the creator of Archie Bunker and All in the Family, Lear’s television credits include Sanford & Son; Maude; Good Times; The Jeffersons; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; Fernwood 2Nite and the dramatic series Palmerstown U.S.A. His motion picture credits include Cold Turkey, Divorce American Style, Fried Green Tomatoes, Stand By Me and The Princess Bride. He produced the two-hour special, I Love Liberty, for ABC. In 1999, President Clinton bestowed the National Medal of Arts on Lear, noting that “Norman Lear has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it.” He has the distinction of being among the first seven television pioneers inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. He received four Emmy Awards  and a Peabody Award for All in the Family, as well as awards from the International Platform Association, the Writers Guild of America and many other professional and civic organizations. Beyond the entertainment world, Lear has brought his distinctive vision to politics, academia and business by founding several nonprofit organizations including People For the American Way; the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; and the Business Enterprise Trust. He and Lyn, along with a friend, bought one of the few surviving original prints of the Declaration of Independence, one of only 25 original copies of the Declaration of Independence left in the world. This version of the document — the “Dunlap broadside” — was printed on the night of July 4th, 1776. From 2001 until the presidential election of 2004, the document toured the country as the centerpiece of the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, and its spin-off project, the Declare Yourself young voter activism project, in conjunction with two national curriculum programs for high school and college students, two national PSA campaigns, TV specials, and the Declare Yourself Spoken Word Show. Through its aggressive outreach to young and first-time voters, the Declare Yourself project resulted in the registration of over 1 million new voters in the 2004 general election. To find out more about these projects and more, visit the official Norman Lear website at normanlear.com. Lear is chairman of Act III Communications, a multimedia holding with interests in the recording, motion picture, broadcasting and publishing industries. His memoir, Even This I Get To Experience, was published by The Penguin Press. An American Masters documentary, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, based on Lear’s memoir had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Currently, Lear is executive producing a re-imagined Latino version of the iconic One Day at a Time for Netflix (2017) and a five-part EPIX docuseries based on social and economic inequality called America Divided.

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September 11, 2018

Vernon Jordan

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Vernon Jordan

Vernon Jordan

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. is an attorney, civil rights leader and business consultant. As a Senior Managing Director of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC in New York, Jordan works with a diverse group of clients. Prior to joining Lazard, he was a Senior Executive Partner with the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, where he remains Senior Counsel. Before Akin Gump, Jordan held the following positions: President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban League, Inc.; Executive Director of the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; Director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; Attorney-Consultant, U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; Assistant to the Executive Director of the Southern Regional Council; Georgia Field Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and an attorney in private practice in Arkansas and Georgia. Jordan’s presidential appointments include: the President’s Advisory Committee for the Points of Light Initiative Foundation; the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on South Africa; the Advisory Council on Social Security; the Presidential Clemency Board; the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; the National Advisory Committee on Selective Service; and the Council of the White House Conference “To Fulfill These Rights.” In 1992, Mr. Jordan served as the Chairman of the Clinton Presidential Transition Team. Jordan is a graduate of DePauw University and the Howard University Law School. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the Council on Foreign Relations and The Bilderberg Meetings. Jordan is the author of Vernon Can Read! A Memoir and Make It Plain, Standing Up and Speaking Out.

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September 11, 2018

Carmen de Lavallade

eight over eighty
An elderly woman elegantly poses against a dark background, dressed in a long-sleeved, deep red dress. Her eyes are closed as if concentrating, and she holds part of her skirt with one hand, suggesting she might be dancing or performing.

Carmen de Lavallade

Carmen de Lavallade has had an unparalleled career in dance, theater, film and television. She began with the Lester Horton Dance Theater, and appeared in four movies, including Carmen Jones with Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge, and Odds Against Tomorrow  again with Belafonte. Herbert Ross then asked her to appear as a dancer in the 1954 Broadway production of House of Flowers with Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Alvin Ailey and the man that would become her husband, Geoffrey Holder. Her dance career includes having ballets created for her by Lester Horton, Geoffrey Holder, Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, John Butler and Agnes de Mille. She became the principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera and was a guest artist with the American Ballet Theater. She has choreographed for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Philadanco, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the productions of Porgy and Bess and Die Meistersinger at the Met. She also has had an extensive acting career in numerous off-Broadway productions including Death of a Salesman and Othello. She taught movement for actors at Yale and became a member of the Yale Repertory Company and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard. She and Holder were the subjects of the film Carmen & Geoffrey, which chronicled their 60-year partnership and artistic legacy. Her most recent work includes 651 ARTS’ FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance, Step-Mother by Ruby Dee, Post Black by Regina Taylor, and the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Currently, de Lavallade is touring a dance/theater work about her life entitled As I Remember It. She received the Dance Magazine Award, an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School, the Duke Ellington Fellowship Award, and the Dance USA Award. She has performed on the world’s stages and with such legendary artists as Josephine Baker and Duke Ellington and in her 80s is still inspiring generations of artists and audiences with her grace and elegance.

