Tony Curtis Talking Pictures

An Oscar-nominated actor and matinee idol whose career spanned six decades

and included more than 120 films,

Tony Curtis was Hollywood gold.

He had a playboy image, but also had a serious side

and a self-awareness that made him a chat show favourite.

He was candid and talked openly about his life in television interviews.

This frankness and wry humour made him box office for the small screen audience.

I didn't play my cards laidback, if you know what I mean. I let it all hang out.

Yeah.

I've come through a very serious illness. I'm an alcoholic and have a drug addiction

and this really almost killed me.

We begin with an interview in 1968 for the programme How It Is

on location for the film Monte Carlo Or Bust.

'Things have changed since he was known as the Baron of Beefcake and made films he'd sooner forget.

'Now he's a superstar, he chooses his own parts and has some control over working conditions.'

When you're not aware of your craft, if you don't know what you're doing,

you just do it. Nothing disturbs you. But as you begin to realise the subtleties of it, as I have,

why, I find that now I like to do it in as private an environment as possible.

I don't like tourists watching, I don't like visitors on the set when I do certain scenes.

I need the proximity and closeness of my co-workers, you know,

because it is like making love, it's very private and I don't like to share it.

I remember during the war years I was in the submarine service

-and we used to run movies. We ran Gunga Din quite a bit and I always played Cary Grant.

-You played him?

Yes, we used to shut off the sound and everybody took different sounds.

Someone was Joan Fontaine, Douglas Fairbanks Junior,

someone else made elephant noises, pistol shots. I always played Cary Grant.

AS CARY GRANT: Out of my way, McChesney!

I remember almost all the dialogue! I just wanted my option picked up every 6 months and get that 4,000.

I just wanted to make 12 grand a year and get out of there.

-That was my whole...

-Hello!

-..my whole, er, er, purpose

of wanting to be around. Yeah.

It's great here. Don't you love it? Man, it's unbelievable.

-'Then we asked about his movie idols.'

-Oh, Cary Grant was, is.

Errol Flynn was. Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart.

They all were. There isn't one actor of that period - Clark Gable, Leslie Howard -

that didn't have some kind of effect on me as a child. Each one provoked a different response.

Some days you'd feel depressed over something and if you were as tough as Humphrey Bogart was

life would be easier. Or as elegant as Cary Grant or whatever.

Once again, Curtis paid homage to the stars who inspired him

in the first of his interviews with Michael Parkinson, in 1972.

Who were your heroes in those days? The great screen actors?

To me, any guy who made it in the movies was a hero to me.

How you could take somebody and make him a movie actor was incredible.

I didn't even know the mechanics of it. I just saw them. Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Jimmy Cagney,

Humphrey Bogart. I mean really great. And Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra.

I've worked with these people. Yul Brynner. These are wonderful people that I've been able -

Jack Lemmon - to work with. Sidney Poitier.

Really an incredible amount of actors that I've worked with.

I find that to be part of that family, part of that profession,

is...is about as nice as I can have it!

And yet, you see, it wasn't all sort of...

Stop tapping my notes!

It wasn't all...

It wasn't all roses, was it, when you first started?

-You were processed in a rather callous way.

-Yes.

Hollywood in those days was like an envelope. And in it everything was fed.

When some young person came along to get started, he was signed and assigned to the publicity department

and they'd change your name, try to figure out a gimmick to dangle in front of an audience.

"I've got to go see that girl with the big knockers."

Or, "I've got to see that guy with the long hair." Or, "I've got to see that horse." Or that dog.

Anything to draw an audience into the theatre.

They needed that. That's the way they built players. But they introduced you to agents,

to business managers, to attorneys and, before you know it, you had 37 people working for you.

And you're making 28.60. LAUGHTER

As bad as that?

-Right. And I find now that the least people running your business, the better.

-Yeah.

Have the minimum amount of people doing it for you.

-I recommend that to a lot of actors and actresses.

-What was the breakthrough for you in Hollywood?

-The thing that made people take you seriously.

-I think... It was just the quality of the films.

