Will Sumner Redstone outlive Frank Biondi, Mel Karmazin, Tom Freston and Phil Dauman as well?

-SDH Sumner Redstone's preference in having lawyers run his media company isn't recent, it goes way back to the 1980's when Terrence A. Elkes was president of the company. Anyway Elkes passed away at the age of 73 due to complications of a malfunctioning heart valve. Elkes was 11 years younger the Sumner Redstone who is still healthy and strong enough to swim naked in his pool and perhaps spend bedroom time with his wife Paula (OK try not to picture that). Which one of old man Sumner's former lieutenants will be next to bow out before him? The man must be paying top dollar to make sure he wakes up every morning. Mr. Elkes joined the company as general counsel a year later, from Parsons & Whitmore, a privately owned paper mill company at which he had been vice president and general counsel. He became president of the company in 1978 and said at the time that he realized there were great cultural differences between the entertainment business and paper companies. Mr. Elkes realized that Viacom needed to expand. Among the deals that occurred on his watch was the decision to put Showtime together with the Movie Channel to compete against Time Warner’s Home Box Office. Viacom also acquired MTV Networks and CBS’s KMOX-TV and tried to buy parts of MGM/UA Entertainment. Terrence Elkes, 73, President of Viacom in ’80s, Dies [NYT]