It is fitting that Robert Wagner’s memoirs came out around the same time as Roger Moore’s because they are two actors with a lot in common: smooth types who are greatly liked and respected within the industry, don’t enjoy reputation as great actors, thrived under contract for studios, had active love lives, had a career which went into several phases, enjoyed great success on the small screen, turned producer and thrived. Wagner never had a role in his career like James Bond or Simon Templar (although he could have played either role; indeed he says Broccoli approached him about Bond in the immediate post-Lazenby years but he begged off), but he was a bigger star than Moore in the 50s. The two men were friends – both close to David Niven.
This is even better than Moore’s book, not as funny but far better written (Scott Eyman co-wrote). I was familiar with a fair bit of Wagner’s life from an excellent unpretentious paperback bio Natalie and Rj but this adds a lot.
Wagner was born into a wealthy family who lived in Bel Air – his father was mates with Bill Wellman and he used to caddy for Clark Gable. Although Dad wanted RJ (as he is best known) to go into the family business, he wanted to act. Wagner wasn’t blessed with great natural talent but he was very good looking and Fox put him under contract as a sort of back up to Tyrone Power (like Jeffrey Hunter). Like David Niven, he had a great knack for being likeable and getting people to take him under their wing; he worked hard and was very keen and pro-active – he wasn’t his father’s son for nothing – and started to get little roles. A small scene as a soldier in With a Song in My Heart saw him become a bobby sox idol, up there with Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and Rory Calhoun. Like many of them, his agent was Henry Wilson.
Wagner never reached the heights of Curtis or Hudson but he did reasonably well for himself. Fox gave him plenty of chances, and he definitely reached the second tier of stardom, playing juvenile leads to older stars in films like Broken Lance. But he never broke through to the top, even when given a chance. For instance Prince Valiant did well but Wagner had a tremendously silly haircut which made him something of a joke for a while; ditto Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, which became a hit off the back of CinemaScope but in which Wagner wore a golliwog wig; or in The Mountain in which he was absurdly cast as Spencer Tracy’s brother.
Marriage to Natalie Wood gave him a few more years near the top, but when the tide ran out it ran out fast. It wasn’t entirely his fault – Hollywood was changing and Wagner was too associated with old school Hollywood. This turned to his advantage, however, when he became a television star. There were two semi hits, then a big one with Hart to Hart. His remarriage to Wood was one of Hollywood’s greatest love stories; her death from drowning one of its greatest tragedies.
I always figured Wagner was a ladies’ man, but also thought that he was the kind who wouldn’t kiss and tell. Well, I was wrong: we hear about flings with Joan Crawford (they went for a swim – she came out naked and dived into the pool which is kind of hot; apparently she was a domineering and yielding lover), Yvonne de Carlo, Anita Ekberg, Elizabeth Taylor (which surprised me), Joan Collins, chaste dating with Debbie Reynolds, plus a four year relationship with Barbara Stanwyck (a fire cracker in the sack apparently). He knocked back Bella Darvi and Noel Coward (he seems to have had many gay friends throughout his life – but then Natalie Wood was a big time fag hag star).
Wagner is one of those stars who seem to get along with everyone – he was particularly close to David Niven and Spencer Tracy; he even hit it off with Peter Sellers. Errol Flynn gave him a lift when he was a hitchhiker, which is nice of Errol; he later tells about walking in on Errol’s dressing room during the filming of Too Much Too Soon to find the swashbuckler getting a blow job from a blonde – Beverly Aadland?
Wagner was going to make a film with Flynn, Clifton Webb and Joan Collins in the late 50s for Fox called Lord Vanity (off the back of Flynn’s success for Fox in The Sun Also Rises) but Flynn died before it could get going. He was also going to make an interesting-sounded project with Dick Powell, Solo, about a jazz musician with a score by Andre Previn that was unfortunately watered down then cancelled; he turned down the second male lead in Flaming Star for fear it would hurt his career – I think that was a mistake; admittedly the film wouldn’t have done anything for his career, but it was a decent role and is one of Elvis Presley’s best films. He says Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was “dangled in front of him” for a bit – he would have been fine if not magical; he would have been very good as the husband in Rosemary’s Baby which he was apparently all set to do but he couldn’t get released from It Takes a Thief.
Wagner did clash with some people – Frank Tashlin, Maximillian Schell, Lesley Anne Downe, Stanley Donen… actually come to think of it that's a lot (I didn't know Charlie Brackett was gay.) Wagner also gets a bit grumpy at times about things – law suits, the population explosion in LA – and while he tells a good anecdote, he’s maybe a bit too worshipful of older Hollywood stars (maybe because they were his elders rather than his contemporaries eg Spencer Tracey, Fred Astaire, Bette Davis – I mean, what’s there is enjoyable anecdotes but the characters never feel as fleshed out as say in David Niven’s memoirs; it feels as though Wagner is overly deferential). Still a highly enjoyable book; at times very moving, and full of sensible advice for actors, both in terms of craft and career.
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