Clucking over Hensley

Today, we look at an actress whose career in TV and movies lasted almost precisely fifteen years, apparently of her own choosing, and so she is barely known, if at all, by most younger people today, having vanished from our screens completely a quarter of a century ago. True, by then she no longer needed to work, but she also apparently never wanted to again! The lady in question is Miss Pamela Hensley.

Hensley was born under that name in 1950 in Glendale, California. The grandchild (on her mother’s side) of an Austrian Jewish woman who left her homeland when Anti-Semitism began to grow, she was actually raised without that faith as her grandma married an American and the family eventually broke with tradition. Hensley’s parents were a veterinarian and an actress and Pamela grew up in the California sunshine, attending Burbank High School. A natural beauty mark dotted her left cheek above her upper lip.

A stint at The Argyle Academy led to an audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She was accepted and was soon on her way to London, where she spent three years training. Back in the States, she continued under the tutelage of famed coaches Lee Strasberg and Jeff Corey. Hensley developed a voice that was amazingly distinctive. It might not have sounded altogether natural, but the diction, resonance and clarity of it was perfect for projecting dialogue so that everything could be understood.

In 1970, she won her first film role, a small part in Kirk Douglas’s film There Was a Crooked Man. She was paired with then-popular blonde actor Michael Blodgett. This was followed by a small role as a barmaid in the film Making It, starring a sex-obsessed Kristoffer Tabori. Despite some good notices for him in the now-obscure film, it was allegedly given the shortest movie review ever in the The New Yorker: “Making It was based on the novel 'What Can You Do?' What you can do is not see it."

In 1973, she was given a contract to Universal Studios. This meant steady work in a plethora of TV series. Her striking good looks made her an ideal guest star/love interest on many of the hot series of the day including Banacek, Emergency!, Kojak, Adam 12, McMillan & Wife, Ironside and The Rockford Files. Director John Badham used her in his realistic and high-caliber television movie The Law, which, for its time, turned the melodramatic theatrics of previous series like Perry Mason on their ear.

Other TV films followed such as Death Among Friends, an attempt to create a sort of American Miss Marple with Kate Reid in the role. (It wouldn’t be until Murder, She Wrote that American audiences really embraced a female crime solver of a certain age.)

Another feature film came in 1975 when Pamela was chosen to play James Caan’s live-in girlfriend in the brutal Rollerball, all about a future that contains the title game as a major spectator sport. She was primarily being utilized for her looks and her body, but what a body!

Directly after, she worked for legendary stop-motion director George Pal who was doing a satiric take on a once-popular comic character. Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze was an adventure yarn starring Ron Ely, all blonde and painted tan, as the title figure. Hensley appeared as a South American beauty who manages to come to his rescue. This was intended to be the first in a series of films about the hero, but the film’s dismal failure at the box office kicked the legs out from under it before the series could proceed. (Rumor has it that a sequel was already partially filmed along with the original, much the way they do things now, but it has never seen the light of day.)

Ely might have seemed a good choice at the time (he had been Tarzan on TV) for an action hero, but his draw for movie audiences was questionable. I do always appreciate when action stars have their shirts torn, to reveal a nipple, however. Ha ha! Anyway, Hensley could hardly be blamed for the project’s failure, her part being a small one, but it was back to television for her after this, at least for a while.

The good news is that she was given a decent role on a popular series, Marcus Welby, M.D. Welby, starring Robert Young as the title character, had been a stunning success since its 1969 debut (it was the first ABC show to be #1 in the ratings for the whole season), though it was now in its seventh season. Stalwart secondary doctor Steven Kiley (played by James Brolin) was given a fiancée, ultimately a wife, and she was played by Pamela Hensley. Her addition to the show was heralded in the media, giving her some much-needed press attention.

