The Los Angeles Times interviewed Freddie Gillette on Friday, but not about his stint as Orson Welles’ final driver.
Rather, the 85-year-old Gillette was questioned as a regular at the New Beverly Cinema, which has been called “the last pure bastion for 35mm film” in L.A.
“There aren’t that many revival theaters like this in Los Angeles,” Gillette said. “A lot of people become friends for the first time here. Sometimes you’ll see someone and, lo and behold, you’ll go and get coffee sometime or you go up to Greenblatt’s for a matzo-ball soup at 1 in the morning!”
He and friend Mark R. Deaver were interviewed after a showing of the 1964 movie Cheyenne Autumn, which was director John Ford’s final Western.
Gillette said he visits the New Beverly Cinema two or three times a week and prefers classic movies, but acknowledged that “the younger crowd likes excitement and violence.”
“I’m beyond that,” Gillette told the newspaper. “I went through that period. As time went on, I wanted films that were well written, with a story and a plot.”
Gillette, who worked for Welles for years, discovered his boss’ body at his Hollywood home on the morning of October 10, 1985.
Last November, Gillette attended the AFI Fest 2016 special screening of Citizen Kane at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, which featured a master class offered by Peter Bogdanovich and Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice.
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