We asked Charles Oakley, Jeffrey Lantos, and David McDonough to catch up with these three definitive show biz survivors and see what they're up to.
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She cancelled, then rescheduled the meeting dozens of times. Finally, when she met to talk with Charles Oakley, she showed up nearly four hours late. "We met, at her insistence, at a very off hour, in a dimly-lit corner of Barney's Beanery," Oakley told us. "Later, we drove to Santa Monica to stroll on the pier and watch the sun come up." Was the '50s dream girl, now 65, worth the wait? Oakley says, "She was everything I'd heard - Marilyn almost wept when we couldn't ride the carousel at 3 a.m."
Movieline: You always took stardom in your own hands. Mailing out cheesecake of yourself when Darryl F. Zanuck at Fox didn't see your potential. Posing for that nude calendar. Not complaining when your salary was low, and grabbing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes away from Betty Grable - who wanted ten times more money than you did, and whom Zanuck really saw as "Lorelei Lee."
Marilyn Monroe: Well, like I said about that calendar business, I was hungry! See, I knew what I wanted and put up with a ton of malarky to get it.
Q: Fox shoved you into some barkers - Don't Bother to Knock, River of No Return, There's No Business Like Show Business...
A: Sweetie, you should have seen what I turned down. Ever hear of The Girl in Pink Tights? The Revolt of Mamie Stover? And oh, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing? Ever notice how they always cast big-lipped brunettes like Joan Collins and Elizabeth McGovern to play Evelyn Nesbit? Just asking. Then they handed me a real stinkeroo about a couple of belly-dancers, How to Be Very, Very Popular - and I said, "Mr. Zanuck, honey, excuse my dust, I'm going to New York to study with Lee Strasberg." He blew a gasket.
Q: The Method certainly changed your life.
A: Did you know that Mr. Strasberg only called me one of the two or three most sensitive and talented people he'd ever met? What a doll-baby. Anyway, I wanted to do The Brothers Karamazov, Tender Is the Night, Sanctuary, but, no, Zanuck's bright idea was a remake of The Blue Angel. I wouldn't waste my breath. Sammy's [Davis] old girlfriend, May Britt, did it instead and where did it get her? Now I hear Madonna wants a crack at it, which seems just about her size. Dietrich couldn't sing to save her life either. As I learned first hand when we worked together on Just a Gigolo.
Q: What do you make of the blondes who are compared to you?
A: [laughing] Mincemeat, baby. Sheree, Mamie, Tuesday, Raquel, Diana Dors, Stella Stevens? I've always said only the public makes a star, studios try to make it a system. I've watched the others fade - some of them pretty darn fast, too. I finally rented Tootsie the other night - you know how they made such a to-do about Jessica Lange being "the new Marilyn," blah-blah-blah? Two nights later, I saw her eating salad at the worst table at Hamburger Hamlet. This is a sex goddess? I mean, she was beige: hair, eyes, skin, teeth, dress. I wanted to call an emergency clinic to get her on a 24-hour IV moisturizer drip. And when the producers called me about doing Frances, I thought they meant the lead, not Jessica Lange's mother. I told them: "Dishrags don't have mothers."
Q: Kim Basinger? Melanie Griffith?
A: Get a grip. And then for Arthur to write that Everybody Wins movie...
Q: Arthur Miller, the playwright to whom you were once married?
A: None other. And then to cast Debra Winger as a sort-of-me character? God, what a frump. Look, Zanuck may have been no rocket scientist, but at least he'd have had the sense to keep a girl like that in the story department or the steno pool, not starring in movies.
Q: After becoming so steeped in the Method, you were determined to expand your range.
A: The Misfits didn't turn out to be what we hoped, and... well, I tried to kill myself. My marriage to Arthur was over, and I couldn't seem to pick up the thread somehow. Anyway, when I went back to Fox, they fired me from Something's Got to Give for being late, or whatever. They were going to have Lee Remick replace me, if you can believe that, but we managed to patch it up, and they finally sent her packing - and weren't they glad because, as you know, the picture went through the roof. Suddenly I was the queen of the sex comedies - What a Way to Go! [she draws a blank] - help me out here, sugar, will you?
