Well, you know, Larry, I've always loved the motion picture industry since I saw my first
movie and this is something I've always wanted to do and I was lucky enough to pursue it
and through the years I started as an ingenue and then worked up to a leading man and I've
had, you know, it always hasn't been on top.
All actors have ups and downs, but I've been very fortunate.
The public's been very good to me and it's a privilege to be in this business so I'm
very happy about it.
You're a film buff, aren't you?
A bit.
I mean, you grew up a film fan.
You grew up in Los Angeles, didn't you?
You grew up in Southern California.
I grew up in Southern California and I was fortunate enough to be near a lot of the greats
in this business and was fortunate enough also to have worked with some really marvelous
people after I got into the industry.
What was your up break?
Well, I think the biggest break that I got was in a film called With a Song in My Heart
with Susan Hayward.
It was the Jane Froman story and I reacted to her and she sang some songs to me and I
was very touched and motivated by her and it was directed by a wonderful man called
Walter Lang who took great care of me and edited by a friend of mine, Watson Webb, and
they used the best, you know?
It was a good moment for me and Darrell Zanuck said when I walked out of the theater, the
people would be saying, you were in that film, you were that kid in the picture and that's
what happened and it was a big break for me.
Big, big break.
And then the parts started changing and the offers changed.
Yeah, the actors thrive on the parts, you know, and I was very lucky to be around and
get some good breaks.
And I got a big break with a picture I did called Harper with Paul Newman.
Paul gave me the opportunity of playing that part of beauty in that picture and it was
a whole different change for me and it started my career going into a different direction
and you know, you have those stepping stones along the way that keep you going for a while.
So I've been real lucky and I got very lucky in television too, Larry.
I've been very, very fortunate with that.
Arjay, do you ever think that your face gets in the way, this is serious, of us knowing
that you're a good actor?
You know, you've been around so long, so identifiable in certain parts, that we have a tough time
getting beyond that layer because we know you so well.
You know, I think you've got to, I've been very fortunate, Larry, you know, and you get
the parts that come at you and the roles that come at you and you try to do the best with
them that you can and hope that they turn out alright.
I've been very, very fortunate in this business and I love what I'm doing, I love the characters
that I play and sometimes, you know, you've got to use what you're feeling and what you
have and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
It doesn't work, it doesn't work.
Windmills of the Gods.
Yeah, I think so.
I like that character a lot.
I like the character of Mike Slade and I think that my behavior helped that character.
I was very flattered that Sidney Sheldon and Michael Viener, who produced the movie, asked
me to be in it.
Sidney was the executive producer of it and when you're asked by a writer to play his
material, it's definitely a compliment.
So I was very pleased to do that and I enjoyed working with Jacqueline very much.
I like Jacqueline Smith and we worked together quite a bit throughout the years and I have
a great deal of admiration for her so it was a joyous time for me.
Does criticism of a made-for-television movie affect the viewers?
Do you think, I know that some people have wrapped this, they see it in advance, do you
think that lowers the audience or the fact that it was a bestseller, people like yourself
and Jacqueline are in it, makes the critique writing for itself?
I really don't know, Larry.
You know, I've been handled sometimes very nicely by the critics and sometimes I've been
blasted pretty good.
I think that's the nature of the business.
I think that this is a good story, it's an interesting, obviously a tale that people
loved.
It was a bestseller, Sidney's one of Sidney's biggest books.
Jacqueline is so popular with the audiences and I think that our relationship works well
in the film and I think it's entertaining and that's the business we're in and hopefully
it'll, the public will like it, that's who we made it for.
Let's touch some bases and then we'll take phone calls for Robert Wagner.
You have been to South Africa, right?
Well, I've been to Africa but not in South Africa.
You did not go to South Africa?
No.
Would you go to South Africa?
Would I go to South Africa?
Would you make a film in South Africa?
No, no I wouldn't.
Would you, by the way, how's Jill St. John?
This is like everyone knows about this, right?
Jill St. John is absolutely wonderful, beautiful, talented and doing very well.
She was on your show with her book, which you were very generous to her about and she's
doing just beautifully.
She doesn't age.
I know it, it's amazing.
