Entertainment | Books
A life nobody would mind
George Hamilton has seen lots of action and cuts but has his humour intact
- By Susan King, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
- Published: 00:14 January 3, 2009
- George Hamilton, with a slightly spoofy painting of his. The actor has published his memoirs recently
- Image Credit: Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times
As George Hamilton opens the door of his stylish Los Angeles condominium, his super swarthiness appears on the pale side, with even a hint of freckles on his face.
What happened? Is tanning no longer part of his daily regimen?
“I find I don't have the time right now,'' joked the still lanky 69-year-old. “When I was working constantly in films, you really had to keep your tan.
"Cary Grant and I talked one day and he said a tan is the greatest thing in the world because you don't have to wear make-up. Then I did a western with Glenn Ford years later and he said, ‘Make-up is an hour's waste of time. Just sit outside here in the morning.'''
Hamilton, who spends most of the year in Palm Beach, Florida, is in Hollywood to discuss his self-deprecating and witty autobiography, Don't Mind If I Do, which he wrote with William Stadiem.
He is the first to admit that his life has been “absolutely outrageous''.
Hamilton had a wild upbringing with a much-married mother who travelled the country with her three sons looking for love and a father for her children. Along the way, he became a film star before he was 20.
“Films were pale to what my life was,'' Hamilton said.
Ups and downs
Although he has had tragedies in his life, such as the death of his older brother Bill, the book isn't a tell-all weepie.
“There is an old expression: Life to the feeling man is a tragedy and to the thinking man a comedy,'' he noted.
“I never copped a plea on good behaviour. I never took it that way. I remember sitting with [David] Niven and listening to him tell stories. Michael Caine, I love listening to Michael's stories. And that is the way I saw my life. The joke was always there.''
He got some of that from his late mother, Teeny, who fell victim to dementia as she entered her eighties.
“My mother used to say: ‘All my old friends are becoming new.' It's all about perception and we would laugh at it.''
There is even good humour in a painting of Hamilton that adorns the dining room wall.
It depicts a much younger — and, yes, tanner — Hamilton at his most suavely sophisticated, standing in what looks to be the moors of England. “It's supposed to be from Wuthering Heights,'' he explained, laughing.
Don't Mind If I Do is filled with juicy anecdotes about the women in his life — including actress Susan Kohner, to whom he was engaged; Elizabeth Taylor; Lynda Bird Johnson; Danielle Steel; and his ex-wife, Alana.
It also recounts his years under contract at MGM in the early 1960s, when he made films, including Home From the Hill, Where the Boys Are and Your Cheatin' Heart; his career ups and downs; his comebacks in such comedies as Love at First Bite; and his stint on Dancing With the Stars.
Dream sequence
Along the way he forged friendships with the likes of Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, George Peppard, Imelda Marcos and even Elvis Presley's notorious manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Being part of the Hollywood crowd in his early twenties, he recalled, was surreal. “All of a sudden I'm in a room and [film stars] are talking to me like a human being,'' he says.
“It was like I had been thrown into a film screen from a seat in a film house and I couldn't quite believe it. I'm talking to Robert Mitchum and he's bigger than the guy on screen.''
But it is Hamilton's portrait of his early life — with his Auntie Mame-esque mother, who was married four times; his brother Bill, an interior decorator; and his younger brother David — that is the most enjoyable part of Don't Mind If I Do.
He was born in Memphis, the son of belle Teeny and her second husband, bandleader George “Spike'' Hamilton.
His early life was filled with dicey financial situations and numerous travels around the country as Teeny went searching for boyfriends and husbands after his parents separated in 1944, when George was a young boy.
“As long as you feel that you belong, and there's love, you'll come out of it all right,'' Hamilton said of those years. “It is a sense of belonging to a team and having a place in that team — however you get your love. I had that.''
One of Teeny's escapades has been turned into a feature film for which Hamilton was executive producer, My One and Only, starring Renee Zellweger as his mother.
The comedy, scheduled for release soon, chronicles the family's travels across the United States in a beat-up car as Teeny seeks a husband and father for her boys.
Hamilton never had problems adjusting to his various schools because he learnt early how to get along with people.
“I'd go from a Southern military school to a tough school in Boston and even in Hawthorne,'' Hamilton says.
He learnt he could disarm his classmates, even the biggest bully, through humour.
“I could impersonate anybody,'' he said, smiling at the thought. “That is when I started acting.''
Share this article
More from Books
More from Arts & Entertainment
Weekend Review takes an in depth look at the issues behind the news
Popular in Entertainment
-
Gallery
Bollywood celebwatch
A look at Bollywood's best and brightest stars in action
Entertainment Editor's choice
-
Sophie Marceau 'not narcissistic'
Femme fatale of the world's not enough opens up about her tryst with fame
-
tabloid!'s favourite disaster movies
Ahead of new blockbuster 2012, check out tabloid!'s pick of the best disaster films
