Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Suave at Any Age

Incredible as this seems, today marks the 80th birthday of American actor Robert Wagner. He of course starred as burglar-cum-spy Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief (1968-1970), con man-detective Peterson T. Ryan (opposite Eddie Albert) in Switch (1975-1978), and Jonathan Hart, the super-rich businessman-sleuth (and husband of Stefanie Powers’ Jennifer Hart) in Hart to Hart (1979-1984). In addition, Wagner co-starred with Paul Newman and the fetching Pamela Tiffin in Harper, the 1966 film adapted from Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target (1949).

Wagner’s list of film and TV credits is long enough to lasso an elephant. There’s a video tribute to his career on the YouTube site.

Let me wish you a personal happy birthday, Mr. Wagner. You’ve been part of my large- and small-screen viewing experiences ever since I was a boy. I hope to see more of you for many years to come.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe that Robert Wagner is 80. I saw him recently on NCIS where he played Tony DiNozo's father. That was a good pick I think.

David Cranmer said...

Ditto. I grew up on SWITCH and HART. And recently watched THIEF on HULU. Mr. Wagner always delivers a top performance and show. Happy Birthday sir!