The character of Janet Blake was not just pretty, though. She was brainy and insightful and Welby relied on her for various things. The show featured its fair share of philosophical discussions. Hensley was continuing to project an attractive, feminine persona, but one that was clearly intelligent, sensible and thoughtful. The bad news is that, by 1976, medical shows on TV were waning. Both Welby and its competitor Medical Center went off the air that year, having run the same amount of seasons.

Not idle for long, she was cast in another show the following season. Raymond Burr was the star of Kingston: Confidential, about a media tycoon who sends a couple of undercover agents out on assignment to get the real story behind the various happenings of the world. Paired with (the decidedly un-electric) Art Hindle, she was one of the agents who found herself knee-deep in all sorts of scenarios. Sadly, the show was canned after just thirteen episodes.

Hensley continued to appear on television, sometimes in special two part episodes of series such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Switch. She also did Vega$ and the dire B.J. and the Bear. There was another project on the horizon, though, that would grant her a new and appreciative audience. Glen Larson was putting together a remake of one of the old comic book and movie serial characters that had been popular in the 1930s. The result was the elaborate TV-movie Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, starring Gil Gerard as the hero.
Pamela was selected to play the evil and seductive Princess Ardala. The part gave her a chance to provide campy villainy while cavorting around in hilarious Jean-Pierre Dorleac costumes, most of which took pains to show off her nubile figure. (One of her contenders for the part had been Catherine Bach, who was then cast as Daisy Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard.) Gerard’s chief ally and quasi-love interest was Erin Gray, but he was still occasionally tempted by the far more blatant and sultry Hensley. The TV movie was not picked up by any of the three networks, so it was released to movie theaters as a feature.
Shortly thereafter, the concept was sold to NBC as a TV series and Hensley made several guest appearances on the show. It’s telling that she is highly remembered for this character and her association with the series when, apart from the pilot film, she was only on the program four times out of thirty-five episodes!! Even on the boxed set DVD of the pilot and both seasons, her visage looms on the packaging, despite her limited contribution to the show. After the series was hideously retooled for the second season, she was never once called upon to appear, a major mistake. Buck Rogers was canceled after only eleven of those episodes.

The late 70s was a time for sweeping miniseries and Hensley found herself in one with The Rebels, part of John Jakes’ Kent Family Chronicles (The Bastard had aired previously and The Seekers came after this one.) Andrew Stevens was the star of the story, set in Revolutionary War era New England. Don Johnson led a supporting cast that included Doug McClure, Richard Basehart, Joan Blondell, Anne Francis and Peter Graves. Hensley was paired with Johnson as the beauteous Charlotte Waverly. (In the still photo below, that's prolific bad guy William Smith.) In 1978 and 1980, she was part of the NBC team of Battle of the Network Stars. She also was married from 1978 –1981 to noted 60s and 70s songwriter Wes Farrell. (He had been married to Tina Sinatra beforehand and scored the Oscar-winning film Midnight Cowboy.)
Another movie opportunity came her way in 1980 when a couple of the writers of Get Smart decided to make a feature film continuing the exploits of secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams.) The result, after a lot of re-imagining and in-fighting, was The Nude Bomb, all about a villain threatening to rid the world of all its clothing unless it does his bidding.

Adams reprised his famous role, but Barbara Feldon was not asked to come back as his sidekick Agent 99. Instead, three women (Agents 36 –22 –34, get it?) took her place and Hensley was one of them. The primary one was softcore porn actress Sylvia Kristel (the other being Andrea Howard), so Hensley didn’t gather a ton of attention for the ultimately unsuccessful movie, though she did have a comedic scene in a shower with Adams that some fans remember fondly.
Few casting directors ever seemed to know just what to do with this striking brunette who actually had a brain. She was back to the miniseries format with Condominium, a 1980 all-star extravaganza that featured Barbara Eden, Dan Haggerty, Steve Forrest, Ana Alicia, Ralph Bellamy, Arte Johnson, Jack Jones, Dorothy Malone, Stuart Whitman and others. Based on a novel, it concerned a glamorous ocean-side high-rise of questionable strength that is eventually hit by a devastating hurricane. (Now I ask you… WHY can we not see this cheesetastic projects anywhere?! Another question is, why didn’t Forrest hold his stomach in, in this scene?)
A recurring part on the rescue drama 240-Robert followed along with guest spots on the requisite series Fantasy Island, Hotel and The Love Boat. There was also a seedy little film called Double Exposure about a men’s magazine photographer (Michael Callan) who may be killing off his models in a vicious fashion. Surprisingly, Hensley did not play one of the models, but rather a dogged police detective attempting to solve the case. The rather interesting cast included Joanna Pettet, James Stacey, Cleavon Little, Sally Kirkland and Hee Haw’s Misty Rowe.