That's all that changed. In those early pictures, I did as good a job as I could at that age.

They weren't bad performances, but what I needed was a quality film

to step out of the Universal films I was making, which critics put in a B or C category,

which was OK. I didn't care. I had an audience in those days who wanted to see me in pictures.

That's all I cared about. I felt that affinity to the audience who paid to see me.

The critic who liked or didn't like me, up his! I didn't care.

What have I got in common with some critic sitting writing, "I rather didn't like him..."

-Somebody must have liked it. I was getting paid.

-Yeah.

So the best thing to do was to pay no attention to that criticism.

Just learn my work on the floor from other actors, from people in the job itself.

And that was my purpose. That's all I tried to do in those early days.

And before you know it, it's 25 years, 24 years later. It's incredible to me.

I feel like I'm starting today and I've done it for 25 years!

Who did you particularly learn from? Who was the actor or actress you watched and admired most?

Well, at the beginning, I liked Cary Grant very much.

And I still do. But then as I started to watch other actors work,

I realised each one had his own very special way of bringing a little magic to each moment.

And that's the name of the game.

That's the ball game for me. How each person can bring his own little imperfections

that fill out a scene. It's like blowing up a balloon. It gives it a three-dimensional quality.

You see people's weaknesses, their strengths.

What you have to avoid is acting.

You mustn't act. The words do the acting.

When the guy says, "I love you," that's acting. "I love you." I've transmitted some information.

That's not acting to me. That's just reading a line well.

A lot of people for years have always thought, and rightly so,

that Shakespeare was a wonderful tool to work in, but it's very restricting.

And you are bringing to those parts really the author's intent, which is very strong and powerful,

but some actors can bring those little unfinished moments

that give it a mystery that I'm sure Shakespeare meant at the beginning.

And I think that's what acting should be. Things unsaid, you know.

Left unsaid.

You did, of course, do a marvellous impersonation of Cary Grant.

AS CARY GRANT: I always do Cary Grant. Everywhere I go. I think everybody does.

-LAUGHTER

-You did him in Some Like It Hot, one of my favourites.

-Thank you.

-That was a super film, which you starred in with...

-Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Joe E Brown.

-How was Marilyn?

-She was very, very difficult.

-Was she?

-Yeah, really.

-Really very difficult working.

-Why?

Her personal madnesses were so...so...so destructive

that it made her unhappy and anyone who surrounded her. Consequently, it cost her her life.

-Nothing to do with the picture business.

-You think not?

-Not at all.

-It was no matter what she'd done?

Billy Wilder, who directed Some Like It Hot, said she was a mean seven-year-old girl.

-And I've got a feeling that's about as good a description of Marilyn as any, you know.

-Yes.

And... But, you know, she could bring to a scene a lot of power.

-She had a lot of power.

-Yes.

-But it was difficult for her to put them together,

to make moments last, you know.

Takes would be 35 and 40 takes for one line or two lines.

Billy Wilder said to Jack Lemmon and I, "Now look, as soon as Marilyn gets it right, whenever,

"that's the shot I'm going to print."

Lemmon and I would get in in the morning at 7.30, 8, get in our trusses and silk stockings,

get in all the undergarments, then 45 minutes in Makeup,

25-30 minutes Hairdressing, by the time we got done it was 2½ hours.

We'd get on the set ready to shoot at nine and she'd show up at 11.30, 12. We were in these shoes.

We'd try to find places to sit down, kick off our shoes, put 'em up.

We had to stay like that all day long and finally Marilyn showed up.

We'd go and rehearse it a couple of times. She'd say, "I'm ready," and we had to do it.

We'd come clobbering in, trying to get our makeup in order.

We'd been like that now for 12 hours or some ridiculous time.

We'd do the scene and Jack, in one of the takes, tripped, just stumbled.

We printed it. Marilyn came in, did it right, he said, "Cut! Print!"

LAUGHTER

That's right. So you see the picture...

-Isn't there an army expression that you go as slow as the weakest man?

-That's right.

That's tough when your mind wants to get it done. You don't want to spend all your life making one movie.