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September 11, 2018

Iris Apfel

eight over eighty
An elderly woman with short white hair and large black glasses smiles warmly. She is wearing a striped robe adorned with multiple chunky necklaces in red, orange, and yellow colors. The background is an eclectic room filled with art and decorative items.

Iris Apfel

Iris Apfel is a style icon and self-described “geriatric starlet.” She consults and lectures about style, and her design projects have included work at the White House for nine presidents. In 2013, she was listed as one of the 50 Best-Dressed Over-50s by The Guardian newspaper. As a young woman, Apfel worked for Women’s Wear Daily and for interior designer Elinor Johnson, and was an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman. She and husband Carl Apfel launched the textile firm Old World Weavers. Through their business, the couple began traveling the world, where Apfel began buying pieces of non-Western, artisanal clothes, which she started wearing to the high-society parties of their clients. In 2005, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art premiered an exhibition about her style entitled Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel. At age 90 in 2012, she was a visiting professor at UT-Austin. Apfel is the star of a documentary by Albert Maysles called “Iris” that premiered at the 2014 New York Film Festival.

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September 11, 2018

Caroll Spinney

eight over eighty
A person with white hair and beard is smiling while standing between Big Bird, a large yellow bird character, and Oscar the Grouch, a green puppet in a trash can, both from Sesame Street. The background is a solid blue color.

Caroll Spinney

Caroll Spinney has been Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for over 40 years. Spinney’s rich puppetry career began when he was eight years old and put on puppet shows using a secondhand puppet and a stuffed green snake. His interest continued into adulthood, and in 1958 he began his puppetry career on The Judy and Goggle Show. Sesame Street television specials have taken Spinney to China, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and he has performed on a number of other shows, including 141 episodes of Hollywood Squares. He has earned four Emmys, two Gold Records, and two Grammy Awards. In 2000, the Library of Congress declared Spinney, as Big Bird, a “Living Legend.” With J Milligan, he wrote the 2003 book The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers. Most recently, Spinney received the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award from the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences. He is also an accomplished artist and lecturer.

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September 11, 2018

Liz Smith

eight over eighty
A smiling older woman with short, wavy blonde hair, dressed in a light pink turtleneck and a black pinstripe blazer. She is wearing striped earrings and is set against a bright yellow background.

Liz Smith

A writer of great humor, wit and empathy, Liz Smith goes well beyond the term “gossip columnist,” though she helped to define it. Since the 1950s she has never stopped writing, beginning with Hearst, continuing with Cosmopolitan, Sports Illustrated, the New York Daily News, Live at Five, Newsday, the New York Post, and now the Huffington Post and The New York Social Diary. She is a best-selling author and has the distinction of being the only columnist to ever have her column printed in three major New York City papers at the same time.

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September 11, 2018

Chita Rivera

eight over eighty
A woman with short, dark hair smiles, resting her chin on her hand. She wears red lipstick, diamond earrings, and a white top. Her eyes are bright, and her makeup is elegantly done.

Chita Rivera

Born in Washington, DC, Chita Rivera trained at the School of American Ballet before becoming one of Broadway’s most beloved stars. She garnered major attention for her role as Anita in 1957’s West Side Story, and earned her first Tony nomination for her role in 1960’s Bye Bye Birdie. Having won Tonys for her work in The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman, among many nominations and accolades, Rivera is a preeminent figure of the stage who’s also appeared in film and television. Rivera appeared in the 2003 revival of Nine and later headlined a revue of her career in Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, for which she received another Tony nomination. After appearing in the 2012 revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Rivera took on the lead role in The Visit, for which she received her 10th Tony nomination. Rivera received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 2002 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2009.

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