In 1982, Hensley had auditioned for a role on a new crime-solving series called Matt Houston. Combining the elements of many of the then-hot trends such as people from Texas, hunks with thick moustaches, fast sports cars and over-the-top (though not by today’s standards!) action sequences, it starred relative newcomer Lee Horsley (Horsely and Hensley?!) who had spent a short while as a sidekick on the mystery series Nero Wolfe.

Search high and wide, far and near, and you are not likely to find a more charming and devilishly handsome man than Horsley was during the first season of Matt Houston (and thereafter for some time.) His character was a wealthy Texan living in L.A. and solving crimes with the aid of a computer, a helicopter and a girl Friday who blended sensibility, professionalism and resourcefulness with beauty and charisma. This part of C.J. Parsons was played, of course, by Pamela Hensley.

She and Horsley enjoyed incredible chemistry together and their characters, deliberately written to bounce remarks off one another due to their differences in attitude, made a terrific combination. It goes without saying that they were also easy on the eyes, though Hensley left the swimsuit and other slinky attire to the other gals this time, for the most part, and was often dressed in business wear. Initially, there was an extended supporting cast, most of who didn’t work well within the series’ structure with the possible exception of John Aprea as a police detective. Eventually, these others were pruned away and the prime players consisted of Horsley, Hensley and a new police lieutenant played by Michael Hoyt.
The series was retooled as the end of the first season neared and a lot of the distinctiveness of the concept (cowboy in the big city as a fish out of water) drizzled away. It also had begun as a mind-boggling showcase for multitudinous campy guest stars, but this also dwindled in time when a new, tougher image for the show and its star was sought. (By the way, if you think I’m overestimating the guest star aspect of this show, think again. One ep featured Sonny Bono as Zsa Zsa Gabor’s karate-expert bodyguard. One had former teen idol Troy Donahue sharing a scene with later former teen idol David Cassidy. Another had Fred Grandy as a serial killer. The list of stars appearing on season one looks like Aaron Spelling’s Christmas card list!)
The series was semi-hot for a while, but eventually petered out. The producers tried to spark interest by unsealing the coffin and dragging out an eighty-plus year-old Buddy Ebson as Matt’s uncle for the last twenty-two episodes, but it was all for naught. Still, Hensley was in every episode and the show scored a rare coup when all sixty-seven eps were picked up for syndication one year after its cancellation. (At the time, it was rare for a show to win rerun syndication when less than one hundred episodes were produced and also rare for a show to have that quick a turnaround. This has greatly changed now, of course.)
Matt Houston was produced by busy TV executive E. Duke Vincent, who had worked on many shows before and continues to do so now. When Hensley auditioned for him, she was struck by his Italian looks and small details such as the way he wore his sleeve cuffs. Though she had appeared once on Vega$, it was not in one of the episodes he'd produced. In time, the couple fell in love and eventually married. By the time Matt Houston was canceled, they were husband and wife and, for whatever reason, Hensley never again set foot before the camera again.

She effectively disappeared from public view in 1985. E. Duke Vincent was a producer for Dynasty, The Colbys, Hotel, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and other shorter-lived soapy dramas like 2000 Malibu Road and Models, Inc. He also produced the daytime soap Sunset Beach and the successful shows 7th Heaven and Charmed. There is no question that roles could have been found for Hensley to play on every single one of these shows or any of his many others, even as just a one time guest. Lord knows the world has been beset for decades by producers’ wives demanding and getting parts on TV and in film based mostly on their relationships. Hensley apparently wanted none of it and was content to stay completely out of the limelight.

