WASHINGTON — After six decades on film and television, actor Robert Wagner has worked with some of the most famous leading ladies in Hollywood history.
Now, Wagner has penned the fascinating new book “I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood’s Legendary Actresses,” his third co-written with Scott Eyman after “Pieces of My Heart: A Life” (2008) and “You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age” (2014).
“The response has really been very, very positive to it, and it was something that we enjoyed doing very much,” Wagner told WTOP. “I was so blessed with the opportunity to meet these women and to have worked with them — not all of them in the book, but most of them. I’m just so grateful that I had that opportunity to meet these wonderful women who gave us all so very much in our lifetime.”
One of those screen legends is Bette Davis, who appeared in an episode of Wagner’s TV series “It Takes a Thief” (1968), for which he earned his first Emmy nomination and second Golden Globe nod.
“I had the fortune of meeting Bette when I was about 22 years old,” Wagner said. “Natalie [Wood], my late wife, knew her, and I had a chance to be in proximity with her. Then, I produced a movie with her later on [“Madame Sin”] and she worked with me in television. … We just became very good friends. She was a very special lady. She left me some things when she left us, and they’re big treasures to me.”
Wagner also shares memories of Marilyn Monroe, his co-star in the film “Let’s Make It Legal” (1951).
“We were very young and under contract at 20th Century Fox, and I did both of her screen tests,” Wagner said. “As a result of that, I got to know her. She was just such a wonderful young girl full of life and full of love and full of all sorts of energy. She wanted to be a star very badly and, boy, she did it!”
In addition to leading ladies such as Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Raquel Welch and Glenn Close, the book also features insights from Wagner’s male colleagues. For instance, Cary Grant told Wagner that his favorite co-star for comedic timing was Irene Dunne of “The Awful Truth” (1937), more than Katharine Hepburn in “Bringing Up Baby” (1938) and Rosalind Russell in “His Girl Friday” (1940).
“That’s interesting isn’t it?” Wagner said. “The movies that they did together I thought were just fabulous and I thought their combination was great, but I didn’t realize he had those feelings for her on that basis of her timing. She was really terrific. She was quite a wonderful actress. Think about what she gave us that we could grow up on! You can’t beat that. They were wonderful pictures.”
Wagner says women had it much tougher than men back in the 1950s when he broke into showbiz.
“They worked so hard, and they gave up so much in their lives,” Wagner said. “I mean, they were all very successful and it was all good, but those were the tough days! They were working six days a week, tough to keep a family going, keep a marriage going and keep a career going. That’s big time!”
Do women face similar challenges in today’s Hollywood compared to the Golden Age?
“I think the challenges are all there,” Wagner said. “It’s a very hard profession to keep yourself in shape; you have to look good, you have to have the ability to search for those characters and present them. The young actresses we have today are really just fabulous. There are so many wonderful actresses around, and they don’t have the protection as much today as they did in the old days.”
As for Wagner’s personal best chemistry, it’s hard to beat Stefanie Powers, with whom he earned four of his six Golden Globe nominations on the highly successful TV series “Hart to Hart” (1979).
“Of course, Stefanie Powers and I worked together for years, and that chemistry worked very well for both us,” Wagner said. “[As for the movies], I had very good chemistry I think with Elizabeth Taylor. I thought that we did a very good job on that picture [‘There Must Be a Pony’] we did together that I produced. And I worked with Audrey Hepburn [in ‘Love Among Thieves’]. I loved working with her.”
Most famous were the co-stars who became his real-life wives. He married Natalie Wood in 1957 and starred with her in “All the Fine Young Cannibals” (1960) before divorcing in 1962. He married Marion Marshall from 1963 to 1971, but when they too divorced, Wagner remarried Wood in 1972 and collaborated on “The Affair” (1973) before Wood tragically drowned on their yacht in 1981.
Wagner married his current wife Jill St. John in 1990, making five movies together: “Banning” (1967), “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” (1967), “Around the World in 80 Days” (1989), “Something to Believe In” (1998) and “The Calling” (2002). The couple also made a brief cameo as themselves in Robert Altman’s “The Player” (1992), as well as at the end of the “Yada Yada” episode of “Seinfeld.”
“It’s always wonderful to be able to work with someone that you’re that close with,” Wagner said. “I enjoyed working very much with Jill; Jill and I did quite a few things together. Also, Natalie and I did several movies together. It’s great being able to go to work, go home and you’re both working on the same project. It’s fascinating. I enjoyed it very much, and I was very grateful to have that experience.”
There’s one dream match-up we’d still love to see between husband and wife: Wagner reprising his role as Dr. Evil’s eye-patched henchman No. 2 in “Austin Powers” (1997) and St. John reprising her Bond girl Tiffany Case from “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971). What would No. 2 say to Ms. Case?
“Oh, baby! Baby, please,” Wagner said, laughing. “You’ve got some good questions! Oh, baby.”
Listen to the full conversation with Robert Wagner below:
