In advance of a tribute at this weekend’s USA Film Festival, actor Richard Chamberlain reminisces about his life as a matinee idol and coming out late in life
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com
From the 1960s through the ’80s, no heartthrob throbbed more heartily than Richard Chamberlain. His exotic, smoldering, but still-boyish looks made him probably the last true matinee idol of the old studio system. Drop-dead handsome from the get-go, he built from his stint as Dr. Kildare — TV’s sexiest doctor until McSteamy — to movies like The Slipper and the Rose, in which he played, appropriately, Cinderella’s Prince Charming.
But it was later in his television career that Chamberlain cemented his legend: As the King of the Miniseries (netting four Emmy nominations and a fistful of Golden Globes along the way). His presence helped invent the genre’s juggernaut identity, with The Count of Monte-Cristo, The Thorn Birds, Shogun, Centennial and Wallenberg; he was even the first-ever Jason Bourne. But while he exceeded in many swashbuckling, flamboyant genres (Aramis in The Three Musketeers; the villain of The Towering Inferno), he stretched his talents in lesser-scene classic works as well (Tchaikovsky in Ken Russell’s The Music Lovers, Octavius in Julius Caesar, as well as many stage roles, including Henry Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady). He wasn’t just a pretty boy, but an actor of enviable chops.
Perhaps his greatest performance, though, was one he successfully assayed for decades: Hiding the fact he was gay from the public. He came out at age 69, long after his leading man days were behind him, but benefited yet again, enjoying another minor career renaissance playing campy character parts with appearances on Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Twin Peaks: The Return and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.
Another role in which he takes substantial pride was in the cult classic The Last Wave, playing a lawyer (as he has in his film debut, Twilight of Honor) representing aborigines in a murder trial. It was one of Peter Weir’s first films, a seminal turning point in the Australian New Wave Cinema of the 1970s.
Now 84, Chamberlain will be in Dallas this weekend for a screening of The Last Wave at the USA Film Festival (see sidebar, Page 17), which continues through Sunday. We chatted with Chamberlain in advance of his visit to learn about being at the fore of Australian cinema, being gay in the days of the studios and his favorite role. (P.S. You won’t guess what it is.)
Dallas Voice: The Last Wave was one of the seminal films of the Australian New Wave, and you were pretty much at the forefront of that movement. What memories do you have of it?
They made some wonderful films [in that period]. And it was thrilling working with the crew, because they were new at it and intensely interested in what they were doing — it was all novel for them — but they knew they were good. Peter [Weir, the director] gave you the impression of being an English choirboy with a sweet manner, but he was so deeply connected to the mysteries of the Aboriginal people.
The ending is famously ambiguous. Do you have an idea of what you think it means? It actually changed every now and then [during editing]. But I see it as a kind of spiritual cleansing that the Aborigines had foretold, having also foretold the general corruption of everything … which I think we could use right now, but never mind.
Several years later you went back to Australia for The Thorn Birds. Yes, that really caught people’s imagination, didn’t it? But we shot 90 percent of it in Simi Valley and around Los Angeles, with two weeks in Kauai. We didn’t go to Australia!
Your career has actually been an interesting mixture of men in suits and costume dramas. Did you have a preference between contemporary and fantasy roles? My objective was always to do something new, something different, and expand my horizons. I loved the costumes and the wigs and swordplay because it was just fun! The Man in the Iron Mask, which I thought was a wonderful good show, [posited] a very interesting dilemma [involving twins, which he played]. And I got to play with such wonderful people — Ralph Richardson and Vivien Merchant and Louis Jourdan… my goodness!
You also starred opposite Katharine Hepburn fairly early in your career, in The Madwoman of Chaillot… I did! She’s a tornado, but so wonderful to work with such a total pro. Once we were setting up a shot in an outdoor park area, and I had my head in her lap for lighting. [It took a while], and she was interested in my hair, eventually worked her way down to my ear and said, “You have little pig ears like mine — small and close to the head. It means we’re selfish.”
So you got called out by Hepburn! Did you take it as a compliment? I did! I mean she was right. And being tempered by coming from her….
The first movie I ever saw you in when I was a kid was The Towering Inferno. You were totally hateable!
It was wonderful fun to make that film, because so much of it was shot in that ballroom and all the actors were hanging out there — Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, William Holden…. I got to listen into a lot of conversations. But the part I played? He was a pretty terrible person. He caused the entire fire!
Do you have a favorite performance of your own? My favorite role of all time, hands down, was Thomas Mendip in Christopher Fry’s play The Lady’s Not for Burning, which we did in Chichester, England and then a version for PBS.
I’m projecting, but I would have expected you to say Shogun. I’m probably more proud of it than anything I have ever done. And the book was marvelous! But it was beastly hard work. I was in practically every scene and my character had lots of exposition. But it was thrilling to spend six and half months in Japan and work with Toshiro Mifune and all those British actors.
You did the original miniseries version of The Bourne Identity…. I thought Matt Damon was a wonderful Bourne, but they only had a few hours to tell that complex story, which we had more time to tell. And Jaclyn Smith was great in it.
You came out late in life, but how comfortable were you being gay when you were younger, at least among your friends?
I was totally open with my friends and the business itself caught on very early, but the press left me alone. The press was extremely careful in those days unless you really slipped up, and it was very important to me not to slip up, because I was a romantic leading man.
Do you still enjoy acting? I’m not really acting any more. The last play I did, Sticks & Bones, was about three years ago — that was my swan song. The last film I did was a five-part horror film made by five different directors called Nightmare Cinema [that has yet to be released]. I play a plastic surgeon [who disfigures his patients].
So that role puts the “kill” in Dr. Kildare? Yes! Use that! Pretend I said it.
Do you attend film festivals much?
I avoid big public events anymore — I have less fun at them than when I was younger. That said, I am looking forward to [coming to the USA Film Festival]. Everybody I have talked to says [Texans] are the most amazingly charming and friendly people.