Q: Do Not Disturb, How to Murder Your Wife, Kiss Me Stupid...
A: Right, and, all of a sudden, there I am, the female Doris Day.
Q: Meaning...?
A: [giggling] Now, don't try getting me to say anything I'll regret in the morning, buster. I just meant, Doris with sex organs, that's all. Still, that was a dark period for me, what with Jack's death... [staring off]
Q: The Kennedy assassination...
A: Well, why deny it? I went into a complete tailspin, down and down I went.
Q: With all the TV movies and miniseries made about the Kennedys-
A: Tell me about it. Annette O'Toole as Rose Kennedy, Jaclyn Smith and Blair Brown as Jacqueline Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs this, and Bobby's that. And it's lies, all lies, because not a single, solitary one of them mentions the A-number one woman in Jack and Bobby's life: me. [She sobs, quietly.] Those boys were the loves of my life. And it's time I had my day in court.
Q: How do you mean?
A: Well, those high and mighty 25-year-olds who run the networks keep putting it on the back burner, but I'm developing and writing my own TV project that will tell the whole truth and nothing but. But that's all I can say about it now. Looking back, when I lost Jack and then Bobby, I shouldn't have left the country. I should have kept working in Hollywood.
Q: But you did come back, and finally decided to make good on your threats to do classics, take risks.
A: I paid a pretty penny to buy, with the Strasbergs, the rights to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? from Edward Albee. I felt that I had earned it. Oh, I studied, honed my instrument. It was going to be such an artistic triumph. Everyone in this town wanted a piece of the pie. Olivier called up, Henry Fonda offered to audition for it. Who knew? Personally, I thought that Lee and I worked as a New England couple - he was brilliant - and Paula's direction was perfection. [Long silence] I think that "the Hollywood community" - although if there's a community out here, show me where - saw the movie as a giant putdown by us, the New York theater snobs. My world crashed when I didn't win the Oscar. I went down the rabbit hole: pills, booze, blues so bad I couldn't get out of bed, letting my roots go black, game shows, becoming a regular on "Merv Griffin."
Q: You passed up a lot of choice roles: Sweet Charity, Isadora...
A: I'm sorry now that I turned down playing "Mrs. Robinson" in The Graduate. I was supposed to do it with Charles Grodin. When he found out that I had dropped out, he lost interest in acting and went into accounting.
Q: What made you finally decide to return to work in The Poseidon Adventure?
A: [laughing] I'd always wanted to work with Carol Lynley. Seriously, my old friend Shelley Winters dropped out - she told me she just couldn't gain as much weight as the producers wanted her to - and, hell, I'd never played anybody really ethnic before. I thought that might be a kick. I mean, there was Sugar in that movie-
Q: "Sugar Kane" in Some Like It Hot?
A: Um-hmmm, she was supposed to have changed her name from "Kovalchik," and she was Polish, but we didn't dwell, you know? Anyway, they wouldn't let me see dailies during Poseidon Adventure, and finally when I took a gander at myself at the preview, swimming around like Shamu, I said to myself: "Girl, move over and let somebody else get it." Then, when Bogdanovich cut my best stuff out of The Last Picture Show to make his little blonde twit look better, I pretty much checked out.
Q: But you got offers?
A: Of sorts, honey. Maybe I shouldn't have turned down Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment but, by then, I was doing real work - rescuing souls and turning lives around - at my clinic in Rancho Mirage. [giggling] Doris saves dogs, I save junkies.
Q: The Marilyn Monroe Center for Addictions has seen plenty of famous faces.