Sharing the good life with her successful husband, Hensley began to recall her Jewish grandmother’s succulent cooking. The woman had lived across the hall from an Italian woman who shared many of her culinary secrets with her. The result was a Jewish grandmother with a tremendous skill for cooking Italian food. Now married to Vincent, whose own family was Italian and loved such meals (relegating every Thursday night and Sunday night to creating their aromatic feasts), she enjoyed preparing the food she’d loved so much as a youth.

Finally, she was cajoled into writing a cookbook that put over sixty of these recipes out there for others to enjoy. Initially stupefied that anyone would want to work with the simple ingredients she typically used, she was reluctant, but eventually set about writing the book, which also includes anecdotes, photos and so forth. The Jewish-Sicilian Cookbook by Pamela Hensley Vincent was published in 2004. Italian (and perhaps some Jewish) purists vilified it for its use of non-traditional ingredients and methods, as if she was supposed to present something archaic instead of something simple for today’s active woman. Others took pot shots at her decision to include old publicity photos within it. However, many people enjoyed reading her meal-oriented, enthusiastic family anecdotes and took pleasure in creating the foods she listed within.

It was a rare public turn from a former actress who had charm and beauty to spare and decided to withhold it, rather than continue the grind of performing in things that didn’t interest her. She found that her favorite role was that of a real Hollywood wife and never looked back. It’s a shame that, at least, she hasn’t participated (or been asked to?) in special features for her series Buck Rogers and Matt Houston on DVD, for she has a fan base clamoring to hear from her. Only time will tell if their wishes will come true and she’ll reemerge sometime (what? At age eighty on a future cable channel TCTV – Turner Classic Television, hosted by a middle-aged Kirk Cameron?)

Carry On, James!

Sometimes the way a person ages can really surprise you. One minute, a guy is a serviceable, if unspectacular, young actor. Then he’s a mature, quite hairy-looking, leading man. Next, he winds up a cute and hunky, salt ‘n pepper daddy with a newly discovered sparkle and sense of humor. Such was the case with today’s featured performer, Mister James Brolin.

Born Craig Bruderlin in Los Angeles in 1940, the family of seven (he is the oldest of five children) soon settled in Westwood, California. Following a childhood fascination with James Dean, he eventually decided to audition for acting work. Unlike many parents from that era, his actually encouraged him to proceed with a career in the field and introduced a director friend of theirs to meet him and supply advice. However, his earliest efforts were tested by the young man’s innate shyness.

When newfound pal Ryan O’Neal introduced him to his talent agency, he began to land small roles on TV series such as Follow the Sun and Bus Stop and soon changed his name. Brolin was a bastardization of Bruderlin and James was selected out of residual affection for his idol James Dean.

A contract with 20th Century Fox led to uncredited bits and background roles in films like Take Her, She’s Mine, Goodbye Charlie, Dear Brigitte and Fantastic Voyage, supplemented by roles on TV shows including 12 O’Clock High and The Patty Duke Show. In the movies, he was getting parts like “Mel; Mollie’s Student Friend at Airport,” “Student at Leaf Rally,” “Man Doing the Twist on Yacht” and “Technician.” In other words, he was going nowhere fast! A rare billed role (ninth) came in Frank Sinatra’s Von Ryan’s Express where he played Private Ames.

In 1967, he teamed with Jacqueline Bisset in The Cape Town Affair, a remake of the black and white classic Pickup on South Street, this time set in South Africa and with Claire Trevor in the role that Thelma Ritter had made famous in the prior rendition. (Claire got top-billing over her younger costars, too!) This was not much of a success and it was back to TV where he had a recurring part on The Monroes and appeared in a few episodes of the highly popular Batman (though as flunkies, not major villains.)

