Best Known As: Super-tanned actor and star of Dancing With the Stars 2
George Hamilton is an actor who is better known for his off-screen persona: a suave, well-dressed escort of beautiful women. He is particularly famous for his eternal golden-brown tan, which over the years has become something of a pop culture inside joke. His films have included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960, with Natalie Wood), Evel (1971, as daredevil Evel Knievel) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part III (1990). In the 1990s Hamilton opened a chain of upscale cigar bars and coffee clubs. His toe-tapping appearance as a competitor on Dancing With the Stars 2 in 2006 brought him a fresh round of applause.
The winner of the original Dancin' With the Stars in 2005 was actress Kelly Monaco... Hamilton's former wife Alana (1972-76) was later married to rock star Rod Stewart... Hamilton is not related to country music star George Hamilton IV... He played newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst in the 1997 film Rough Riders, and Santa Claus in the 2004 TV movie Too Cool for Christmas.
Career Highlights: Love at First Bite, Your Cheatin' Heart, Home from the Hill
First Major Screen Credit: The Well (1951)
Biography
Actor George Hamilton got his start in high school dramatics. Movie-star handsome, Hamilton played the lead in his very first film, Crime and Punishment USA (1959). While his acting talent was barely discernible in his earliest effort, Hamilton steadily improved in such MGM films as Home From the Hill (1960), Where the Boys Are (1960), Light in the Piazza (1961). He was at his best in a brace of biopics: in Warner Bros.' Act One (1963) he played aspiring playwright Moss Hart, while in Your Cheatin' Heart (1965), he registered well as self-destructive C&W singer Hank Williams. His much-publicized mid-1960s dating of President Johnson's daughter Lynda Bird was unfairly written off by some as mere opportunism, a calculated ploy to buoy up a flagging career. In fact, it did more harm than good to Hamilton: by 1969, movie roles had dried up, and he was compelled to accept his first TV-series role, playing jet-setter Duncan Carlyle in The Survivors. The following year, he starred as State Department functionary Jack Brennan in the weekly TV espionager Paris 7000. He staged a spectacular comeback as star and executive producer of Love at First Bite (1979), a screamingly funny "Dracula" take-off that won the actor a Golden Globe nomination. Even better was Zorro the Gay Blade (1980), which unfortunately failed to match the excellent box-office performance of First Bite but which still provided a much-needed shot in the arm to Hamilton's career. He went on to play such campish roles as villainous movie producer Joel Abrigor in TV's Dynasty (1985-86 season only) and jaded 007-type Ian Stone in the weekly Spies (1987). Throughout the thick and thin of his acting career, Hamilton remained highly visible on the international social scene, squiring such high-profile lovelies as Elizabeth Taylor and Imelda Marcos. He also remained financially solvent with his line of skin products and tanning salons. In 1995, George Hamilton hopped on the talk-show bandwagon, co-starring with his former wife Alana (who'd remarried rocker Rod Stewart) on a not-bad syndicated daily TV chatfest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
His stepfathers were Carleton Hunt and Jesse Spalding; his stepmother was June Howard, with whom Hamilton has said he had an affair when he was 12, shortly after she married his father.[3][4] His elder half-brother, William Potter, became an interior decorator for such prestige firms as Eva Gabor Interiors in Palm Springs where Hamilton also owned a home a few streets away from Elvis Presley and his manager Colonel Tom Parker, who became his good friend. Hamilton also has a younger brother, David Hamilton.
Career
Hamilton began his movie career in 1952. As an actor, he is often said to physically resemble Warren Beatty; Beatty's movie Bulworth contained a reference to this.
In the mid-1980s, he starred in the 6th season of the ABC Aaron Spelling-produced nighttime television serial Dynasty. Hamilton was a semi-regular panelist on the 1998 revival of Match Game.
In 2003, he hosted The Family, a reality television series on ABC spanning one season in 2003. It starred ten members from a traditional Italian-American family, who were each fighting for a $1,000,000 prize.
In 2006, he competed in the second season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars[5] and was voted off in round 6. At age 66 and recovering from knee injuries, Hamilton, unable to match the limber dance moves of his younger competitors, charmed the audience and judges with endearingly silly dances utilizing props including a Zorro mask and sword from his 1981 filmZorro, The Gay Blade.
Also in 2006, it was rumored Hamilton would replace Bob Barker on The Price Is Right. He did an audition and in March 2007, TMZ reported that Hamilton was a frontrunner to replace Barker. According to Reuters, Hamilton was one of the final 3 contenders to host the show, alongside Mark Steines and Todd Newton.[6] Soon thereafter, Drew Carey was named as Barker's successor.
In August of 2008, Hamilton co-starred in Coma, a web series on Crackle.[7]
Along with a successful movie career, he is known for his style of dress. At one point he was known for having 100 bespoke suits in his closet. Hamilton's other trademark is his deep tan.
Personal life
In 1966, Hamilton had a relationship with Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, the daughter of the President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson. The relationship was highly publicized due to their high-profile postions, and it eventually ended in 1967.
Hamilton was married to actress Alana Stewart from 1972 to 1975. Their son, Ashley Hamilton, was born in 1974. George Thomas Hamilton is his younger son (born in January 2000) with Kimberly Blackford.