A movie is made, you close it and that's it. You look at it maybe five, six years later.

It shouldn't became a way of life to you. That used to be the weakness of Hollywood, I felt.

They made everything so dependent on each other, people were knocked off left and right and no one cared.

They said, "The stakes are high." It should never have been.

But maybe it helps, maybe it makes people a little bit fruitier than they would have been,

-which gives them that little extra wanting to be successful.

-Drive.

-Yeah, that last minute.

That's a fascinating anecdote about Monroe. What an extraordinary way to have to work, though.

Your finger up your nose and that's it printed because she got it right.

I've never forgiven the system for that. Not only for me,

but for other actors as well. That's a very bad thing to do.

No one is considered except one person. They've got them so psyched out that whatever that person does

has got to be good for everyone else. It's not true. Shouldn't be.

When I get on a set in the morning, the only guy I listen to that gives instructions is the director.

And everybody around me, we're all part of the same group.

There can be no other games played. Any time actors play star games,

they only disrupt their own working ability because the next time it's not that easy to get a job.

When Curtis returned for another chat with Parkinson in 1978,

his star was on the wane, but his reputation as that chat show gold was enduring.

But when you got to Hollywood, when you went there as a young, aspiring actor,

did you have to do a lot of hustling, play the company game?

-Sure. I did all of it.

-What was that like? Tell me.

Well, I quickly surmised

or kind of figured out what I thought was necessary for me to become successful.

Once I got out there, I realised that I was allowed in and no one was getting me out.

Cos I looked around and I saw all the people surrounding me

and I didn't see anyone that was better or worse than I.

I found myself amongst many ignorant people.

And I, being an ignorant person at the time, felt that I had as much chance as anyone else,

but you had to play the game. You had to find a way of...

..influencing the people around you to use you a bit more than someone else.

And the way you did that was by observation, to see what the mores and requirements were for you.

And you quickly decided what you were willing to do and willing not to do.

And each one of us - myself and maybe 1,500 young players...

I speak now only of actors and actresses. I'm sure this process works for writers, directors

and also, I'm sure, in other professions. I decided quickly where I should put the emphasis

and what I should de-emphasise.

I found everybody used to poke themselves and say, "Wait until you hear how this guy talks.

"Here comes the gangster." They liked that New York sound, so I embellished it,

made it sound even tougher than it did. And if I felt I was in a circle of people

that didn't like it so much, I'd tone it down, but I did realise that I must improve myself.

-In what way improve yourself?

-In every way. In understanding of human behaviour,

in my own understanding of myself, in my relationship with women.

This was beginning for me. I joined the navy when I was 16½.

With the exception of Sweet Ann, who I mentioned to you before, there were very few women I knew,

-or girls I knew.

-But you were a very beautiful young man.

But that doesn't help you, pal, if you don't have a nickel.

That and a nickel will get you on any subway.

-So you had more passes made at you by fellas than women.

-Well...

LAUGHTER Possibly. But I found that I was very attracted to women.

You know? But I found that it didn't help. You could create a relationship.

For me it was very important to be in the arms of somebody soft and fragile and gentle.

And while I was trying to sort that out for myself, I was trying to create a career for myself.

And at the same time improve myself in my speech, my behaviour.

I realised that my manners needed to be toned down a bit,

that I needed more experience of living and understanding of foods, how to dress,

what to say, what not to say. There are a lot of funny, subtle things that go on

-in growing up.

-What about when you were back in these early days?

You, in fact, didn't struggle for all that long because you very shortly got picked up

-and became a very, very big star almost overnight.

-I got there in the summer of '48.

And by the summer of '50, which was two years,

I had...I had...

My first two years wee six-month options.

I started off at 50 bucks a week, then went to 75, 100,

125 and then 150.

And by that time I had worked in 16 movies, Michael.

I went from one movie to another, bit parts here and there.

But an audience seemed to be somewhat attracted to me. Knock wood.

And I found myself getting bigger and better parts.

Before 18 months were over, I got my first lead in the movies.