In 1967, James (whose features were very, shall we say, unusual, perhaps a little Cro-Magnon, thanks to a pronounced brow) had the distinction of being selected to model the chimpanzee makeup for the upcoming Planet of the Apes. He was tested with a female actress in early forms of the simian prosthetics to see how they would read onscreen. However, he was not assigned to the film when production commenced. He seemed in danger of ending up in the acting career trash can.

In 1969, he was placed in the new series Marcus Welby, M.D., a vehicle for former MGM screen actor Robert Young, who had enjoyed a previous television success with Father Knows Best. This series had him, as the title character, portraying a kindly, but firm-minded doctor who had a constant supply of patients with challenging medical (and emotional) conditions. Brolin was his youthful sidekick, Dr. Steven Kiley.

The pattern of placing a young up and comer with a veteran doctor had been working as far back as the 1930s when Lew Ayres played Doctor Kildare in the movies against Lionel Barrymore as his mentor. Richard Chamberlain had later played the same role on TV with Raymond Massey as his elder and Medical Center paired hunky Chad Everett with the older James Daly. Years later, Trapper John, M.D. would place a young Gregory Harrison with veteran actor Pernell Roberts.

Welby was a great hit, uniting the older viewers with younger ones, many of whom fell for Brolin as Dr. Kiley. What’s more, the serious nature of the show gave him a chance to show off the acting skills he’d been honing for nearly a decade. In 1970, he was nominated for and won an Emmy as Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role. He was nominated again in ’71, ’72 and ’73 (also picking up two Golden Globes and an additional nomination during the run of the program.)

During hiatuses from Marcus Welby (a show that lasted until 1976), Brolin had roles in several other projects. He played a soldier in Skyjacked (see individual posting about that one!), which had an ensemble cast that included Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, Walter Pidgeon and Susan Dey. Then he starred in one of the most fondly remembered TV disaster movies, Short Walk to Daylight, about a group of subway passengers trapped beneath the pavement when an earthquake strikes! Ever the hero, his character leads the way through mud, water and other hurdles. The concept was explored again years later in the more elaborate Sylvester Stallone vehicle Daylight.

1973 brought the TV film Trapped, all about a man who is inadvertently locked inside a department store overnight and is faced with six (!) vicious Doberman Pinchers. One of many, many movies to put Brolin through the ringer, this one was shown in some foreign markets as a feature film (with various new names including Doberman Patrol.)

This was also the year of the sci-fi thriller Westworld, a yarn concerning a fantastic amusement park that allows guests to interact with amazingly lifelike robots in three sections: MedievalWorld, RomanWorld and WesternWorld. Brolin and his pal Richard Benjamin opt for the Wild West and are sent scrambling for their lives when one of the robot cowboys, a menacing Yul Brynner, malfunctions and is out to get them for real! The film was a big hit, but Brynner gleaned most of the attention.

As the medical series wound up, Brolin found himself as one of the title characters in the big-budget, but miscast and misguided, Gable and Lombard. The story of legendary leading man Clark Gable and his wife, the sparkling comedienne and expert dramatic actress, luminous Carole Lombard, it put Brolin in some mighty big shoes to fill and he was not able to fill them effectively.

Likewise, costar Jill Clayburgh was no Lombard. The actors were put into many various contortions in order to make them look like their famous counterparts, but they resembled them the closest when they were in near darkness and with most of their faces obscured! A lot of advance publicity was for naught when the film opened to several damning reviews and a disappointed public.

The unnecessarily joke-y and relentlessly crude and common script took all the wrong elements from the stars’ personas and their careers and whipped them into a long, dull movie. Lombard did have a foul mouth, but she also had incredible taste. And the couple did like to have fun, but they also shared a significant love for one another, a love that caused them to move mountains (well, all except one!) to be together.

