George was urbane and charming by the time I met him when he was 20 years old, she says. On another day, reclining on the cream sofa in the Wilshire Corridor high-rise condo where hes lived since 2008, his untucked dress shirt unbuttoned halfway to his navel, Hamilton is expansive. Furthermore, The Times has learned, the former Hamilton house--a one-acre hillside estate in exclusive Benedict Canyon--is about to become property of the Philippine government. Attorneys for the Philippine government believe that Krodo was a secret entity of the Marcoses, used to funnel money to Hamilton or to control the property without revealing their interests. He said that thanks to Mrs. Marcos my mother is alive today.. Now, one of those prominent friendships, with deposed Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos, has put Hamilton in the middle of global legal disputes, precipitated threats against his life and made his former Beverly Hills mansion the object of a Manila government effort to recover some fraction of the billions of dollars stolen from its national treasury during the Marcos regime. From 1995 to 1999, Hamilton dated Kimberly Blackford, whom he met in Fort Lauderdale when she was a swimsuit model. He said Hamilton attended business meetings with Mrs. Marcos. Trump legal team requests six-month delay in New York civil lawsuit, SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites from California, Merrick Garland makes secret trip to Ukraine. George Hamilton: 'Please don't think I just went out with famous women' The political [people] are happy to use your persona. [7] Reports put his fee around this time at $100,000 per movie. [14] Hamilton was executive producer of the 2009 film My One and Only, loosely based on his early life and relationship with his mother. The 80-year-old has always been a sun worshipper. [15] In 1999, a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. (When I took out Woodrow Wilsons daughter, they didnt make such a fuss, presenter Milton Berle joked.). 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. He said the funds were used to refinance a Mississippi plantation he called The Cedars.. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Julie Andrews, Warren Beatty, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood. In March, 1986, as the Marcoses settled into exile in Hawaii, Hamiltons house was sold to a Cayman Islands corporation controlled by Saudi financier and arms merchant Adnan Khashoggi for $6.5 million. Marketed as a secret formula, it included a self-tanning exfoliating scrub and bronzer. Hamilton remains vigorous, in all connotations. He called them personal gifts. He soaked it up. The film included scenes with Dracula and his conquest as they dance to "I Love the Nightlife" at a disco. Hamilton has acknowledged publicly and privately that he received things of value from Mrs. Marcos, from free trips to Morocco and Europe to the use of Filipino laborers sent to help remodel his house to a white Rolls-Royce for his mother. Hes developing two films and a TV series as a producer out of a well-staffed office suite in Beverly Glen, where he first invites THR to meet him, taking a seat beneath a large chalk pastel portrait of his more youthful self. He and his wife fled to Hawaii, where Marcos died last year. Teeny was escaping Hamiltons father, a philandering bandleader. MGM cast Hamilton in support of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner in the melodrama All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) which flopped at the box office. That image has been reinforced over the years by a lavish lifestyle and decades of noted romances with rich and famous women. All Rights Reserved. Hamilton, an unindicted co-conspirator testifying under a grant of immunity, acknowledged under prosecution questioning that he had received a $5.5-million loan from a Philippine businesswoman and close associate of Mrs. Marcos. After getting the Floirendo loan, Hamilton began an extensive remodeling project that included adding a large garage and about 2,000 square feet of living space to the mansion. In his 2008 memoir, Dont Mind If I Do, he called the experience my own sexual bar mitzvah. But now, post-#MeToo reckoning, theres no romance to molestation, and hell speak of the perpetrator only elliptically, if still sympathetically, as a discontented housewife, slightly off, quite beautiful too., (Though Hamilton is all for gender parity in the industry, he doesnt retreat from his past description of himself as an enlightened male chauvinist, the kind who once issued such wisdom in a self-help book as Women are like a fine violin: They just need to be appreciated and bowed properly.), Hamilton is hard to pin down on the least-fun scandal of his life, the Justice Departments accusation that he was a front for the 1980s looting of the Philippine treasury at the hands of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Awards Chatter Podcast Malala Yousafzai (Stranger at the Gate), Report: Feds Grilled Leonardo DiCaprio on Business Relationship With International Fugitive Fraudster, Need a Black Hawk on Set by Friday? Things would come up in meetings and shed turn to (Hamilton) and ask what he thought about this or that. Or watching his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Taylor aboard Khashoggis yacht (later sold to Trump) in a face-to-face showdown with a tabloid photographer brought on board whose roll of negatives of her topless shed gotten ahold of. He always said 'I'll be remembered as a third-rate actor when in fact, I'm a first-rate con man.'"