Background and career
George Stevens Hamilton (born August 12, 1939) is an American actor. For his debut performance in Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (1959), Hamilton won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. He has received one additional BAFTA nomination and two Golden Globe nominations. His early career was dominated by dramatic and leading man roles often based on his good looks and debonair style, while later film roles emphasizing more comedic roles and self-depreciating humor. Additionally, Hamilton was a longtime commercial spokesman for Ritz Crackers. According to Filmink "he managed to survive an incredible amount of flops to not only forge an entirely decent career of sixty plus years, but also evolved into a very good actor." Hamilton is known for his deeply tanned appearance, with Bo Derek joking about a competition between Hamilton and her late husband John Derek "as to who had the most tan!"
Hamilton was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and spent his early years with his mother, Ann (née Stevens), in Blytheville, Arkansas. He attended Hawthorne School in Beverly Hills, California. In 1950, his mother sent him to live with his father in the north. He briefly attended a progressive school in New York City before being sent to the Gulf Coast Military Academy in Gulfport, Mississippi. Hamilton's stepfathers were Carleton Hunt and Jesse Spalding; his stepmother was June Howard, with whom Hamilton said he had repeated sexual relations when he was 12, shortly after she married his father, and again when he was an adult.
Hamilton's first roles were in television, appearing in shows such as The Veil (playing an Indian), The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Donna Reed Show, and Cimarron City. His first film role was a lead, Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (1959), directed by Denis Sanders. Hamilton signed a five year contract with Denis and Terry Sanders' TD Productions.
Hamilton's work on Crime and Punishment was seen by MGM who cast him in Home from the Hill (1960) and put the actor under contract. He was considered for roles in The Time Machine, Cimarron, Mutiny on the Bounty and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. MGM cast Hamilton in support of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner in the melodrama All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) and the beach party comedy Where the Boys Are (1960). Hamilton appeared in the lower budgeted Angel Baby (1961), a drama about an evangelist, for Allied Artists, who had to borrow Hamilton from TD Productions. It had minimal commercial or critical impact. The movie was the feature debut of Burt Reynolds, who recalled "George was different. When I came to Hollywood, there were 175 Marlon Brandos, 2,000 Jimmy Deans, and a lot of Carroll Bakers. But nobody wanted to be David Niven, except George." Reynolds later said, "if anybody could have gotten him to be" as "relaxed and self-deprecating on film" as he was in real life "he would have been the next Cary Grant." For United Artists, Hamilton supported Lana Turner in the melodrama By Love Possessed (1961). MGM tried to change his image by putting him in the Western A Thunder of Drums (1961). In 1961 Hamilton brought suit against TD Productions but eventually settled out of court saying he would pay them $10,000 per picture for the next seven pictures in five years, exclusive of the ones he made for MGM. Hamilton's contract with TD Productions went to his own company, Ash Productions. Hamilton lobbied hard for the role of the Italian husband in Light in the Piazza (1962), with Olivia de Havilland. The film lost money, but Hamilton received excellent notices. It was shot in Italy, and MGM kept Hamilton in Italy to play a role in Two Weeks in Another Town (1962). Hamilton had a part in The Victors (1963), an anti-war drama from Carl Foreman. His performance was described as "excellent". Hamilton played Moss Hart in Act One (1963), After making a cameo in Looking for Love (1964), Hamilton appeared in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964), playing Hank Williams. He went to Mexico for Viva Maria! (1965). It was directed by Louis Malle, who cast Hamilton on the strength of his performance in Two Weeks in Another Town. Malle said, "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 made That Man George (1965), and appeared in a production of A Farewell to Arms (1966) on TV. He returned to MGM to make Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967), a romantic comedy with Sandra Dee, which was mildly popular. At Columbia, he co-starred with Glenn Ford in A Time for Killing (1967). Hamilton played a cat burglar in MGM's Jack of Diamonds (1967). It was produced by Sandy Howard, who said Hamilton was "a hot commodity these days" because he was dating Lyndon Johnson's daughter. Reports put his fee around this time at $100,000 per movie. He was drafted into the Army but received a 3-A deferral notice on the grounds that he was his mother's sole financial provider. The deferral was highly controversial because it was thought that his relationship with the president's daughter gave him preferential treatment. In 1968, Hamilton made The Power.
Hamilton went into television in 1969, supporting Lana Turner in the all-star series Harold Robbins' The Survivors (1969–70). When the show was canceled in January 1970, Hamilton went into Paris 7000 (1970). He portrayed a troubleshooter for the U.S. State Department in Paris. This series was canceled in March 1970. He starred in the TV films Togetherness (1970) and The Last of the Powerseekers, a 1971 compilation of two episodes of Robbins' The Survivors.
Hamilton moved into producing to give himself greater control over his career. He produced and played the title role in Evel Knievel (1971). Hamilton had the script rewritten by John Milius, and the latter called Hamilton "a wonderful guy, totally underrated. A great con-man, that's what he really is. He always said 'I'll be remembered as a third-rate actor when in fact, I'm a first-rate con man.'" Filmink argued the picture "showed that Hamilton could carry the movie if given a big, broad character to play." He had a supporting role in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, starring Burt Reynolds (1973). He produced and appeared in Medusa (1973). He starred in the TV movie The Dead Don't Die (1975) and had a supporting role in Once Is Not Enough (1975). On a 1975 episode of Columbo, Hamilton played a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to commit a murder, whose arrogant assertions in his own defense establish that he was in fact at the scene of the crime. Hamilton also guest-starred on episodes of Police Story, McCloud, Roots, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Gibbsville, Supertrain, and Sword of Justice. He had supporting roles in The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977), The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977), Killer on Board (1977), Sextette (1978), The Users (1978), From Hell to Victory (1979), Institute for Revenge (1979), and Death Car on the Freeway (1979).