I mean the woman stays in such great shape that she's an inspiration really.
Now do you eat all that food that she cooks?
Are you the person who tests?
Yeah, I do pretty good with that and she is very conscious of fats and diets and all of
that kind of thing so it's all right.
You know, it's very good and the book has been so successful.
People have, from the point of view of the reaction of the public, they've really just,
I get people asking me about her mashed potatoes, you know, rather than my reviews, which sometimes
is good.
Are you going to get married?
Yes, I think we are in the future.
Future being 1988?
I feel like Rona Barrett but she's the same for me.
I don't know about 1988 but we are going to get married in the future, yes.
That's a definite.
I would say that's a definite, yeah.
What about a Robert Wagner book?
No, I don't think there'll be a Robert Wagner book.
Why not?
I'm not crazy about those books that are done on celebrities, I don't think that they're
very accurate and I think that the ones that are written are usually done for the reasons
of avarice and I get kind of tired of books on personalities.
I don't think there will not be a Robert Wagner book while I'm around, I don't believe.
Well, I imagine publishers would say to you, listen, you know, you've known a lot of people,
you've had a lot of great leading ladies, you must have a ton of inside stories.
Yes, I've had many offers to write about my involvement with many of the people that I've
worked with and I just wouldn't even think of doing a book about myself, my life or my
involvement with the friends that I've had in this industry.
They've all been wonderful and very private moments and marvelous times for me and I wouldn't
want to publicize that.
You've had something in your career that a lot of actors would kill for.
You worked with Sir Lawrence Olivier, did you not?
Yes, I did, yeah.
What was that like?
It was the most exciting experience, Larry, to have that opportunity.
I watched him, I rehearsed with him for five weeks.
My wife, Natalie Wood and I and Maureen Stapleton did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and to play Tennessee
Williams' words and have the opportunity to play that part and to work with Sir Lawrence
Olivier was the highlight of my career and to watch him start to put together his work
and to be around him.
He's a wonderful man.
I've known him for a long time.
I met him in 1951 and the wonderful thing that he has, Larry, is that he breaks away
all of that Sir Lawrence Olivier and Lord Olivier and the best actor.
You're never aware of that at all.
He breaks all of that.
He's a regular guy, right?
Oh, absolutely.
He's got a lot of humor, great, wonderful man, such a great soul.
Boy, you worked with him and Spencer Tracy, right?
Yes, I did.
Not a bad lot to keep.
Do good actors make you better?
Absolutely.
The better the actor, you can't do it alone.
You have to have a player.
You've got to have somebody to work with and when you have the opportunity of having someone
like that to play opposite, it is indeed one of the great thrills of all time.
Our guest is R.J., Robert Wagner, one of the best and he's been doing it a long time.
He stars with Jacqueline Smith in Windmills of the Gods.
It airs February 7th and 9th on CBS.
We'll take your phone calls and then Dexter Manley.
We'll be back with Robert Wagner after these words.
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Now, back to Larry King Live on CNN.
We're gonna go to your phone calls for Robert Wagner at the bottom of the hour.
And now, we're gonna hear from the next extra manly Robert Stars along with Janklin Smith
in Windmills of the Gods.
Sidney Sheldon's book is now a made-for-television film.
CBS Sunday, Helton, Michigan.
Hello.
Hi, Bob.
How you doing?
Listen, I'm wondering if you're ever gonna do It Takes a Thief again, because I really
enjoyed that show.
Yeah, how about a nostalgia trip to It Takes a Thief?
I loved that series.
I loved it.
I loved it today, and it was created by a man called Roland Kibbe for me, and I just
loved playing it.
I would love to go back and do it again.
I thought maybe we might do an idea sometime of maybe I had a son along the way, and he
shows up and we start off again.
I don't know.
We may try to do a couple things like that.
I love that character.
I like playing that show a lot.
Do you like Switch, too?
Yes, I like doing Switch very much with Eddie Albert and Charlie Callis and Sharon Gless.
I had a great time doing that show.
Was that Sharon Gless's first show?
Yeah, that was her first television series.
She ain't done bad.
No, pretty good.
Badly.
North Bergen, New Jersey for R.J. Robert Wagner.
