Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor. He is known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984). He later had recurring roles on Two and a Half Men (2007–2008) and NCIS (2010–2019).
In films, Wagner is known for his role as Number 2 in the Austin Powers trilogy of films (1997, 1999, 2002), as well as for Prince Valiant (1954), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Pink Panther (1963), Harper (1966), The Towering Inferno (1974), and The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979).
Wagner's first wife, actress Natalie Wood, died under mysterious circumstances in 1981. In 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department named Wagner a "person of interest" in the investigation into Wood's death. Wagner has denied any involvement.
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Early life
Wagner was born in Detroit, to Thelma Hazel Alvera (née Boe; 1898–1993), a former telephone operator, and Robert John Wagner Sr. (1890–1964), a traveling salesman who worked for the Ford Motor Company. He had one older sister, Mary Scott (1926–2023).
Wagner's mother came from La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her parents were both immigrants from Norway, who married in La Crosse in 1887. Wagner's father was a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan. His parents were from Germany.
The family moved to Bel-Air, an upscale area of Los Angeles, in 1937.
Career
20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures
After an unsuccessful screen test directed by Fred Zinnemann for his film Teresa (1951), Wagner was represented by Albert R. Broccoli. He made his uncredited film debut in The Happy Years (1950), was signed by agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century Fox.
"I started off as an ingénue", he said. "I was 19 years old. I was the boy next door. But you always felt you could work your way up, that you could have a better part in the next picture. [Head of Fox] Darryl Zanuck was always placing me in different positions."
Wagner's first film for Fox was Halls of Montezuma (1951), a World War II film. Wagner had a supporting role, with Richard Widmark as the star. The studio then had him perform a similar function in another war movie, The Frogmen (1951), again with Widmark; the cast also included another young male under contract to the studio, Jeffrey Hunter, with whom Wagner would often work. Let's Make It Legal (1951) was a comedy where Wagner again supported an older star, in this case Claudette Colbert.
Wagner first gained significant attention with a small, showy part as a shell-shocked soldier in With a Song in My Heart (1952).
"You were part of 20th Century Fox", he said. "You felt proud of being part of the organization. When I wasn't working, I was on the road, going out and selling movies or dancing on the stage and meeting the public. They never let you rest."
Fox started to give Wagner better roles. He was the romantic male lead in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), a biopic about John Philip Sousa starring Clifton Webb. He supported James Cagney and Dan Dailey in John Ford's version of What Price Glory (1952) and supported Webb again in Titanic (1953). He was in a minor Western, The Silver Whip (1953) with Rory Calhoun.
Fox gave Wagner his first starring role in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953). Reviews were poor but the movie was only the third ever to be shot in CinemaScope and was a big hit.
Europe
Wagner's first marriage to Wood had broken up, and he relocated to Europe. He had a small role in The Longest Day (1962), produced by Daryl Zanuck for Fox. He had a larger part in The Condemned of Altona (1962), a commercial and critical disappointment despite being directed by Vittorio de Sica and co-starring Sophia Loren.
Considerably more popular was The Pink Panther (1963), a massive hit, although Wagner's part was very much in support to those of David Niven, Capucine, Peter Sellers, and Claudia Cardinale. It was directed by Blake Edwards, who wanted Wagner for the lead in The Great Race (1965), but Jack L. Warner overruled him.
Return to Hollywood and Universal Pictures
On Wagner's return to America he started playing in a theatre for the first time with the lead role in Mister Roberts for one week at a holiday resort just outside Chicago. The disciplines of the theatre did not interest him and Wagner expressed glee to be back in Hollywood and find a supporting role in the modern-day private investigator hit, Harper (1966), starring Paul Newman.
Wagner signed with Universal Pictures in 1966, starring opposite his future wife Jill St. John in the films How I Spent My Summer Vacation, a made-for-TV movie released in the United Kingdom as Deadly Roulette, and Banning (1967). He returned to Italy to make a caper film with Raquel Welch for MGM, The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968).
Television star
In 1967, Lew Wasserman of Universal convinced Wagner to make his television series debut in It Takes a Thief (1968–1970) on ABC-TV. "I was opposed to doing Thief", Wagner said later. "But Lew Wasserman said: 'I want you to be in TV Guide every week. This is your medium, you've got to try it, you'll be great.' Roland Kibbee wrote the part for me, and I would have missed all that if I hadn't listened to Lew."
While the success of The Pink Panther and Harper began Wagner's comeback, the successful two-and-a-half seasons of his first TV series completed it. In this series, he acted with Fred Astaire, who played his father. Wagner was a longtime friend of Astaire, having gone to school with Astaire's eldest son, Peter. Wagner's performance would earn him an Emmy nomination for Best TV Actor.
During the making of the series he made a film for Universal, the comedy Don't Just Stand There! (1968) with Mary Tyler Moore. It was not a success. More popular was Winning (1969), a racing car drama where Wagner supported Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. He also guest-starred in The Name of the Game (1970).
Wagner's friend and agent Albert Broccoli suggested that he audition to play James Bond, but he decided it was not right for him.
Wagner appeared in the series pilot, City Beneath the Sea (1971), that was not picked up. The following year, he produced and cast himself opposite Bette Davis in the made-for-TV film Madame Sin, which was theatrically released overseas as a feature film.
He was a regular in the BBC/Universal World War II prisoner-of-war drama Colditz (1972–1974) for much of its run. He reunited with McQueen, along with Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway, in the disaster film The Towering Inferno released in the same year. It was a massive hit, although Wagner's part was relatively small.
By the mid-1970s, Wagner's television career was at its peak with the CBS-TV television series Switch (1975–1978, opposite Eddie Albert, Sharon Gless, and Charlie Callas) after re-signing a contract with Universal in 1974. Albert had been a childhood hero of Wagner's, after he watched the movie Brother Rat, along with a few others. The friendship started in the early 1960s, where he also co-starred in a couple of Albert's movies. After the end of the series, the two remained friends until Albert's death on May 26, 2005. Wagner spoke at his funeral, and gave a testimonial about his longtime friendship with him.
Later career
Wagner appeared in a TV movie with Audrey Hepburn, Love Among Thieves (1987) and in a miniseries with Jaclyn Smith, Windmills of the Gods (1988). He and St. John worked with Pierce Brosnan in the miniseries remake of Around the World in 80 Days (1989). For Tom Mankiewicz, he played a supporting part in Delirious (1991). More widely seen was Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), where Wagner played a producer. Wagner played Love Letters on stage with Stefanie Powers. They also reprised their Hart characters in a series of TV movies.
Wagner's film career received a boost after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs starring Mike Myers. Wagner played Dr. Evil's henchman Number 2 in all three films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). He also had small roles in Wild Things (1998), Crazy in Alabama (1999), Play It to the Bone (2000), Becoming Dick (2001) and Sol Goode (2001).
Wagner hosted Fox Movie Channel's Hour of Stars, featuring original television episodes of The 20th Century Fox Hour (1955), a series in which he had appeared in his early days at the studio. In 2005, he became television spokesman for the Senior Lending Network, a reverse mortgage lender and in 2010 began serving as spokesman for the Guardian First Funding Group, another reverse mortgage lender. In June 2011, Guardian First Funding was acquired by Urban Financial Group, who continued to use Wagner as their spokesperson.
In 2007, Wagner had a role in the BBC/AMC series Hustle. In season four's premiere, Wagner played a crooked Texan being taken for half a million dollars. As Wagner is considered "a suave icon of American caper television, including It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart", Robert Glenister (Hustle's fixer, Ash Morgan) commented that "to have one of the icons of that period involved is a great bonus for all of us". Wagner also played the pivotal role of President James A. Garfield in the comedy/horror film Netherbeast Incorporated (2007). The role was written with Wagner in mind. He had a recurring role of a rich suitor to the main characters' mother on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. His final appearances on the show were in May 2008.
Wagner has guest-starred in 13 episodes of NCIS as Anthony DiNozzo Sr., the father of Anthony DiNozzo Jr., played by Michael Weatherly. Weatherly had previously appeared as Wagner in the TV movie The Mystery of Natalie Wood.
Personal life
In his memoirs, Wagner said he had had affairs with Yvonne De Carlo, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Anita Ekberg, Shirley Anne Field, Lori Nelson, and Joan Collins. He also claimed a four-year romantic relationship with Barbara Stanwyck after they acted together in the movie Titanic (1953). According to Wagner, because of their age difference—he was 22, she was 45—they kept the affair secret to avoid damaging their careers.
