Guest Who: Prick Nelson

COVID-19 sheltering in place calls for comfort television. And few things comfort me more than Quinn Martin productions, with their assortment of guest stars sprinkled into the opening credits of each episode. Recently, I found a boxed set of seasons one through three of The Streets of San Francisco for $12.00 and have been chugging through them, enjoying the location scenery and the various people who have popped up on the show. The homicide detective series with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas was filmed entirely in the show's locale, giving it an immediate authenticity (and now nostalgia) few other series could boast of. This post, though, is only focusing on one particular guest star of the many who appeared on the show.

Nelson in the credits once his name is gone.

In an episode called "Harem," we find one Rick Nelson. Some of you may know him better as Ricky Nelson, some of you may have no clue on earth who he was at all! He plays a sleazy, flute-playing pimp with a harem of underage girls who work for him. Unfortunately, when some of them fall out of line, they wind up missing or dead! This sort of role was quite a departure for a man who was once a fresh-scrubbed child star who literally grew up in front of television viewers of the 1950s. Before we cover his Streets role, lets look at his prior career a bit.

Popular bandleader Ozzie Nelson and his wife (and singer) Harriet Hilliard developed a very popular radio program about their family in 1944, with actors portraying their two young sons, David and Ricky. Early in 1949, the boys (at ages 12 and 8) began playing themselves on the hit show. In 1952, after a movie (Here Come the Nelsons) to try things out, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet hit television airwaves and was a smash hit.

From 1952 to 1966, faithful viewers tuned in to see The Nelsons confront their various domestic situations and observe the boys growing from young teenagers into young men. The show remains one of the longest running sitcoms in TV history.

Nelson was at first a sickly child, suffering from asthma and sleeping near a vaporizer. This led to a certain insecurity and shyness which he overcame to a degree from his work on the show. Eventually, a talent for singing was discovered and his always-enterprising father helped secure a record deal for him.

Initially drawn to singing in order to impress his girlfriend and emulate his rockabilly idol, Elvis Presley, Nelson scored a hit in 1958 with "Poor Little Fool." In time, he would amass more Top 40 hits in the years from 1957-1962 than any other artists besides Pat Boone and his beloved Elvis. He became a staggering success with hordes of female fans going wild over his every move.

I'm sorry, your what has a what in it?? He's impossibly pretty in this record sleeve portrait. Those lashes...! Like Presley, Nelson went into the U.S. Army and emerged a man, rather than a boy.

Upon his 21st birthday in 1961, he dropped the "y" from the end of his name and became Rick Nelson. Check out the pout he'd developed by the time of this photo.

Though a certain shyness remained (not to mention a level of serene stoicism), Nelson had fully grown into his features and was strikingly handsome.

He had done a few small movie roles, but in 1959's Rio Bravo (alongside John Wayne, Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson), Nelson made an impact. His vast fan following led director Howard Hawks to credit him with much of the movie's success.

Nonetheless, music remained his primary focus. I love his face here. Those lips... those eyes!

There was also a period when the Nelson brothers did a trapeze act (no, that's not their parents!) David had learned about the art while working on Irwin Allen's The Big Circus (1959) and got his brother in on the action for a while.

After a couple of prior relationships (of which his mother was disdainful), Nelson married the daughter of family friend and football player Tom Harmon. (You might know his son, Mark?) Kristin Harmon was pregnant with daughter Tracy at the time of the hastily-arranged wedding in 1963, but soon she was part of the family and began appearing on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as Rick's wife!

Before their turbulent marriage led to an acrimonious divorce in 1982, they had had three more children. There were towheaded twins Gunnar and Matthew, followed by Sam.

Depending on your age, you will recall Gunnar and Matthew's own rock career in the band Nelson. Look carefully at all the hair and attitude being put forth in this publicity photo! Sweet baby Jesus!!

Now onto the subject at hand, Rick Nelson's appearance on The Streets of San Francisco. As mentioned before, he plays a flute-playing slime ball who supplements his meager income by pimping out young girls for sex.

Sort of a Pied Piper of Handlin'...

This was just a couple of years after Charles Manson's 1971 trial for the murder of Sharon Tate and others. Stories featuring cult leaders and other unsavory types of that sort were prevalent in movies and on TV. (With Nelson here is one of his more tender acquaintances, Laurette Spang.)

Here we find Nelson blowing away on his flute as another of his gals comes to pay a visit, Kay Lenz in an early acting role.

In the time since his teen years, Nelson had developed one hellaciously hair chest, which he rarely showed off in its entirety. While he might wear shirts open to the waist, shirtless photos are remarkably elusive once he stopped keeping his chest smooth. Now... the reason for the title of this post is not solely due to the fact that Nelson's character here is a royal prick. There's a double meaning at work...

As Nelson rises to put on his sport coat, he provides us a glimpse of a pair of the most revealing blue jeans evah!

Only in the late-'60s or 1970s (or perhaps early-'80s) would we see a pair of trousers like this. It's one of the reasons, apart from many others, that I LOVE vintage television.

Here is an example of the great location shooting that took place for TSOSF. If you can tear your eyes away from those jeans.

At one point in the story, Nelson tries to throw detective Michael Douglas off his scent by donning a gold hoop earring and subtly playing gay during the questioning! This being 1973, it's all done with reasonable restraint, but we get what he was going for (and it was San Francisco after all!)

In time for the big capture at the end, Nelson's revealing jeans are front and center again.

I cannot say that his performance left any particularly outstanding impression on me, but those pants certainly did!

Nelson left this world altogether too soon. Working the nostalgia circuit in the mid-1980s, he remained a popular concert attraction both for his early hits as well as his mid-'70s one, "Garden Party." Refusing to travel the country by bus, he owned a rather ramshackle 40 year-old plane that unfortunately ran into trouble and crashed, killing all the passengers (while the two pilots barely escaped with their lives through a cockpit window.) He was 45.

The Very Thought of You indeed...!

Boys of Summer and a Dash of Saxon Charm

I had been in the middle of preparing a post about some famous men showing off their summer physiques when Olivia de Havilland passed away, leading me to rush a post about her onto the site. Then, before I could do anything else further, I realized we had also lost John Saxon, who happened to be included in the few pictures I had amassed beforehand. So this little photo essay will be a baker's dozen of hideously random fellas, followed by a few more photos of Mr. John Saxon, who I know many of you like. Mr. Saxon died on July 25th, 2020 of pneumonia at the age of 83. The cover boy for today, being upstaged a bit by the lovely Diane McBain, is Lee Patterson of the television show Surfside 6.

This guy might seem more familiar to you had he been in a loincloth instead of his swimsuit onesie. It's Johnny Weissmuller, of Tarzan fame.

You may be forgiven for somehow zoning out on Miss Shirley Temple, cute as she is in her get-up, thanks to her pool pal. Mr. Guy Madison is simply to die for here!

I think I've posted this pic before of Van Williams (also of Surfside 6) brandishing his garden hose, but this is a much bigger and better version of the shot.

Towering Clint Walker's (first) wife Verna has to practically climb onto a wall in order to reach his stratosphere!

Muscle/nipple fans will be clapping over this god-like portrait of one Peter Lupus.

Steve McQueen, the King of Cool, often did without a shirt during outdoor activies.

Likewise, Robert Conrad works on his tan while filming on location.

Wow. Greg Brady (Barry Williams) had a bit of a body going on underneath his '70s polyester Brady Bunch ensembles.

Yes, we all like to poke fun at "The Hoff" - David Hasselhoff - but he was a lean, hirsute newcomer here and he can barely keep his pants zipped.

A very slim Richard Gere, not in trunks but some abbreviated briefs.

I still surprise myself that I take any pleasure in Zac Efron (!), but I have grown to like him quite a bit over the years. This is not my type of body, per se, but I do like the hint of hair!

And this is the aforementioned John Saxon, enjoying a splashy shower.

Saxon was born Carmine Orrico on August 5th, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York. He'd been studying acting with Stella Adler and modeling a bit when he was spotted on the cover of a detective magazine by infamous agent Henry Willson. Willson, with the young man's parents' permission, snatched up the fledgling actor, re-christened him John Saxon and soon had him under contract at Universal Studios.

The young man had brooding, dark good looks, a deep brow and a highly distinctive lip line.

He was groomed and photographed for 18 months before finally landing a part. He soon became known for delinquent type roles in Running Wild (1955) with Mamie Van Doren and The Unguarded Moment (1956) in which he tormented Esther Williams.

He's got an almost Stanley Kowalski Jr. thing going on here.

His dark eyes and deep complexion meant that he would often be slated for ethnic roles. He was a Judean in The Big Fisherman (1959), a Native American in The Unforgiven (1960) and an Italian in The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963.)

He played a Mexican in The Appaloosa (1966) opposite Marlon Brando. This was a Golden Globe nominated role for him, but he lost to Richard Attenborough in The Sand Pebbles.

But he was also a teen idol, despite many hoodlum parts. In movies like Rock, Pretty Baby (1956), Summer Love, The Restless Years, This Happy Feeling and The Reluctant Debutante (all the last four in 1958!), he set the hearts of teen girls aflutter. This shot looks like it could be photoshopped by someone more talented than I to take advantage of his "come hither" expression as he strums away...!

Likewise, this one could be redone to show his pants undone! LOL

In any case, he was at home being both good or bad, dressed up or in cowboy gear. One of my own favorite flicks of his is the delirious Portrait in Black (1960), though I really cannot say it is due to him.

This shot is from 1962's Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation and makes me wonder why I never watched it.

Making a splash in his youth.

We're not entirely sure what is happening in this shot from Rock, Pretty Baby, but I think we'd like to know more about it!

Unfortunately, if you've been in the biz for a decade with reasonable success, but then find yourself in something called Blood Beast from Outer Space (1965), things are not exactly looking up. Saxon began working in low-budget movies, foreign quickies and the occasional supporting part in other peoples' films such as Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon) or Clint Eastwood (Joe Kidd, both 1972.)

Even as his career in studio fare began to fade and he was forced to scramble for parts in all sorts of projects which varied in quality, he retained a handsome face and a well-put-together physique.

Twice, he tried to headline pilots for Gene Roddenberry which went nowhere. There was Planet Earth (1974) and Strange New World (1975), which had the good sense at least to get some of those clothes off.

Hey, I would have tuned in...! I was only 8 when this aired, so I didn't have any say about what was viewed on our TV. Saxon, who did some beefcake during his career, but never as much as one might like allegedly had done some nude modeling as a youth...

This is apparently he in a long ago photo shoot with golden headband. There's certainly no mistaking those brows or those teeth with their crooked smile.

Saxon never really retired. He appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and a couple of its sequels. He was also put to use in films like Beverly Hills Cop II (1994), as seen here,and worked frequently on television as well.

In his later years, he began to take on a sort of Sean Connery look, though the two never resembled one another much in their younger years. His role on Dynasty (as Sheik Rashid Ahmed) was the place I first encountered him.

Though he may not have reached the stellar highs of some of his contemporaries, John Saxon was a working actor for over 60 years. Many of the boys he was hired alongside back in the 1950s were long gone within a decade or so.

We bid a fond farewell to Mr. Saxon, who provided manly enthusiasm to many a project and who always strove to deliver a compelling performance, whatever the surroundings.