Even worse, it blatantly ignores the facts of their lives in order to present its own version. As in most cases of this kind, the real story was more compelling anyway!! Probably the most egregious example of this was when the film showed Gable, in his Army uniform, going to the plane crash site to look for his wife. Ummm. Gable joined the Army in a fit of despair over the loss of his wife and as a tribute to her tireless war efforts! So he wouldn’t be in uniform the day she perished. Incidentally, this shot of Gable as Rhett Butler has Morgan Brittany as Vivien Leigh/Scarlett. She would late play the same role in the telefilm The Scarlett O'Hara War.

Anyway, it may have had a few things going for it, but the film was mostly D.O.A. and Brolin’s shot at the big time was practically over in one fell swoop. He would, however, enjoy leading roles in a series of cheaper productions, some of which wound up being popular and at least one of which was actually very good!

Each of these films, in turn, for whatever reason, would seem to take pains in order to present Brolin as dirty and unkempt as possible! The Car was a dusty (and often ludicrous) suspense film that had a possessed, driverless vehicle tearing through a small desert town killing people whenever possible. This movie ran out of gas pretty quickly at the box office.

Next up was Capricorn One, a conspiracy thriller that posed the question, what if a trio of astronauts didn’t really land on the moon, but, in fact were faking it all on a movie set? And then what happens if the craft they were supposed to be in explodes?! While the movie was hardly realistic, it offered up a solid cast of familiar actors and is highly enjoyable as a chase flick.

Brolin was paired with Sam Waterston and a pre-debacle O.J. Simpson as the trio of astronauts who find out the hard way that they are expendable when the plan, which they wanted no part of, goes awry. The film also featured Elliott Gould, Brenda Vaccaro, Hal Holbrook, Telly Savalas and 70s staple Karen Black (who, in this shot, seems to be awfully chummy with Simpson!) Gould played a reporter who smells something fishy and attempts to uncover the plot.

The movie opens with an absolutely riveting and pulse-pounding theme by Jerry Goldsmith, one of my favorite pieces of credits music and Goldsmith continues to ramp up the excitement as two very threatening helicopters continue their never-ending pursuit of the astronauts across a sweltering desert. Again, Brolin was bedraggled and filthy, even filming this scene with a scorpion! (He’d already endured a rattlesnake bite – with its bottom teeth – during a scene in Westworld.)

One of Brolin’s most high profile movies came in 1979 when he played the father in The Amityville Horror. The book this film is based on was a major league bestseller and people were freaked out by the story (about a house that is possessed by evil, having led to a multiple murder there.) Paired with Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger, he had a heavy beard in this one and long, full hair. As his character is more and more affected by his surroundings, he gets creepier and creepier (and more Manson-like!)

Check out this hysterical foreign poster for the film that contains some of the cheapest and most rudimentary artwork ever imaginable! Compared to that, the stills on the poster look like something out of classic cinema.

By the time the movie is over, there have been more unintentional laughs than chills, but it was popular enough to warrant a sequel (or seven!) and a remake. Brolin’s character turns really mean and he blamed the movie for stunting his career for a while. His next project was a seedy (and, to some, silly) thriller called Night of the Juggler, in which he, an ex-cop (still sporting his Amityville beard and hair) has to hunt down kidnappers who have taken his daughter, believing her to be a child of wealth! His adventures take him through slums, peep shows and every other gruesome aspect of 1980 New York City.

1981 marked the last time Brolin would make a feature film for about a decade. High Risk had him flying to South America with a small group of friends in order to pilfer $5 million from a drug dealer. Trouble is, once the money is in their hands, they can’t get back home and are relentlessly hunted by not only the dealer, but by other bandits as well! Though the film wasn’t a big success, it counted amongst its cast Anthony Quinn, Ernest Borgnine, James Coburn, Bruce Davison and, as Brolin’s girlfriend, Lindsay Wagner.

Following this, Brolin toiled in several TV movies (including playing the principal love interest to Ann Jillian’s Mae West) until 1983 when he took on another series. This time, he was as far from the desert dust and city grime as you can get, for he was cast as the debonair Peter McDermott, operator of the plush St. Gregory in Arthur Hailey’s Hotel, an Aaron Spelling production. Also on board was Connie Sellecca, as Brolin’s right hand woman.

