Plimpton also earned a temporary position with the New York Philharmonic, playing the sleigh bells, triangle, bass drum and gong.
Born to an aristocratic New York family on March 18, 1927, Plimpton attended the elite prep school Phillips Exeter Academy.
“Even in those days he had a gift for coming up with amusing pranks,” said Edward M. Lamont ’48, Plimpton’s classmate at both Exeter and Harvard.
Plimpton’s Exeter record was marred by disciplinary troubles, including one incident in which he was caught at night while “carrying a stuffed rhinoceros head into the Assembly Hall,” Lamont said.
Three months prior to graduation, Exeter officials asked Plimpton to leave.
Plimpton’s Harvard years were dominated by his involvement in the Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.
Plimpton “majored in Lampoon and minored in everything else,” said Robert C. Cobb ’48, a fellow member of the Lampoon.
On the night of their induction into the Lampoon, Cobb said Plimpton was so drunk that he “ran out into the street and was run over by a parked car.”
Former Crimson Managing Editor J. Anthony Lewis ’48 said the Lampoon battled bitterly with The Crimson during Plimpton’s years, playing a tug-of-war with the Lampoon’s prized Ibis.
In one of his more memorable Lampoon pranks, Plimpton—riding a horse and clad in a British military uniform—stole the microphone from Gov. Robert F. Bradford ’23 during a ceremony in Lexington commemorating Paul Revere’s midnight ride, according to Cobb.
“[The Poonsters] yelled, ‘disperse, ye rebels,’ but nobody dispersed, and the affair died without a bang but with a whimper,” Cobb said. “They expected that state troopers would tackle them, but nobody moved.”
Plimpton was also a varsity squash letterman.
Plimpton’s graduation was delayed until 1950 by two years of military service, but he maintained ties with his former classmates, including Robert F. Kennedy ’48.
When Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968, Plimpton—who was walking in front of the senator—wrestled the gun away from assassin Sirhan Sirhan.
Plimpton was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002 and named a Chevalier of the French Légion d’Honneur.
“If I had my life to live over again, I think I would have been George Plimpton,” Cobb said.
Plimpton is survived by his wife and their two daughters, as well as two children from his first marriage.
The cause of death was most likely a heart attack, his agent, Timothy Seldes, told The New York Times.
His family requested that contributions in his memory be sent to The Paris Review Foundation, 541 East 72nd St., New York, NY, 10021.