38 - Friday, June 18. 1999 -- North Shore News Career fa 17 Breer page tryed vadoire Va. secre atl Henry Phere NeAt the street ‘Pits Par and Hears ander dhe table, flows probably creved the gud fo amake a dong stors shears, aspired robe the nest Dab Planter, and made at clear te both fio and: ddemrs that, as tars Daacw. Twas Sst Pb appre clited the personal miterest aad Paes fond ot them. bars ne Uink vou. Phev respected thar, Ehaweever, Psoon came to rea Ve that Henry was unpredistably volatile aod had an outra geous reputation tor aking advantage Gf fis cute, colourtul clients, especially those considered by the Hollowood commit nity to be “male Kiizabeth Taylors.” Within a week or so, P was interviewed at Warner Bros. tar the part of Scanian Ford in U p Periscope, a lames Garner vehicle. P reminded the producers of the voung Lew Ayres of All Quiet On The Western Front fame. Rig close up, reatly big, bet E died in the first reel, Nevertheless, they talked about nw character throughout ube picture and learned a lot trom Garner, 4 very fimny man. and Ed “Kookie” Byrnes of 77 Sunset Strip fame. Henry saw me as “a good ber.” He would invite me over to his impressive Bel Air estate on weekends, where I met other members of his stable — Donahue, Saxon, etc. We would swim, swap stories and wonder whe among us was pro- viding Henry with sexual favours. E learned a lot abour the gay community, thar Rock Hudson was gay, but that Henry and the studio were doing their level best to keep it from the pub- lie-at-large. He had enormous clout in Hollywood, due, pri- Mata aon coup fewtsies thee Nout. wy ootarentian Dvas vertin Pinevetin with Par, hese tus whe HAIR DESIGN | A full-service salon where your style comes first. stuai photo submitted FORD Dunhill, as the author was once known, played Rock Hudson's brother in one movie. marily, to the enormous success of his star client, who had jusi completed the highly successtil, Pillow Talk with Doris Day. Henry threw a surprise birthday party for me in Bel Air. | had expressed interest in a new name and suggested “Ford” as COQUITLAM, NORTH ROAD 937-7911 DELTA, LADNER CENTRE owe sereeee 946-9643 LANGLEY, WILLOWTREE oo. seseveereeaee 530-4636 MAPLE RIDGE oe eeereeeeee eee deeteeeeeee 463-7022 NANAIMO, HAREWOOD .. 753-5543 NORTH DELTA, KENNEDY FiEIGHTS 594-5313 NORTH VANCOUVER, LYNN VALLEY 981-3311 RICHMOND, BLUNDELL ooo cece 668-3614 VANCOUVER, 4TH AVENUE 482-3274 VANCOUVER, BROADWAY 222-3331 VANCOUVER, JOYCE 482-3276 0 ap stak otk Ope fed ean” better anak! SOD ke Went win sontid “phate oll wooed sentra tad math Sorbo dhe oa bases qe at Short thercatter, Her scat me to Cnrversal tar view th Henry Ring. who was sett direen Rawk i barth Ts Sine. Phey wanted sermeore who looked cme Rock to play bis brother, Ring took one dook at nie ang the studio executive, “hs this the kid Pfenry sent over?” executive nodded. “bine!” Phat wasit. P had the parr. thanks to the resemblances and mv agent's leverage. There was exspeciation that the picture coadd be another Giant. That certainly excited me. Great east. Rock Hudson, Joan Simmons, Dorothy McQuire, Chiude Rais cot Casablanca fine) Later, before Pwas to ty te the Napa Valles wine country location, Henry strongly admonished me to “Stay away from Rock.” An odd request, (thought. P had met Rock aid we were triendly enough. Wie? “OF he Approaches vou, just stay away!” Very intense. He clearly meant it. Jump cut. On tocanon. A few weeks into production, Pm having beeaktast ara diner near the set. Rock comes by and asks to join me. I'm feeling shy, withdrawn, remembering what our mutual powerhouse agent had said. | do my James Dean mumbling bit. Rack laughs uproariously, “L didn’t hear a word vou just said! He had werked with Dean in Giant and I knew they had nor gotten along well. Then he asked me te go with him to San Francisco tor the weekend. [ reply, “What's to do in San Francisco?” He could- n’t believe it, “What's there to do in San Francisco? Are you kidding?” T continued to teign disinterest. Eventually, he just gave