Hello.
Hello, Mr. Wagner.
Hello, dear.
How are you?
Fine, thank you.
I didn't say it's a big throw to talk to you, but I wanted to ask you, is there any plans
to make a film about your wife, Natalie, about her life as a child star and how it progressed
and any plans like that?
I don't know whether there are any plans to make a picture about Natalie.
I think that it would be an interesting story because she had a wonderful career and as
a child and she worked with so many people and she had a wonderful life.
There was some talk about it at one time, but I think maybe we might wait a little while
before we do that.
You would be supportive of an effort?
It would depend upon how they treated the material, Larry.
I don't know how much of a story is there in the beginning of her life.
Let's say they wanted to do it and it laid out alright.
I find that most of those stories are so inaccurate.
That's the problem that happens.
They take it and turn it around and the people that are involved with them, they try to create
a false conflict in a story and it sometimes is not really true to the person.
We go to Clancyon, Rhode Island with Robert Wagner.
Hello.
Hello, Robert.
How are you this evening?
Good evening, dear.
How are you?
Good, thank you.
I was a great fan of you and Stephanie Powers on Hot to Hot.
I was wondering if you were still close and had a good relationship.
Oh, yes.
We're very close.
As a matter of fact, Stephanie is now, I just talked to her yesterday.
She's in Africa.
She's doing a mini-series about a lady called Beryl Markham and we talk quite often with
each other.
We're very close friends, very dear friends, as we both are with Lionel Stander who played
Max.
It was a wonderful relationship, that relationship that we all had on that show and I'm glad
that you liked watching it because we had a very, very good time making it.
So much so.
Isn't it true that many people thought you were married?
Yes, they did.
They thought that Stephanie and I were man and wife.
It was really quite funny sometimes.
We'd be walking down the street and people would say that we were together.
We had a lot of fun with that.
And she and Jill St. John look somewhat alike, don't they?
Yeah, they do.
That's something else.
Morristown, New Jersey with Robert Wagner.
Hello.
Hello.
I thought it was so sweet, the question about the follow-up to Switch and it takes a seat.
My question is, I don't think Mr. Wagner looks old enough to play the father of the follow-up
and what is his secret of youth?
You're so sweet.
How old are you, Roger?
Seriously, how old are you?
I'm going to be 58 next Wednesday.
Okay, do you take, are you a physical fitness nut?
Do you have special diets?
I mean, you don't look 58.
Well.
Anything special you do?
You know, I think a lot of it, I mean, I do take vitamins and I take all sorts of things
and I kind of, you know, try to watch it as much as I can,
but I've really been very lucky because my mother, who you know, is alive
and she's very healthy and looks wonderful and I think, you know,
I got a great break by getting some good genes and I think that's helped a lot.
But I watch the food and I watch the diet a bit and also I've been lucky
because I've got a positive nature about me and I think that helps a great deal.
What do you mean?
You mean a positive nature would help the way you look?
I think so.
I think that if you have a feeling that is good in life instead of bridging it up
and getting a lot of anxiousness going for you
and you can kind of look at the bright side and, you know, I think it helps.
It reflects your feeling, you know.
I think if you can smile a little bit, it helps.
It takes wrinkles away, right?
I don't know.
Smile, good things happen.
Westchester, New York with Robert Wagner.
He stars with Jacqueline Smith in Windmills of the Gods.
Hello.
Hi, Bob Wagner.
It's a pleasure to speak to you.
Good evening. Thank you.
Good evening.
I was wondering if your younger children have an inclination in showbiz?
Oh, yes. Go ahead.
I was wondering about the younger girls.
Well, yes, they do.
As a matter of fact, my second daughter, Natasha, she's studying now drama.
She's going to go to college and take theater and drama in college.
And my younger daughter, Courtney, who's 13, she shows a very big interest for it.
And I really hope that they pursue it.
It's a marvelous way to meet so many people and try so many things and be inquisitive about life.
And the thing that I really hope for is that they have enough support emotionally
to be able to handle the rejections that come along with it.
But it's their choice.
I don't really encourage them about it now.
I'd really rather have them have an education and have the opportunity of being little girls
and grow up and feel some of those emotions before they start to attack their career.
There are some parents in the same business as you, the same profession,
who don't want their kids to get in it for some of the reasons you mentioned,
the disappointments, the odds are so much against you to start with.
It's the lowest paying union in America is the Screen Actors Guild, right?
Those are the minuses.
Yes, but I think that it all depends on who the individual is.
That happens with everything that you approach.
I mean, life is difficult to deal with under whatever you choose to take, Larry.
And with this industry and with the material that's written and the places you can go
and the people you can meet and the kind of work that you do,
if you can give a little joy to somebody and you can do it, why not try it?
Toronto, Canada for Robert Wagner. Hello.
Yes, I'll make it very, very quick, Mr. Wagner.
One of the finest movies that I have ever seen was Broken Lance.
And I would like you to comment on it,
because I believe you worked in that movie with Spencer Tracy and James Peters and Richard Woodmark.
Would you comment on that, please? I'll hang up.
That's kind of now like the semi-classic, isn't it?
Yes, it is, Larry. And I can comment on it.
It was directed by Edward Demetrius, one of the best directors we've ever had in our industry.
Spencer Tracy, yes, indeed, was in it.
Richard Woodmark, who is one of the finest actors we've ever had.
And Gene Peters, it started off with a wonderful script.
It was based on a movie that was made called House of Strangers.
And I had the good fortune of playing Spencer Tracy's son in that movie.
And it changed my career and turned it really into a different direction
and started a relationship with a man who I loved dearly and deeply and respected very much.
And it was a great period of time in my life, and it's one that I look back at.
The skies were really blue in those days, and it was wonderful for me.
Was one of the aspects of Spencer Tracy's greatness the fact that it never looked like he was ever acting?
Oh, it was amazing. You never had any idea that he was working.
You know, it's an interesting thing. You've never noticed, at least I never have,
you've never heard of a person doing an impersonation of Spencer Tracy.
Never heard it.
I've never seen that. You know, and he was on the screen for what, fifty years?
And he had a certainly voice that stuck out. It was a great voice.
Oh, it was great.
No one does it.
No, he was a wonderful actor, and he brought all that material to himself, and he let it come out of him.
He was a marvelous human being.
I mean, he had great humor, wonderful wit about himself,
and he took out all that material and that behavior and he just stripped it away and made it him.
It was wonderful to watch him work. You were never aware of him acting.
And that's the greatest compliment you can give an actor, and people loved him.
Lawrence Olivia, you know, when he'd come to America to do a part, would go to Spencer Tracy and have him help him.
No kidding.
Oh, yes. Absolutely.
Jacksonville, Florida for Robert Wagner. Hello.
Hi, Mr. Wagner. I've always been a really big fan of yours, especially on A Tick to Feet when you played with Fred Astaire.
He was wonderful, a man as he seemed.
Indeed.
What was he like?
Indeed. Fred Astaire was one of the great gentlemen of our time.
Again, another wonderful, wonderful human being.
When I was a little boy, I went to school with Fred Astaire's son.
Fred Astaire used to come and pick me up at that school and put me in the car.
He'd pick me up. I was seven or eight years old, put me in the car.
I never saw Fred Astaire on the screen. I didn't know he was a dancer.
I didn't know he had this marvelous international stardom that he had created, this uniqueness as a dancer and as a singer.
But I could feel it, and I've never forgotten it.
He had great love within him and great, great feelings.
And he was a marvelous human being. I knew him up until the time that he passed away.
And he was one of the great, most wonderful people that I've ever had the privilege of knowing.
Was he as classy as the image?
Yes. He was as classy as the image, and he had a soul and a feeling that was so dear and enchanted him to say it.
He was so enchanting to so many people. I mean, he was a wonderful, wonderful human being.
Gardner, Maine. For Robert Wagner, you'll see him in Windmills of the Gods. Hello.
Hi, Larry. Hi, Mr. Wagner.
Hello.
I was wondering if you are still actively involved in the Samantha Smith Foundation.
Yes, I am, and I'm trying to make this film on Samantha's life with her mother, Jane.
And I am very involved with the Samantha Smith Foundation.
