Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 870.
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 217.
His exceedingly handsome looks and attractive personality
George Stevens Hamilton was born in Memphis, TN, in 1939. He was the son of Anne Lucille (Stevens) Potter Hamilton Hunt Spaulding and her husband (of four), George William 'Spike' Hamilton, a touring bandleader. George's older half-brother, William Potter, became an interior decorator for Eva Gabor Interiors in Palm Springs. Moving extensively as a youth due to his father's work, young George got a taste of acting in plays while attending Palm Beach High School.
With his exceedingly handsome looks and attractive personality, he took a bold chance and moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s. MGM saw in George a budding talent with photogenic appeal. After some guest appearances on TV, he made his film debut as the lead in Crime & Punishment, USA (Denis Sanders, 1959), an offbeat, updated adaptation of the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel, set in the beatnik scene. While the film was not overwhelmingly successful, George's heartthrob appeal was obvious. He was awarded a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer and was nominated for Best Foreign Actor by the British Film Academy (BAFTA).
This led to a series of films, including the memorable Southern melodrama Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), which starred Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker and featured another handsome, up-and-coming George (George Peppard). In Angel Baby (Paul Wendkos, 1961), he played an impressionable lad who meets up with evangelist Mercedes McCambridge.
In Light in the Piazza (Guy Green, 1962), he portrayed an Italian playboy who falls madly for American tourist Yvette Mimieux to the ever-growing concern of her mother, Olivia de Havilland. He also appeared in such dreary no-brainers as All the Fine Young Cannibals (Michael Anderson, 1960) with Robert Wagner, the beach party comedy Where the Boys Are (1960), with Dolores Hart, and Looking for Love (Don Weis, 1964). More interesting was the anti-War drama The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963) in which he was among an all-star cast with fifteen American and European leading players.
He went to Mexico for Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965) with Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau. Malle cast Hamilton on the strength of his performance in the drama Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli, 1962) starring Kirk Douglas and Edward G. Robinson. Malle said about Hamilton: "He was a personal choice and I am happy with him... He's more interested in being in the social columns — I don't understand — when he should be one of the greatest of his generation". Hamilton also acted in several biopics - as playwright Moss Hart in Act One (Dore Schary, 1963), as ill-fated country star Hank Williams in Your Cheatin' Heart (Gene Nelson, 1964), and as motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel in Evel Knievel (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1971), a film which he also produced. The rest of the 1960s and 1970s, he rested on his fun-loving, idle-rich charm that bore a close resemblance to his off-camera image in the society pages.
Spanish postcard. Photo: M.G.M.
Spanish postcard, no. 9. Photo: Bengala Films. George Hamilton in All the Fine Young Cannibals (Michael Anderson, 1960).
A wonderful comeback in the form of a disco-era Dracula spoof
As the 1960s began to unfold, George Hamilton started making headlines more as a handsome escort to the rich, the powerful and the beautiful than as an acclaimed actor - none more so than his 1966 squiring of President Lyndon B. Johnson's daughter Lynda Bird Johnson. He was also once engaged to actress Susan Kohner, a former co-star. Below-average films such as Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (Peter Tewksbury, 1967) and The Power (Byron Haskin, 1968) effectively ended his initially strong ascent to film stardom.
Hamilton went into television in 1969, supporting Lana Turner in the all-star series Harold Robbins' The Survivors (1969–1970). From the 1970s on, George tended to be tux-prone on standard film and TV comedy and drama, whether as a martini-swirling opportunist, villain or lover. He had a supporting role in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (Richard C. Sarafian, 1973), starring Burt Reynolds. He produced and appeared in Medusa (Gordon Hessler, 1973). He starred in the TV movie The Dead Don't Die (Curtis Harrington, 1975) and had a supporting role in Once Is Not Enough (Guy Green, 1975) with Kirk Douglas.
A wonderful comeback for him came in the form of the disco-era Dracula spoof Love at First Bite (Stan Dragoti, 1979), which he executive-produced. Nominated for a Golden Globe as the campy neck-biter displaced and having to fend off the harsh realities of New York living, he continued on the parody road successfully with Zorro: The Gay Blade (Peter Medak, 1981) in the Mel Brooks tradition. Zorro was not as popular as Love at First Bite, and film leads dried up quickly. He focused on television and had a one-year stint on Dynasty during the 1985-1986 season. He also did a string of fun, self-mocking commercials, particularly his Ritz Cracker and (Toasted!) Wheat Thins appearances that often spoofed his overly tanned appearance. In the cinema, he had an interesting supporting part as B. J. Harrison, the Corleones' financial advisor, in The Godfather Part III (Francis Coppola, 1990)
He broke through the reality show ranks by hosting The Family (2003), which starred numerous members of a traditional Italianate family vying for a $1,000,000 prize, and participated in the second season of Dancing with the Stars (2005), where his charm and usual impeccable tailoring scored higher than his limberness. He played flamboyant publisher William Randolph Hearst in the Mini-series Rough Riders (John Milius, 1997), and the best-looking Santa Claus ever in A Very Cool Christmas (Sam Irvin, 2004). In 1989, he started a line of skin-care products and a chain of tanning salons. Into the millennium, he starred with Joe Mantegna and Danny Aiello as three celebrity tenors in Spanish-British-Italian comedy Off Key (Manuel Gómez Pereira, 2001). He also appeared in the Woody Allen comedy Hollywood Ending (2002) and the satire The L.A. Riot Spectacular (Marc Klasfeld, 2005). The comedy-drama My One and Only (Richard Loncraine, 2009), starring Renée Zellweger, is loosely based on George Hamilton's early life on the road with his mother and brother. The film is based on anecdotes that Hamilton had told to producer Robert Kosberg and Merv Griffin.
On TV, Hamilton enhanced several programs, including Nash Bridges, Pushing Daisies, and Hot in Cleveland. He also had a recurring supporting role as billionaire Spencer Blitz in the series American Housewife (2016). In the cinema, he could be seen in the political drama The Congressman (Robert Mrazek, 2016) with Treat Williams, the family dramedy Silver Skies (Rosemary Rodriguez, 2016), and the romantic comedy Swiped (Ann Deborah Fishman, 2018). Beginning in the summer of 2016, Hamilton appeared in TV commercials as the 'Extra Crispy' sun-tanned version of KFC's Colonel Harland Sanders. He later played the Colonel on an episode of General Hospital. In total, his cinematic oeuvre comprises around 130 film and television productions to date. George managed one brief marriage to actress/TV personality Alana Stewart from 1972 to 1975 (she later married and divorced rock singer Rod Stewart), the pair have a son, actor Ashley Hamilton, born in 1974. Another son, George Thomas Hamilton, born in 2000, came from his involvement with Kimberly Blackford. George Hamilton was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in 2009.
Vintage press photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Daliah Lavi and George Hamilton on the set of Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minelli, 1962), filmed in Rome.
Vintage press photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Daliah Lavi and George Hamilton doing the twist on the set of Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minelli, 1962), filmed in Rome.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment