throttle jammed, accelerating the Spanish ver- sion of a BMW to about 70. I couldn’t stop. I destroyed the barricade, which was the only one they had, and had to dump the bike 50 yards across the golf green to save my own life. The poor director nearly had that same coronary all over again, and we had to wait all afternoon while they had a brand new wooden barricade made to order. The Spanish stunt director trashed the guy who had rented the bike and had his own Norton brought to the sight. I was delighted, as I had a Norton back in Rome. The BMW was a piece of junk, and I wasn’t very comfortable with it. I had raced bikes for Duccati for six years and could handle anything, but I knew that first machine was a potential death trap the minute I got on it.


When and if you see the film, you will chuckle at the Italian version of the killer bazooka that my character carries in a golf bag as he rides off astraddle his trusty cycle to get the bad guys. They never could get the thing to work. Well, I think it did work once, and seems to me it nearly burned down a set on the golf course where we were shoot- ing. Nothing the Italians ever made in those days seemed to work the first time... or the 2nd... 3rd... 4th... The machine guns always jammed, and the handguns were always going off when you least expected them to. Everything was a hand-me-down from films of the ’30s and ’40s. We always felt lucky to have gotten out alive after using much of the equipment.


Any stories or recollections about director Mino Guerrini?


Good director; a bit strange, very moody, did a lot of good cinema before he died quite young.


How did you become involved in the film HORNETS NEST?


Perhaps somebody called my agent for some- body who looked and sounded very American.


Did you have an opportunity to get to know Rock Hudson during the filming? Any recollections or stories about him?


As near as I recall, he was not very friendly and stayed pretty much surrounded by his “entourage.”


How about Sylva Koscina and Giacomo Rossi- Stuart?


Only saw La Koscina once and never spoke with her. I had known Giacomo from Rome; we played cards a couple of times. I was only on the set one day, then back to Rome.


36


Was this an American production? Near as I recall, it was a co-production.


Back in the US, you worked dubbing a Japanese television series which was released


in the US as SPECTREMAN.


That was done in Hollywood in April and May of 1977. I dubbed the nutty villain, Dr. Gori, who was the more sophisticated of the primate pair. Mel Welles, who also directed, did the voice of Gori’s stooge. Gori was the one who moved his hands and arms to the point that, at times, I thought we would never get anything done... We spent all of our time laughing at his gyrations. I recall that John Thompson did Spectreman’s voice. He became a big producer with Cannon Films in Hollywood. Mel Gaines, who is no longer with us, did several characters, and Chuck and Linda Howerton did the two younger characters plus several other roles. Cory Burton, who went on to be a big voice in the voice-over industry, did several roles. I don’t recall who sponsored the work for SPECTREMAN. It was a group Mel Welles had worked with for a long time. We dubbed the series at a studio next to Paramount on Santa Monica Blvd. Aside from that show, I never dubbed in LA.


Several years after withdrawing from screen acting, you accepted a role in THE DAY CHRIST DIED.


At one point, from 1978 to 1979, I was teach- ing classes at a campus called Astara in Upland, California. At the same time, I was teaching Yoga classes at Fox, Universal and MGM. One of my students was actress Roberta Haynes, Larry Ward’s ex-wife—and Gary Cooper’s co-star in RETURN TO PARADISE [1953]. She and I ran into Martin Manulis at lunch one day and we began reminisc- ing about the HELIMARINES series pilot, of which Manulis had been the producer. He asked me if I was still interested in acting and would I be inter- ested in a trip to Rome and Tunisia. I said “Of course” and, six months later, found myself in Rome working on THE DAY CHRIST DIED with Chris Sarandon and Colin Blakely. We spent a few weeks in Rome and then went to Tunisia where I spent more time hob-knobbing with Muslim and Arabic scholars than on the set. Wonderful experi- ence, incredible cast. By the way, I’ve never seen the film, which I heard was too long, boring, and very Easter. I play Abenadar the centurion in the film, which was a Fox-BBC production. After film- ing ended, I stayed on in Europe for a while... and then went to India.

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