A: Sure, everyone from Liz and Liza to Betty Ford and Corey what's-his-name. Anyway, yes, I got offers. Plenty. But I couldn't feature myself on "Dynasty," and there was no way I was going to play a cameo for Bogdanovich in his remake of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I've never told anyone this, but, okay, maybe I shouldn't have done "The Jayne Mansfield Story." I thought I could say something with it, but it should have been a feature, not a TV movie. To tell the truth, the failure of that hurt my TVQ, and so I got passed over for Ann-Margret when I wanted to do "A Streetcar Named Desire" but, you know, she's got a higher TVQ. Recently, Liz and I were tempted to take a whack at the new version of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?...
Q: So, what happened?
A: Okay, I'll level with you. It's not because we couldn't agree on billing, though we couldn't, but that wasn't the biggest stumbling block. We both wanted to play Baby Jane. Too bad, because if you ask me, Liz is Blanche Hudson. It's a crying shame, really, because I thought I'd made an interesting choice in how I wanted to sing Baby Jane's big number, "I've Written a Letter to Daddy." I auditioned wearing the dress from Bus Stop - remember the one with all the cherries on it when I sang, "That Old Black Magic"? Of course, it's a little moth-eaten now, but I thought, somehow, that was right for Baby Jane. Besides, I wanted to show people I could still squeeze into it. I have the audition on tape, maybe I'll show it to you sometime. I mean, Emmy time, baby.
Q: You certainly are back in shape these days.
A: Thanks ever so. I've stayed that way since I toured Vegas, Tahoe, Atlantic City. Everywhere I went, the papers said I was slimmer, sang better, and made a bigger comeback than Elvis. And, I might add, it took me a hell of a lot less Maybelline to do it.
Q: So, you're not exactly out of the business?
A: Perish the thought, angel. Like the song says, "I'm still here." I just did the final episode of "Murder, She Wrote"; I'm the drunk driver who flattens Jessica on her bike. Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that. Well, please don't tell anyone. And don't forget my video, the title for which I came up with myself, "Nothing's Got to Give - Aerobics for Foxy Seniors." It sold like hotcakes, so we're doing a sequel, "Gentlemen Prefer Foxes."
Q: Any movie offers?
A: When Mike Nichols asked me to play Meryl Streep's mother, for pity's sake, in Postcards From the Edge, I told him, "Doll, bone up on your old Photoplay magazines. I'm one of the smart ones who didn't marry Eddie Fisher."
Q: Anything else on the horizon?
A: Well, I just did a career interview with that guy on American Movie Classics, but I turned down the TV pilot for Steel Magnolias. I told them, I don't take Shirley MacLaine's roles, she takes my cast-offs. And what else? David Lynch keeps calling about "Twin Peaks," but I mean, if it ever gets good ratings, I'll think about it. Oh, and I said absolutely no, never, ever to playing Julia Roberts's madam in Pretty Woman II. But now, sugar, I'm going nighty-night. Alone. And, yes, I still only wear Chanel No. 5. ■
Charles Oakley wrote about Connie Stevens for our October issue.
Movieline's David McDonough chatted with James Dean over lunch at Le Grand Passage in Beverly Hills. McDonough told us, "The interview was interrupted every few minutes when bikers wearing Ray-Bans and bandanas on their heads approached the table to get the autograph of the 59-year-old Oscar winner. The peskiest of the intruders turned out to be Mickey Rourke, who begged Dean to drop by his new club, later that evening."
Movieline: "The Dean Show" has just been picked up for its second season. You must be pleased.
James Dean: Sure, it beats a lighted cigarette on the arm. I have to give NBC a lot of credit, though. Our ratings were marginal during the first year, but they said they were committed to the show, and they weren't lying.
Q: Any changes this year?
A: Ally Sheedy, who plays my oldest daughter, will be getting married this season, to a zookeeper. We wanted to find a way to get the show out of the house. And we're going to let Joan Baez sing a few songs. She didn't want to last season, because she's worked so hard to change her image. And I think she's great; I wouldn't have done the show if she hadn't agreed to play my wife.
