Long Live Walter Jameson

"Long Live Walter Jameson" is episode 24 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

The narration continues after the camera cuts to an elderly man seated among the students during Jameson's lecture.

Plot

Walter Jameson, a college professor, is engaged to a young doctoral student named Susanna Kittridge. Susanna's father, Sam Kittridge, another professor at Jameson's college, becomes suspicious of Jameson because he does not appear to have aged in the twelve years they have known each other and seems to have unrealistically detailed knowledge of some pieces of history that do not appear in texts. Jameson at one point reads from an original Civil War diary in his possession. Later, Kittridge spots the diary's author, Major Hugh Skelton, in a Mathew Brady Civil War photograph and finds Jameson looks exactly like Skelton.
After Kittridge presents these pieces of evidence, Jameson admits he is indeed Skelton, but is far older, and implies he knew Plato personally. Concerned about death, he asked an alchemist if there was a means to become immortal. The alchemist agreed, but Jameson does not know what was done to him, only that the alchemist was gone when he recovered. He believed the experiments failed, but in time he watched those around him age and die, while he did not. Soon, he had to become a constant wanderer. He tells Kittridge he has learned from living for so long that the point of death is to make life meaningful. He keeps a revolver in his desk drawer, but does not have the courage to use it.
Jameson knows he would have to abandon Susanna after some time, but he does not care. Recognizing this, Kittridge refuses permission for Jameson to marry his daughter. Jameson defies him by proposing to Susanna that they immediately elope. Kittridge vows to expose Jameson, but he reminds Kittridge that no one will believe him.
Briefly stopping at his study, Jameson is accosted by a woman named Laurette, who identifies him as Tom Bowen, her husband. Laurette claims she cannot allow Jameson to abandon Susanna as he abandoned her years ago. She discovers Jameson's pistol lying on his desk and shoots him. Shortly after Bowen leaves, Kittridge enters Jameson's study and finds him bleeding, but seemingly at peace. Jameson rapidly ages and collapses on the floor. Susanna enters the house. Kittridge tries to stop her from seeing the aged Jameson, saying only that he is gone. He is unable to keep her out of the room, but inside she discovers only an empty suit of clothes with a white substance near the collar and sleeves. When Susanna asks what is on the floor, the professor replies, "Dust, only dust."

Makeup effects

The scenes of Walter Jameson's aging were performed by using an old movie-making trick. Age lines were drawn on actor Kevin McCarthy's face in red make-up. During the beginning of the scene, red lighting was used, bathing the scene in red and hiding the age lines. As the scene progressed, the red lights were turned down and green lights were brought up. Under the green lights, the red age lines were prominent. The lighting changes were unseen by the audience because it was filmed in black-and-white. A subsequent episode, "Queen of the Nile", used a similar effect.

Home media

For the DVD release Kevin McCarthy returned to record an audio commentary for the episode, revealing that he never met Rod Serling and that, aside from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, his appearance in this episode generated the most fan mail he ever received.