[11]. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos with former President Ferdinand Marcos and family during the 1965 inauguration It was during the 1965 campaign that Imelda became influential as a political figure at the national level, supporting her husband's political tactics through her charismatic appeal and youth. This series was canceled in March 1970. "Tighten Up, Vol. Hamilton found the card hilarious and showed it to everybody. 'The statements are untrue,' Hamilton said Thursday through his spokesman, Michael Sherman, who also made a point of denying as 'categorically untrue' rumors linking the actor and Mrs. Marcos. In the book "The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos" by Carmen Navarro Pedrosa, the garage is described as: "a carport with roof, posts, and cement flooringThe flooring was barely a foot from the ground. March 3 (UPI) -- Firefighters in Britain responded to a home to rescue a horse that had fallen into its owner's swimming pool and was unable to get itself out. George Hamilton with the Reflect-A-Tan in Palm Beach, c.1965. Imelda Marcos married politician Ferdinand Marcos in 1954. Hamilton, a self-described long-time friend of the MacArthur family, conceived the movie idea and supposedly had extensive control over the project. U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan said in his Monday order that prosecutors sought immunity because Hamilton had indicated he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions that might incriminate him. They have wined, dined, danced and sung Imeldas favorite song, Dont Fence Me In, together. George Stevens Hamilton (born August 12, 1939)[1] is an American actor. Marcos and his wife, accused in pending civil cases of using sophisticated schemes to convert billions of public dollars into private wealth during two decades in the presidential palace, funneled more than $12 million through Hamiltons personal accounts before they were ousted, according to court documents from Los Angeles and New York. Well, kind of, Video shows Memphis jailers beating Black inmate before his death, Skin lesion removed from President Bidens chest last month was cancerous, doctor says, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs. In the mid-1980s, Hamilton starred in the sixth season of the Aaron Spelling-produced television serial Dynasty. The actor also received a $6 million loan - $4 million of which was secured by Hamiltons lavish estate in Benedict Canyon - from Antonio O. Floirendo, a Marcos confidante, the documents show. Yet as a peddler, his most prominent pop culture moment has been his big-budget commercial turns as the KFC Colonel, appearing on a branded yacht cruising through crystal-clear skies, talking up a double-breaded chicken sandwich thats extra-crispy, like me. (Hamilton says he dug deep on the role, recalling meeting Colonel Harland Sanders when the two crossed paths while both were handling respective press duties at an Ohio radio station four decades ago.). document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Maybe its time for George Hamilton to stay out of the sun. (He knew he was going to inherit the earth; I only knew I was going to pretend I was going to do it.), Friend of six decades Joan Collins doesnt think its all a put-on. Read another story from us:How a Movie About a Pig Inspired James Cromwell to Change his Life, Ah, but what might have been. As he embarks on his ninth decade he turns 80 on Aug. 12 the actor and avatar of ease knows that his hue is what has made him an icon. Hamilton invited Johnson to join him in Acapulco, and she, surprisingly, accepted. Khashoggi assumed the $4-million Krodo loan, and he has acknowledged acting at the behest of the Marcoses. a typical Marcos transaction, he said. 13,785, This story has been shared 12,109 times. . Ramos said he could not remember the names of the men who picked up the $5.5 million. . Floirendos first loan to Hamilton, made in April, 1982, at the request of Mrs. Marcos, was $600,000, he said. It was shot in Italy, and MGM kept Hamilton in Italy to play a role in Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the success of The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). George Hamilton Doesn't Bother Much With Discretion in His Memoir, 'Don She looked at it, Hamilton recalls, looked at it sideways, and said, Well, this looks rather good. Maybe he was a tool for someone, an innocent, Greenberg said in an interview at his Century City office. Hamilton, who has been named as an unindicted co . George Hamilton spotted looking a little weathered - Page Six George Hamilton has a social relationship with Imelda Marcos. He made deposits in his own name, not fictitious accounts. I dont believe (Hamilton) had any reason to believe he was dealing with money belonging to Mrs. Marcos, Greenberg said. Beatty's political satire Bulworth (1998) contained a running gag, with Hamilton'appearing as himself Hamilton had a regular role on the TV series Jenny (1997). She is an actress, known for The . He starred in the TV films Togetherness (1970) and The Last of the Powerseekers, a 1971 compilation of two episodes of Harold Robbins' The Survivors. Very elegantly dressed and able to make you laugh: You cant say that of many people., Hamiltons no crank about the good old days. Floirendo, who said in a sworn affidavit obtained by The Times that Mrs. Marcos directed him to lend money to Hamilton, was a Philippine sugar and banana magnate who owed his fortune to Marcos-assisted business deals. 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At age 66 and recovering from knee injuries, Hamilton, unable to match the limber dance moves of his younger competitors, charmed the audience and judges with endearingly silly dances that used props, including a Zorro mask and the sword from Zorro, The Gay Blade. Barbara Stepko is a New Jersey-based freelance editor and writer who has contributed to AARP magazine and the Wall Street Journal. In December, 1975, Cosmopolitan magazine named Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Phillippines, as one of the ten richest women in the world.It even went a step further and speculated that Imelda was perhaps the richest woman in the world, richer than Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.. Everyone knew Imelda was rich; she made sure of that. I think its unfair to the voter. (Still, this belief didnt stop him from discussing gun rights on a 2016 Fox & Friends appearance to announce his new gig as KFCs Extra Crispy Colonel.). [13] However, Drew Carey was named as Barker's successor. The estate was sold by Hamilton for about $6 million 10 days ago to a company based in the Grand Cayman Islands, according to documents on file in the office of the Los Angeles County Assessor. The settlement agreement, expected to be announced perhaps as early as next week, validates Manilas claims that the house, which Hamilton sold in 1986, was financed with looted Philippine funds. Malle said "he was a personal choice and I am happy with himHe's more interested in being in the social columns I don't understand when he should be one of the greatest of his generation. 18,169, This story has been shared 13,785 times. NEW YORK Actor George Hamilton, linked by federal prosecutors to some of the alleged financial schemes of Imelda Marcos, testified Tuesday that the former Philippine first lady was "a. ", Woman wins $100,000 lottery prize 11 hours after $11,000 casino jackpot. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him to a long-term contract. It was produced by Sandy Howard who said Hamilton was "a hot commodity these days" because he was dating Lyndon Johnson's daughter. When he said I shall return, (it) was based on his own decision that he wanted to bring this large invasion force to the doorstep of the woman that he loved, the actor said. Imelda Marcos Saved Mother, Hamilton Says - Los Angeles Times October 9, 1990 LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda allegedly funneled $12 million out of the country through actor George Hamilton, a newspaper reported today. Prosecutors contend that the loan was repaid with money later given to the actor by Mrs. Marcos. Hes an active producer. . He supported Elizabeth Taylor in Poker Alice (1987). Hamilton enjoyed the huge pleasure of lording over his estate, yet in time it became a burden. The Robbs were in the audience when Hamilton came to Washington D.C. to star in the musical farce La Cage Aux Folles at the Kennedy Center in 2012. 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). Call This Couple, New Doc Explores Fatal Danger of Pacific Coast Highway, Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan, Heat and Natural Born Killers Actor, Dies at 61, Diane Warren Performs Her 14 Oscar-Nominated Songs in Six Minutes (Exclusive Video), Feinberg Forecast: Updated Projections As Final Oscar Voting Gets Underway, Ted Donaldson, Young Actor in Father Knows Best and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Dies at 89, Hollywood Flashback: Catherine Martin Struck Gold With Moulin Rogue!. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. I dont believe (Hamilton) had any reason to believe he was dealing with money belonging to Mrs. Marcos, Greenberg said. Homes - Celebrity - Entertainment - Actors, Homes - Celebrity - Former Hamilton's name . Hamilton simply signed a promissory note. Hamilton hit it off with the Johnsons eldest daughter, a student at George Washington University, who appeared to be the brainy type and, quite possibly, a challenge. In 2010 Hamilton was chosen as one of David Hasselhoff's roasters in the Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff. Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? It was paper sold to crony Adnan Khashoggi who forfeited it to the PCGG. British bus driver stops to give loose sheep a lift. For eighteen months, Hamilton, a 26-year-old B-level actor, known more for his debonair personality and dark good looks than his acting chops, and LBJs eldest daughter Lynda were quite the item. Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson while sporting her iconic bouffant hairstyle, 1966. Early on, he cashed in on his nickname, The Tanned One, with the George Hamilton Sun Care System during the late 1980s that at one point was sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus.
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