Q: I noticed you didn't do a lot of shows at the office the first season. Whose idea was it to make your character a mortician?
A: Billy Gray's. I was visiting him on the set of his show "Wall Street" and he said that if people would watch him as Gordon Gekko every week, and they do, that the time was right for a sitcom about an undertaker.
Q: You surprised a lot of people by agreeing to do a series. The only time I remember you doing TV was that two-parter on "Hawaii Five-0" some ten years ago.
A: Yeah, I was visiting Maui at the time, and Jack Lord asked me to come on over. So I did it, just for a kick. But you know, I did a lot of TV in the early days. And then I did that mini-series, "Giant II," with Rock Hudson for Turner Cable, and I enjoyed that very much... so I've come full circle.
Q: Speaking of Rock Hudson...
A: Oh, no. Too tragic. Let's change the subject.
Q: Okay. Isn't it a challenge, doing comedy for the first time?
A: No, I love it. I started out doing comedy. The first film I ever did was Sailor Beware with Martin and Lewis. I used to sit for hours watching Jerry Lewis work. I was totally in awe of him. I considered East of Eden a comedy, you know. That's the way Ray Massey and I played it. We could hardly get through some of the scenes without breaking up. He was a funny guy. Canadian. Martin Short is his nephew.
Q: You got a Best Actor nomination for East of Eden, didn't you? Were you disappointed when you lost?
A: Not really. It's such an honor just to be nominated, you know. And anyway, I won the Oscar two years later, so...
Q: For Somebody Up There Likes Me.
A: Yeah. Funny thing about that. I got that script in the summer of 1955, and I was all set to do it, right after Giant. Then I had this car accident that laid me up for a couple of months. So they gave the part to this kid, Paul Newman, and he was all set to go, when the studio decided to wait for me to get out of the hospital. But by the time I did, I was committed to shooting The Naked and The Dead, finishing up my Warner contract, you know. So they told Newman he was in once more, then they decided to wait for me again. By that time, Newman was so fed up he elected to get out of films and into politics.
Q: So you went on to get the Oscar and he went on to be President.
A: And he was a hell of a lot better President than he was an actor, I'll tell you that!
Q: In the early '70s, the parts began to dry up for you. Any theory on why?
A: Who knows? A combination of things, probably. I was getting older. And, frankly, for about a decade there I had made a series of bad career choices, picked the wrong parts.
Q: Like what?
A: Well, West Side Story. I shouldn't have tried to do my own singing. PT 109, that was a turkey. Far From the Madding Crowd I always wanted to do because I was such a fan of Thomas Hardy. But I should never have directed it as well. It was just too much work. After that, I just wanted some time off, to rest. But then Dennis [Hopper] called. He was directing a biker picture, and Rip Torn dropped out, and Dennis needed someone to play a seedy Southern lawyer. I was exhausted, but I did it as a favor, and ended up winning another Academy Award. Which was nice, but then it seemed like that old Oscar jinx set in. Like George Chakiris, you know? I turned down a couple of good parts, The Last Detail, and Woody Allen's Bananas. And Mike Douglas wanted me for a film of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - do you know it? Great book. I hope he gets it done someday, maybe with De Niro - anyway, I said no to that because I'd already agreed to go do a film for Ingmar Bergman. That took two years and ended up being the only Bergman film that flopped even in Sweden. And then, I don't know, the only thing I could get when I came back home was stuff like Asteroid. Oh, and Dennis got me two weeks for Coppola as Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, which I appreciated, but I really wanted the Martin Sheen role. They said I was too old. Anyway, you take the parts you do get and you do your best, because you never know which films are going to work, and which aren't. [Laughs] And which are going to come back and haunt you on video.
Q: Speaking of which, there's a film you did early in your career that's become something of a cult film.
A: Which is that?
Q: Rebel With a Cause.