In 1956, when he was 26 years old, Wagner became involved with 18-year-old actress Natalie Wood. They were married on December 28, 1957, in Scottsdale, Arizona. At some point during the first half of 1961, according to several published accounts, Wood caught him having an extramarital affair with a man in the couple's home. They announced their separation on June 20, 1961 (though Wagner has since stated that they separated in 1960), and divorced on April 27, 1962.
While working on location in Rome, Wagner reconnected with an old friend, actress Marion Marshall, and moved in with her in November 1961. After a two-year courtship, Wagner, Marshall and her two sons from her marriage to Stanley Donen moved back to America. Wagner and Marshall married on July 21, 1963, at the Bronx Courthouse. They had a daughter, Katie (born May 11, 1964). They separated in June 1970 and divorced on October 14, 1971.
Wagner was engaged to Tina Sinatra from June 1970 until January 1972. Immediately afterwards, Wagner rekindled his romance with Wood. They remarried on July 16 aboard the Ramblin' Rose, anchored off Paradise Cove in Malibu. They had a daughter, Courtney (born March 9, 1974).
Following Wood's death on November 29, 1981, Wagner became the guardian of her then-11-year-old daughter by producer Richard Gregson, Natasha Gregson, although he never legally adopted her. He is completely estranged from his former sister-in-law, Lana Wood, who made claims in 2001 that Wagner was having a homosexual affair; she has since repeatedly doubled down on the claim, despite Wagner's denials. In a 2018 televised interview with Megyn Kelly, when asked if she thinks Wagner "murdered" her sister, Lana said, "Yes."
On Valentine's Day 1982, Wagner began dating actress Jill St. John, whom he had known since the late 1950s. After eight years together, they married on May 26, 1990, in Pacific Palisades and honeymooned on Little Torch Key. The marriage is the fourth for both Wagner and St. John and it has lasted longer than all six of their previous marriages combined. The couple co-starred in six films between 1967 and 2014 as well as "The Yada Yada" episode of Seinfeld in 1997, and also appeared onstage in a touring production of Love Letters (1996–2004).
Death of Natalie Wood
On November 29, 1981, Wood died under mysterious circumstances on or near the 55-foot (17 m) yacht Splendour while moored near Catalina Island. Wood had been on board the Splendour, along with Wagner, Christopher Walken, and Dennis Davern, the vessel's captain. No explanation has been given for the absence of Walken's wife Georgianne. According to Wagner, Wood was not on board when he went to bed, and, according to his spokesman, he thought Wood had taken off on a small inflatable boat by herself, as she had done before. Wood's body was found about a mile from the yacht, with the inflatable boat beached nearby. The autopsy revealed that Wood had 39 fresh bruises on her body, including an abrasion on her left cheek.
Later, in his memoir Pieces of My Heart, Wagner acknowledged having an argument with Wood before she disappeared but had calmed down and gone to bed. The autopsy found that Wood's blood alcohol content was 0.14% and there were traces of two types of medication in her bloodstream: a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller, both of which increase the effects of alcohol. Two witnesses, who had been on another boat nearby, stated they had heard a woman scream for help during the night. Following his investigation, Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.
Wagner, Walken, and Davern initially told detectives that Wood left in a dinghy to go ashore; the case was reopened in 2011 after Davern publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and that Wood and Wagner had had an argument that evening. He alleged that Wood had been flirting with Walken, that Wagner was jealous and enraged, and that following Wood's disappearance, Wagner prevented Davern turning on the search lights and notifying authorities. Davern claimed Wagner was responsible for Wood's death and that Wagner kept the investigation "low-profile".
In 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of her death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors". The amended document included a statement that the circumstances of how Wood ended up in the water are "not clearly established." On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office issued a ten-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report. It stated that she may have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water and drowned.
Filmography
Books
Wagner, Robert J. (with Scott Eyman) (2008). Pieces of My Heart: A Life. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-137331-2.
Wagner, Robert J. (with Scott Eyman) (2014). You Must Remember This: The Life and Style of Hollywood's Golden Age. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02609-8.
Wagner, Robert J. (with Scott Eyman) (2016). I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-525-42911-1.
