Legend

It used to be that you had to be dead to qualify as a legend. Other qualities were required as well, of course, but you were nothing unless you were dead. Then gradually things began to change with the emergence of “legends in their own lifetime” (as opposed to somebody else’s lifetime). First only John Lennon and George Harrison could be legendary, but now Paul Macartney and (I think) Ringo Starr can as well.

Actually, “legendary” is already on the way out, replaced by the more economical “legend”, as in legend Lily Allen or legend Amy Winehouse.

These and many others are not only legends, they also have friends, as in Lily Allen and Friends, Pavarotti and Friends and, increasingly, Adolf Hitler and Friends.

Paul Newman: legendary screen actor or screen legend? Which is it to be? One thing is for sure, he was the Last of the Hollywood Greats, just as Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston were before him, and just as Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford will be after him.