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.

Hamilton began his film career in 1958, and although he has a substantial body of work in film and television, he is perhaps most famous for his debonair style, perpetual suntan, and commercials for Ritz Crackers. Bo Derek wrote in her autobiography that "there was an ongoing contest between (her late husband) John Derek and George Hamilton as to who had the most tan!" 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."

Early life

Hamilton was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and spent his early years with his mother in Blytheville, Arkansas. He attended Hawthorne School in Beverly Hills, California.

Career

Early appearances

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,

MGM

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.

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). Hamilton played Moss Hart in Act One (1963),

Hamilton made That Man George (1965), 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. 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. Filmink argued the picture "showed that Hamilton could carry the movie if given a big, broad character to play." with professional Edyta Sliwinska. They lasted until the sixth round. At 66 and recovering from knee injuries, Hamilton, unable to match his younger competitors' limber moves, charmed the audience and judges with silly dances that used props, including a Zorro mask and the sword from Zorro, The Gay Blade. However, Drew Carey was named as Barker's successor. Hamilton has hosted the live stage adaptation of the show The Price Is Right Live! In August 2008, he co-starred in Coma, a web series on Crackle. Hamilton was executive producer of the 2009 film loosely based on his early life and relationship with his mother, My One and Only. In 1999, a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. Hamilton appeared as a contestant on the UK edition of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in November 2009. Hamilton walked out of the jungle on November 30, 2009, telling the other contestants that he wasn't there to win but to have fun. Hamilton was considered one of the favorites to win the series. In 2010, he was chosen as one of David Hasselhoff's roasters in the Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff. Starting in 2011, Hamilton starred as Georges in the national tour of the Tony-winning revival of La Cage aux Folles. He was still starring in the show .

In 2015, George and his ex-wife Alana Hamilton appeared in Season 4/Episode 10 of Celebrity Wife Swap. Alana swapped with Angela "Big Ang" Raiola of Mob Wives and her husband Neil Murphy. In 2016, Hamilton appeared in commercials for KFC as the "Extra Crispy Colonel", a deeply tanned version of the company's mascot Colonel Sanders, a role which he returned to in 2018. On July 6, 2018, Hamilton portrayed the Colonel on General Hospital. A cigar lounge bearing his name opened in the late 1990s at the New York, New York, hotel in Las Vegas and other locations, along with a line of cigars bearing his name. A 1998 article in Cigar Aficionado called Hamilton's style "Cary Grant meets Pat Riley".

In April 2006, Hamilton served as grand marshal for the 79th Annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia.

Friendship and business dealings with Imelda Marcos

Beginning in 1979, Hamilton had a "prominent friendship" with Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the Philippines and the wife of Philippine dictator and kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos. Hamilton was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal fraud and racketeering case against the Marcoses, which claimed that the Marcoses used Hamilton as a front to move money and had funneled more than $12 million through Hamilton’s personal accounts before they went into exile in 1986, with Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi acting at the behest of the Marcoses in some of these schemes. Ferdinand died before going to trial and Imelda was acquitted.

Hamilton unsuccessfully sought to keep sealed hundreds of pages of records and testimony, arguing that a release would be a violation of his privacy; his efforts were rejected by U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer and later by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which called Hamilton "a noted man-about-town" who should expect to be the object of publicity.

Personal life

In 1966, Hamilton had a relationship with Lynda Bird Johnson, the daughter of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

From 1972 to 1976, Hamilton was married to actress Alana Stewart. Their son, Ashley George, was born in 1974. The divorced Hamiltons reunited in the mid-1990s to co-host the daytime talk show George & Alana, and again in 2015, as stars of the reality show Stewarts & Hamiltons. In December 1999, Kimberly gave birth to their son.

According to Burt Reynolds's autobiography, Hamilton has a healthy sense of humor, even when the humor is directed at him. Reynolds wrote that he made up a birthday card for Hamilton with a composite photograph of Tony Curtis and Anthony Perkins, titled "To George, love from Mum and Dad". Hamilton found the card hilarious and showed it to everybody.

  • General Hospital (July 6, 2018) as Colonel Sanders
  • Grace and Frankie (1 episode, 2019) as Jack Patterson

Books

  • Life's Little Pleasures (co-authored with Alysse Minkoff) (1998)
  • Don't Mind if I Do (co-authored with William Stadiem) (2009)

In literature

In the comic strip Doonesbury, Hamilton is the namesake of the fictional "George Hamilton Cocoa Butter Open", described as the Le Mans of the (also fictional) professional tanning circuit, and "Tanmaster Hamilton" is the idol of character Zonker Harris who competes on that circuit.

References

  • Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture