Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Robert Wagner Robert John Wagner, Jr. is an American actor
of stage, screen, and television, best known for starring in the television shows It Takes
a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart . He also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold on the
TV sitcom Two and a Half Men. In movies, Wagner is known for his role as Number Two in the
Austin Powers trilogy of films . Wagner's autobiography, Pieces of My Heart:
A Life, written with author Scott Eyman, was published on September 23, 2008.
Early life and career Wagner was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is
the son of Hazel Alvera (née Boe), a telephone operator, and Robert John Wagner, Sr., a traveling
salesman who worked for the Ford Motor Company. His paternal grandparents were born in Germany.
Wagner has a sister, Mary. He graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1949.
He made his film debut in The Happy Years (1950). He was signed by agent Henry Willson
and put under contract with 20th Century-Fox, where he gained attention with a small but
showy part as a shellshocked soldier in With a Song in My Heart (1952). This led to star
roles in a series of films including Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and Prince Valiant
(1954), and White Feather (1955, with Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter), A Kiss Before Dying
(1956, a rare villainous role) and Between Heaven and Hell (1956).
Wagner appeared with veteran actor Clifton Webb in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) and
Titanic (1953). Wagner starred opposite Steve McQueen in The War Lover (1962). Roles soon
followed in The Condemned of Altona (1959) and The Pink Panther (1963) starring Peter
Sellers. Career rise
In 1967, Wagner signed with Universal Studios. In 1968, Lew Wasserman convinced Wagner to
make his television series debut in It Takes a Thief. While the success of The Pink Panther
and Harper began Wagner's comeback, the successful two-and-a-half seasons of his first TV series
completed it. In this series, he acted with Fred Astaire, who played his father. Wagner
was a longtime friend of Astaire's, having gone to school with Astaire's eldest son,
Peter. Wagner was suggested to play James Bond after On Her Majesty's Secret Service
was released. In 1972, he produced and cast himself opposite
Bette Davis in the television movie Madame Sin, which was released in foreign markets
as a feature film. and was a regular in the BBC/Universal World War II prisoner-of-war
drama Colditz until its end in 1974. He reunited with McQueen, along with Paul Newman and Faye
Dunaway, in the disaster film The Towering Inferno released in the same year.
By the mid-1970s, Wagner's television career was at its peak with the television series
Switch opposite Eddie Albert, after re-signing a contract with Universal Studios in 1974.
Before Switch, Albert was a childhood hero of Wagner's, after he watched the movie Brother
Rat along with a few others. The friendship started in the early 1960s, where he also
co-starred in a couple of Albert's movies. After the series' end, the two remained friends
until Albert's death on May 26, 2005. Wagner spoke at his funeral, and gave a testimonial
about his longtime friendship with him. In partial payment for starring together in
the Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg production of the TV movie The Affair, Wagner and Natalie
Wood were given a share in three TV series that the producers were developing for ABC.
Only one reached the screen, the very successful TV series Charlie's Angels, for which Wagner
and Wood had a 50% share, though Wagner was to spend many years in court arguing with
Spelling and Goldberg over what was defined as profit.
Wagner and Wood acted with Laurence Olivier in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (as part of Olivier's
UK television series Laurence Olivier Presents). Wood also made a small cameo appearance in
the pilot episode of Wagner's own television series, Hart to Hart.
His third successful series was Hart to Hart, which co-starred Stefanie Powers and ran from
1979 to 1984. Before those roles, Wagner also made guest appearances in the pilot episode
of The Streets of San Francisco. He would later be nominated for an Emmy Award for Best
TV Actor for his performance in It Takes a Thief and for four Golden Globe awards for
his role as Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart. Return to film and television
Wagner's film career received a revival after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy
spoofs starring Mike Myers. Wagner played Dr. Evil's henchman Number 2 in all three
films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who
Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
He also became the host of Fox Movie Channel's Hour of Stars, featuring original television
episodes of The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), a series which Wagner had appeared on in his
early days with the studio. In 2005, Wagner became the television spokesman
for the Senior Lending Network, a reverse mortgage lender and in 2010 he began serving
as a spokesman for the Guardian First Funding Group, also a reverse mortgage lender. As
of June 2011, Guardian First Funding was acquired by Urban Financial Group, who continue to
use Mr. Wagner as their spokesperson. In 2007, Wagner had a role in the BBC/AMC
series Hustle. In season four's premiere, Wagner played a crooked Texan being taken
for half a million dollars. As Wagner is considered "a suave icon of American caper television,
including It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart", Robert Glenister (Hustle's fixer, Ash Morgan)
commented that "to have one of the icons of that period involved is a great bonus for
all of us". Wagner also played the pivotal role of President
James Garfield in the comedy/horror film Netherbeast Incorporated (2007). The role was written
with Wagner in mind. He had a recurring role of a rich suitor to the main characters' mother
on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. His most recent appearances on the show were in May
2008. Wagner's radio and television career was recognized
by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters on January 30, 2009, when they presented him with their
Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award. Wagner has guest-starred as Tony's father,
Anthony DiNozzo Sr., in four episodes of NCIS: "Flesh and Blood" (2010), "Broken Arrow" (2010),
"Sins of the Father" (2011), and "You Better Watch Out." He was set to star as Charlie
in the 2011 reboot of Charlie's Angels, but due to scheduling conflicts, had to exit the
project. Personal life
In his memoirs, Wagner claims to have had affairs with Yvonne De Carlo, Joan Crawford,
Elizabeth Taylor, Anita Ekberg, Shirley Anne Field and Joan Collins. He had a four-year
romantic relationship with Barbara Stanwyck after they acted together in the movie Titanic
(1953). Because of the age difference – he was 22, she was 45 – they kept the affair
secret in order to avoid damage to their careers. On December 28, 1957, Wagner married Natalie
Wood when he was 27 and she was 19. They separated in June 1961 and divorced on April 27, 1962.
While working on location in Europe, Wagner reconnected with an old acquaintance, actress
Marion Marshall. In the spring of 1963, after a brief courtship, Wagner, Marshall, and her
two children from her marriage to Stanley Donen moved back to America. Wagner and Marshall
married on July 22, 1963, in the Bronx Courthouse. Soon after, they had a daughter, Katie Wagner
(born May 11, 1964). The two were together for nearly eight years before they separated
in late 1970. They were divorced on April 26, 1971. Wagner's only grandchild is Katie's
son, Riley John Wagner-Lewis (born September 21, 2006).
In 1971, Wagner was briefly engaged to Tina Sinatra.
Wagner kept in contact with Natalie Wood, whose short-lived marriage to Richard Gregson
ended in early 1972. Wagner remarried her on July 16, 1972. Their only child, Courtney
Wagner, was born on March 9, 1974. On November 29, 1981, Natalie Wood drowned near their
yacht Splendour while it was moored near Catalina Island; also on board were Wagner, Christopher
Walken, who was co-starring with her in the motion picture Brainstorm, and Dennis Davern,
a captain. Wagner subsequently became the legal guardian of Wood's daughter Natasha
Gregson. He is estranged from Natalie Wood's sister Lana Wood, who claims that Wagner refused
to let her see her nieces after Natalie Wood's death. In 2002, Lana Wood cooperated with
author Suzanne Finstad for the book Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood (ISBN 0609809571),
which contained controversial allegations that Robert Wagner is a closeted homosexual
and was responsible for her sister's death. In November 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department reopened its investigation into Natalie Wood's death after the captain of
the boat, Dennis Davern, told NBC News that he lied to police during the initial investigation
and that a fight between Wood and Wagner had led to her drowning. After nine months of
further investigation, Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran
amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of her death from accidental drowning
to "drowning and other undetermined factors". The amended document also states that the
circumstances of how Wood ended up in the water are "not clearly established." The police
however have stated that Wagner is not a suspect in the case.
In early 1982, Wagner began a relationship with actress Jill St. John, who coincidentally
was a childhood acquaintance of Natalie Wood and Wagner's Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie
Powers, as well as starring alongside Natalie's sister Lana Wood in Diamonds Are Forever.
The couple had first met in the late 1950s when Wagner was an up-and-coming actor and
St. John was a teenage starlet. After an eight-year courtship, they were married on May 26, 1990.
Filmography Selected television appearances
1953: Jukebox Jury as himself 1963: The Eleventh Hour, episode: "And God
Created Vanity" as Kenny Walsh 1968–1970: It Takes a Thief as Alexander
Mundy 1970–1971: The Name of the Game as David
Corey 1971: City Beneath the Sea as Brett Matthews
(made-for-TV movie) 1972–1974: Colditz as Flight Lieutenant
Phil Carrington 1975–1978: Switch as Pete T. Ryan
1979–1984: Hart to Hart as Jonathan Hart 1980: The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey narrator
(2 episodes) 1981: The Fall Guy as Himself (1 episode)
1988: Windmills of the Gods as Mike Slade (TV miniseries)
1994: Parallel Lives as the sheriff 1997: Seinfeld, episode: "The Yada Yada" as
Mr. Abbot 1999: Fatal Error, as Albert Teal (movie)
2003: Hope & Faith as Jack Fairfield (7 episodes) 2006: Las Vegas, episode: "Cash Springs Eternal"
as Alex Avery 2006: Boston Legal as Barry Gold (2 episodes)
2007: Two and a Half Men as Teddy Leopold (5 episodes)
2010: NCIS as Anthony DiNozzo Sr. (4 episodes) 2012: The League as "Gumba" Duke (episode:
"Bro-Lo El Cordero") 2013: Futurama as Himself (1 episode)
Books Wagner, Robert (2008). Pieces of My Heart
- A Life. New York: Harper Collins. p. 324. ISBN 978-0-06-137331-2.