up. Sad. Pliked the man, although thanks to Henry, Twas wary. I worked seven weeks on the picture (in Napa and back ar Studio Citva, Most of my scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, This Earth Is Mine turned aut to be a poor man’s Giant, ar best. Henry asked Ed Muhi, the studio head, te sign me toa contract. He didn’t. They were developing John Saxon’s career. We were too sitsilar. Besides, there was Yony Cartis. Soon, they were to give Burt Reynolds and Cline Eastwood the boot. Sadie policies were changing. { astracted much local publicity by playing Hudson’s broth- er. Many more parts came my way, several commercials. 1 even cuta record (which was never released). [had become quite friendly with Rock at the Beverly Hills Health Club, where we worked out together (2s did Roger Moore, Paul Newman, Ray Bradbury, Tony Randall and other celebrities), He would always ask me how F was doing. One day, in the steam room, | impulsively confided in Rock what Henry had told me — to avoid him (on the picture). | wanted him to know why I had behaved so strangely. Several months later, | found myself on the receiving end of Henry Willson’s considerable wrath. He invited me to dinner (for i0 years in Hollywood, my main decision, day after day, was whom to have lunch and dinner with, and where, and what movie to see that evening. And Thad gotten to know practically everybody). Pat, was there. We were no longer roommates, The restaurant was crowded. [t was tense. Rock had been absolurely furious with Henry. Had threatened to iene to fire him after all Henry had done for him, guided him from a common truck driver to the major star of our time. “You shouldn't have tald him!” Henry was red-faced, apoplec- tic and really tare into me. “You came along and | did what I could for you, and you — Pll kill vou! Pl kill you!” 1 was stunned. T had noticed that Hollywood is a place where some “hitmen” were admired as muchas movie stars. E had no doubt that Henry was capable of shutting me up. He could be you ever repeat anvthing like thar agatn...” he warned. [was embarrassed. [ mee apologized. Henry eventually get over it. I lett him for a lesser agent who promised TV work — a minor debacle. Then, more importantly, Rock dropped him. 1 signed on larer with the William Morsis Ageney. Pwas under contract to 20th Century Fox fora while (as E had envisioned}. No one had a clue as to who was running the studio when [ was there, including George Stevens, who was trying to get his next production under way. The major studio contract system was rapidly dying out, Years later, one afternoon, | spontancously visited Henry Willson atthe Motion Picture Country Home in Sherman Oaks, where he had wound up, broke, and with a serious ner vous ailment. He was watching a soap opera — searching for attractive talent, the next “good bet,” ao doubt. | sincerely thanked him for what he had done for mz, for opening up those doors. “I thought you had a chance, Ford,” he said, as he stared at the pretty young faces on the TY sereen. “They liked you. They've got to like you.” He had often referred to “them,” the few people who lived in Bel Air and ran the busi- ness, “They didn’t like Dean, He wouldn’r have lasted,” he wenton. Thad | long since dropped the phony name and tie notion of being a “aiovie star.” Thad really wanted to be a serious dramatic actor and w riter /director, ap interest that was gradually waning as well, since P had confounded my agents and managers and moved into astrology, spirituality ‘and meta- physies, where | was teaching other aspiring people. “I's all an adventure. Live your life, follow your dreams. ‘Nothing ven tured, nothing gained’ -—- but, keep your nose clean!” Robert Aiken, a former aetor-sereenwriter, is ant internation- ally kuawn professtonal astrologer and therapeutic counsellor, teacher/writer with farty years’ experience. He offers empowering personal counselling s OHS ES WE H as tovongh, ti-depth, tape~ recorded astrelagical readings. Phone: (604) 926-4961; e-mail .starsris@axionetcouts,