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Old Fart Rudy Boesch, the 72-year-old Seal who retired in 1990 after 45 years in the U.S. Navy, got the shaft this week.
Finalist Boesch--as 41- to 51-million television viewers of Survivor learned Aug. 23--didn't survive to win $1 million in the 13-week CBS-TV "reality" soap opera unfolding since May 31 on the Malaysian island of Pulau Tiga Ramona.
Boesch, one of 16 contestants in the 39-day production completed last spring, lost to corporate trainer Richard "Darth Gaydar" Hatch, a limp-wristed nudist favored by only 11.75 per cent of poll respondents on the show's official website. Boesch, by contrast, was favored by 53.47 per cent.
Odds were against Boesch from the start, of course. Rudy was the 13th contestant to be eliminated by politics--not by lack of stealth, cunning or courage.
Unlike the others, Rudy could have survived forever on grubs and rats. He was helpless, however, when it came to backbiting and building secret alliances.
Boesch, a resident of Virginia, will just have to do what other famous former Seals do: Run for governor.(27 AUGUST 2000)