A: That's Rebel Without a Cause! Yeah, we shot that in about three weeks back in 1955. Nick Ray directed it, and the studio told him he had two months to finish it and he had to shoot at least one scene in this planetarium the studio built for some other movie. I think we shot the whole film at night to save money, but to tell you the truth, I don't really remember that much about it. You say it's become a cult film?
Q: It plays on a double bill at the Nuart Theatre with Glen or Glenda?
A: Well, there you go. That's fame for you. ■
David McDonough lives in New Jersey, and this is his first piece for us.
On a recent sunny afternoon, Jeffrey Lantos met Freddie Prinze in Venice, California. Lantos told us, "He's a big man, bigger than he looks on screen. He's also a musician, and before the afternoon was over, he jammed with two street musicians using, as an instrument, only his fingers, his lips, and a rubber band. Prinze looks more at peace than at any other time in his long career. Gone are those involuntary tremors and the hollow-eyed look of terror. This is a man who's finally capped the runaway gusher of his life."
Movieline: Freddie, take us back in time, if you will, to the days and weeks immediately following the hunting accident...
Freddie Prinze: Well, the show was cancelled...
Q: "Chico and the Man."
A: Right.
Q: The only show in history to be axed after winning the top spot in the Nielsen ratings.
A: Yeah, you know my getting shot led the networks to rewrite all their contracts. Now no stars are allowed to pick up a gun, or wear orange vests, during the run of a hit show. It's called the Prinze Rule.
Q: That was 1977, and for several months, you dropped from sight. What did you do during that time?
A: I took a long rest. I had my body realigned, I changed my eating habits, and I did some regional theater.
Q: Where?
A: I'm not sure. It was a wet region, though. I remember that.
Q: And then you got the lead in Saturday Night Fever. How did that happen?
A: It's strange the way things go down in the business. I've never told anyone this story before, but - yeah, what the hell, why not? I'd known Travolta for a few years. You know, we'd both hit the jackpot on television, and we were hanging out in the same joints. So anyway, I'm dating this chick who works at Paramount, and one night I go over to pick her up, and who should open the door? Travolta, and he's wearing nothing but a doily. So I tell him to get lost, and he tells me to sit on it and rotate, and I throw a punch, and he counters, and next thing I know, we're dukin' it out, and then I get him down and am whopping the shit out of him with this big book - a catalogue from the Edward Hopper retrospective. And finally John yells, "Stop!" He says to me, "Look, I was just offered the lead in Saturday Night Fever. You take it, and leave me the girl." I agreed, and that's how I broke into features.
Q: You not only broke in, you ended up with an Oscar nomination.
A: Yeah, that was a great moment, not only for me but for all the people of Latin America. And while I have a moment, I just want to say, Viva Fidel! Viva la Sandinistas! Viva la Revolucion! [pause] I shoulda won that Oscar, too. Those old farts in the Academy just didn't dig disco.
Q: Your dancing in the film was magnificent. Are you a trained dancer?
A: No, I worked with Hermes Pan for three months before shooting began.
Q: How did you find Hermes?
A: In the Yellow Pages.
Q: C'mon.
A: It was a joke, okay. Take it easy. I'm nervous. When I'm nervous I make these little quips.
Q: What are you nervous about?
A: I guess, even now, I'm not completely comfortable with myself yet. Part of me is still that little street urchin from San Juan. The whole Hollywood trip is unreal. I keep waiting to be arrested for trespassing.
Q: Are you in therapy?
A: Yes, and I think everyone else should be, too.
Q: You followed up Saturday Night Fever with American Gigolo. Why?
A: I'd always wanted to work with Lauren Hutton.
Q: What did you see in her?
A: Nothing. So I figured I'd really stand out. No, I'm joking. I love Lauren. I slept with her a few times, and she showed me some wonderful new positions. We discussed doing the sequel together, but then the film kind of fizzled. I think there was too much emphasis on the clothes and the cars and the interior decorating. Paul [Schrader] forgot that he had to tell a story.