The two-hour pilot had none other than Bette Davis as Laura Trent, the owner of the hotel, but she suffered a severe stroke soon after and had to be replaced in the actual series. Now just who do you think was waiting in the wings to inherit the vacancy and play on the show until her own death?! None other than Miss Anne Baxter, Davis’s nemesis in All About Eve! Davis, from her sick bed, exclaimed hilariously that the show was so full of sex and mischief that it should have been called “Brothel!”

Hotel was like a land-locked The Love Boat, with various guests checking in and out each week. The opening credits involved an elevator that opened up to reveal the names and faces of the guest stars. Of all the TV shows ever made, no type of show ever pleased me more than ones like Hotel, Love Boat and any Quinn Martin Production (think Barnaby Jones or The Streets of San Francisco) which featured a roster of guests and put their picture and names into the opening credits! I just love credit sequences like that. Brolin was twice nominated for Best Actor Golden Globe awards during his stint on the series.

Hotel ran until 1988 and afterwards Brolin stayed busy with many TV movies and a few lesser-known features (many straight-to-video.) Among his TV flicks were the unwieldily named Beverly Hills Cowgirl Blues with Lisa Hartman (see, she has a Bolo tie. She’s a “cowgirl.”) and Intimate Encounters with Donna Mills (in which she’s a bored wife with many sexual fantasies, not to mention too much time on her hands!)

One of his hootiest roles ever came at the end of Pee Wee's Big Adventure when the title character was permitted to film the story of his life and chose to star James Brolin as himself. Brolin, with his trademark mane of hair and thick beard, wore Pee Wee's grey suit with red bow tie and straight-facedly played Herman as a secret agent (with the ever campy Morgan Fairchild clinging to him lustily!)
He also worked on a few more series, a primetime soap, Angel Falls, with Peggy Lipton, the very short-lived Extreme and the somewhat better known Pensacola: Wings of Gold, a syndicated series which allowed him to explore one of his earliest childhood loves, that of airplanes. By now the beard was gone and the once-thick brown hair was going grey and was chopped short. Mr. Brolin was still a hunk, but now he was a silver daddy! (He did cover it up in 2003 when he and Judy Davis portrayed The Reagans in a somewhat controversial miniseries.)
In 1995, Brolin (who had previously been married for twenty-two years to his first wife Jane and for nine years to second wife Jan Smithers, of WKRP in Cincinnati fame) found love in a peculiar place. In one of the most unlikely pairings imaginable, Brolin was acquainted with Barbra Streisand and the two struck up a romance! Married in 1998, they continue to be a happy and successful couple with more than a dozen years under their belt.

Seemingly unfazed by all the attention (and potential drama) that goes along with being married to one of music’s most legendary divas, his presence seems to have somehow relaxed the famously persnickety songstress. They almost invariably look happy to be wherever they are seen together. (Ironically, Brolin had starred in Capricorn One with Streisand’s only other husband, Elliott Gould.)

Brolin’s son by his first wife Jane, Josh Brolin, is an even more handsome man than his father was and has an Academy Award nomination to his credit for his work in Milk. Coincidentally, with James having portrayed Ronald Reagan, Josh was George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s W! With Josh’s wife being popular actress Diane Lane, any family get-together is automatically star-filled!

Now busy as ever, though mostly with supporting roles, he has dotted the casts of such recent Hollywood movies as Traffic, Antwone Fisher, Catch Me if You Can, A Guy Thing and has several films in the can, soon to be released, with such young stars as Mandy Moore, Jake, Gyllenhaal, Jessica Biel and James Marsden as the leads. With awards on the shelf, two highly successful series to his name, a famous wife and a demanding, but welcome, schedule, he’s come a long way since being used to test monkey makeup! Here’s to you Mr. Brolin with congrats and love!