She was a marvelous little girl, and I'm hoping that we're going to be able to make this picture and say what she really stood for.
And what I thought that she stood for was that one little girl in this world could make the difference, and she did.
And I hope that I'm going to be able to do that.
She's the girl who went to the Soviet Union, right? Wrote the letter?
Yes.
And then died in the plane crash?
Yes, she was the girl that went to the Soviet. She wrote to and drop off, and drop off indeed answered her letter.
And she was invited to the Soviet Union, and she took that opportunity and went with her father, Arthur, and her mother, Jane.
And then later, Arthur and Samantha were killed in an airplane crash.
And her mother was on this program. And you were doing what, a TV series with her?
I was doing Lime Street, and she played my daughter in Lime Street, and she was coming back to come to Maine, to come back to Maine,
and leave Maine for California, and she was killed on the way up to Maine after she left London.
One more call for Bob Wagner, Wichita, Kansas. Hello.
Hello, Mr. Wagner. I know you've been in the production, and you were just talking about that of shows.
Have you ever been interested in directing anything?
Well, yes, I have. And I have directed a bit.
But, you know, there's so many wonderful directors around, and I think to be an actor and direct yourself is difficult.
I don't know whether I would be able to do that.
But also, the thing that's so important and so fine that the directors do is that they can prepare it.
They have time. They have preparation. Everything with direction is preparation.
The script, preparation, and cast. And there's a lot of fine directors around.
Right now, I'm more concentrating on acting and scripts in that area.
Do you ever direct any episode of any television series you did?
Yeah, I directed a couple of episodes.
But you don't look like you were too thrilled with it.
Well, I tell you, Larry, the greatest, the best thing in this business is to be an actor,
because you don't have to all of the responsibility. A director has to answer to everything.
I have such admiration for directors. They have to, everybody's coming to them.
They're asking about the scenes, the lines, the sets, the music, everything.
I mean, you have to go with it all the way.
In other words, he needs it, right?
Well, I'd love to do it sometime. I would really love to direct a movie sometime.
But not right now, because I've got my life is concentrating on my acting instead of directing.
R.J., thanks. My best to Jill and to your mom.
Thanks so much, Larry, for having me on the show again. I appreciate it very much.
And be sure to say hello to Dexter for me. I like him.
He's right here. He likes you, too.
Robert Wagner likes you, Dexter. The price of fame.
Okay, we're going to pause and come back with Dexter Manley of the world champion Washington Redskins.
He's one of the best known players in the National Football League.
He's also one of the best players in the National Football League.
Monday night, Michael Deaver will be here.
We're going to learn a lot about the Reagan White House.
Tuesday night, Tip O'Neill.
Also on Monday night, we'll follow the Iowa caucuses, get your comments on the results.
We'll get Mr. Deaver's comments as well.
And Tip O'Neill will certainly have post-reaction on Tuesday.
We'll be right back with the great Dexter Manley on Larry King Live next. Don't go away.
Coming up, the statesman of the Super Bowl, Dexter Manley.
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I came up with a solution that we're going to renegotiate the president's contract for four more years.
Next, Jim Anley, formerly of Oklahoma State, defensive end, Washington Redskins.
One of the better-known players in the National Football League had a wonderful Super Bowl.
Did you like that week out there? You didn't like it?
Oh, I loved it. It was fantastic.
All the hype and just the part of being a part of the Super Bowl, all the part of festivities, it was fantastic.
And they even took you seriously when you were putting them on, right?
Well, I was serious.
You really wanted written questions submitted?
Yes.
Why? Because there were dumb questions there.
Well, it was so repetitious. I felt that there's only so much.
It was always, Elway, what can I do to Elway, this, that, and the other.
I got to a point where it was so redundant, I just got tired of it.
I just felt that, I wanted to ask Elway, how is he going to defend me?
It was enough.
Yeah, it was enough. It was enough.
Because during the course of the week, I have to get prepared to play football.
And that's on Wednesday, was our first day back.
So I felt that what I had to do was get prepared for the Super Bowl.
Not fraternize with the reporters and keep answering a bunch of questions over and over.
Did you speak to Elway during the league game?
Yes, we did talk.
You messed up on the question.