Walter Matthau: Six More Months
on Wednesday, January 12, 2022Walter Matthau Money Quote saying his doctor told him he’s dying asked him to pay his bill, extended his life span to pay off the bill. Walter Matthau said:
“My doctor gave me six months to live, but when I couldn’t pay the bill he gave me six months more” — Walter Matthau
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In this humorous quote, Walter Matthau is playing on the idea of a doctor extending a patient’s time left to live based on financial reasons rather than medical ones. Specifically:
- Matthau jokes that his doctor initially gave him a dire prognosis of only having “six months to live”.
- However, he then quips that when the doctor realized Matthau couldn’t pay the bill for telling him this, he generously gave the patient “six months more” of additional predicted life simply due to lacking payment.
The best interpretation is that Matthau is comically suggesting his doctor was willing to prolong his expiration date not for health reasons but due to lacking compensation for the office visit. Matthau portrays money as motivation even in matters of life and death predictions according to his comedic perspective on the intersection of medicine and finances.
Birthday: October 1, 1920 – Death: July 1, 2000