Q: How did you like working with Paul?
A: I didn't. He takes no joy in the little things. One day, I said to him, "Paul, look at that sunset." And he looked and just shrugged. I can't relate to that. Where's the passion? There's no passion in his films. There's just violent retribution.
Q: Then you demonstrated your versatility by directing Zoot Suit. Was that your first directing job?
A: I had directed a few spots for Greenpeace, but that was my first feature.
Q: In 1982, you surprised everyone by moving back to New York and doing Waiting for Godot, off-Broadway.
A: That happened because Sam Beckett called me and said he had me in mind when he wrote the role of Estragon. It was a lie, of course, but I was willing to believe it, because I wanted to do the play. Afterwards, we became good friends, and Sam was one of the principal investors in my restaurant.
Q: That's "Chico's on the Strip."
A: Right.
Q: Why the restaurant business, Freddie?
A: Preston Sturges did it, so I figured why not me? And you know for someone, like myself, who doesn't like to go home to an empty house, it's good to have a place to hang out with young committed actors like Lou Diamond Phillips.
Q: Why don't you like to go home?
A: Lotta demons, man. It's tough to be a rich Puerto Rican, okay? I feel best when I'm giving it away. I just sent Cesar Chavez $1 million and a decent sport coat.
Q: Chico's does not serve alcohol. Is that a result of your stay at the Marilyn Monroe Clinic in Rancho Mirage?
A: Yeah. Any recovering alcoholic gets a 20 percent discount at Chico's. Chevy and Liza were in the other night.
Q: What contributed to your drinking problem?
A: I took on too much. You know, when you've been poor, there's always this feeling that you can never have enough. So I was reluctant to turn anything down. I had just come off Romancing the Stone...
Q: From what I hear, you were not the first choice for that project.
A: Right. Michael Douglas was signed, and they were two and a half weeks into shooting when he came down with dengue. They couldn't wait for him to recover, because Kathleen [Turner] had to go right onto a Ken Russell film. Tom Berenger wanted the role and was lobbying hard, but the producers didn't want to risk putting another gringo in the jungle.
Q: And two years later, you did the sequel...
A: Yeah. The Jewel of the Nile. Mediocre script. The best part of that shoot was that I got to meet President Sadat, and I gave him $1 million. But you know, even Jewel of the Nile was a great experience compared to doing "Miami Vice" - I compare everything in my life to that low point.
Q: No one thought you'd tackle another series after your experience on "Chico and the Man." What attracted you to "Miami Vice"?
A: The only series I'd ever done had been shot on location, and Universal told me I'd love doing "Miami Vice" because it was done on location. I didn't know what to expect. I never really adjusted to the difference. It was hot, the shootouts and chases required a lot of energy, there were drugs on the set, there was no live studio audience, and then I made the mistake of falling in love with Don Johnson. Don is a narcissist, so there was no room for me in the relationship, and I took his rejection hard. I left the show after one season, and Eddie Olmos took my place. I went into rehab, and when I came out I was finally aware of my limitations. I could say no.
Q: You reportedly turned down several plum roles.
A: A vegetable I could play, but not a plum.
Q: Were you offered Old Gringo?
A: Yes, but I just wasn't ready. It was hard to pass that up, because I was dying to work with Greg Peck. We met during Gore Vidal's senate campaign. Greg's a wonderful human being, and a terrific lawn bowler.
Q: Did you also say no to "L.A. Law"?
A: Yeah, Steve [Bochco] sent me a blank check, and told me to fill in the amount. I had to say no, because I wasn't ready to get back into the weekly grind of a series. Also, I was six weeks into writing a script that's been very close to my heart for many years. Now, the script's almost done, and I hope to direct and star in it.
Q: Can you give us a hint?
A: It's The Geraldo Rivera Story.
Jeffrey Lantos interviewed Penny Marshall for our December issue.
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Photography by Gary Taylor, Collectors Bookstore