So it was quite quick for me. I didn't have to work and struggle as much as some other actors did.

-You were very much presented as the beefcake.

-Yes.

-The very attractive young sex symbol.

-Did you have any problems with ladies then? Nice problems.

-Yes. I wouldn't say problems.

I found that I was sought after in a way, but little did they know

I sought after them more than they sought after me!

I didn't play my cards laid back, if you know what I mean.

I let it all hang out, if you'll excuse the vernacular.

-I could ask for a demonstration, but...

-Please!

But during this time, when you were doing all this,

-did the studio, in fact, try to process you and package you as a sex symbol?

-Yes.

-They did. What did they do to you?

-Well, I'd go out on tour.

They sent me out on tours with pictures I wasn't even in!

Audie Murphy would make a film or Scott Brady

and I'd find myself on the road selling that picture.

I'd go to different theatres. Girls were there for autographs from me.

What the studio used to do was they made me some suits that were basted only.

And they'd get some of the girls that worked at the local distributor for Universal in San Francisco,

St Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, whatever city I was travelling in,

and they'd rig these girls so that when I came out, they'd pull that sleeve off

and tear my clothes off. Shirt, tie and everything. "Luckily" enough,

they'd have a cameraman there. "Young actor had his clothes torn off." Anything to create attraction.

-To attract attention, I should say.

-What did you feel about it at the time?

-Well, I loved it.

Listen... I was so surprised that people were interested in helping me become a star in films.

I couldn't imagine why. Not that I didn't think... I was very practical about it.

I felt I had as good a chance as anyone else, but in the final analysis I just couldn't...

Well, perhaps they saw in me a chance that it wouldn't be as difficult and perhaps they saw

that I wasn't a difficult person to be around. That helped too, I think.

How much in your private life did the studio interfere?

-Quite a bit.

-It did?

-Quite a bit.

I think I'm right in saying that your marriage to Janet Leigh, they disapproved of that.

Well, they acted as if they didn't like it at the beginning. The motive I still haven't figured out.

I realised that after we were married, they couldn't wait to rush us into pictures together

because they were exploiting that. Maybe the word "exploit" isn't proper, but it didn't bother them.

I remember there was some opposition to it by two or three people at the studio

who said, "Why encumber yourself at this time in your career?"

I think it was the very fact that they found they didn't like the idea that made it attractive to me.

-Mm, yes.

-Maybe it was my own way of rebelling in a sense.

Perhaps I hastily married earlier than I should have.

-Perhaps, perhaps not. I don't know.

-Yes.

Did you, in fact, at this time always know that you'd break out of this system

-and become the good actor that you undeniably are in films?

-Thank you, Michael, very much.

I never gave it any specific thought. I was an instrument for the studio at that time.

I went from picture to picture, I didn't argue with anyone,

but I needed to create myself. I needed experience and wasn't going to get it other than in movies.

You don't get it in bed, walking down at the beach or lifting weights in a gym or in an acting class.

You get it in front of a camera. I remember once in a movie, those early colour films I made,

they used to use the Technicolor system and this producer said,

"Tony, every time a second goes by, that's 4.50." I said, "For what?"

He said, "For the film. So you better get it right."

So there were all these pressures put upon you to get your job right.

And you learned to live under those pressures. The camera rolls and you've got to be smooth and easy

and take the girl's brassiere and throw it over the shoulder...

While inside you're really boiling with the tension of trying to calm. So learn these things.

Learn your physical sense more than anything else.

-Tony Curtis, come back as often as you will. Thank you very much.

-Thank you so much.

-Tony Curtis.

Six years later, it was Curtis's Jewish heritage being discussed

on a BBC documentary series called The Golden Land.

My father was a Jew and a tailor, Hungarian. And he broke his ass all his life to make a living.

He was prejudiced against and that had an effect on me.

Whenever somebody mentioned my name Schwartz or heard the name, there was a kind of a tension.

I couldn't understand it for years, what that meant.

And so I avoided it. I had no feeling for it.

Now when you go on the high days and holy days to the synagogue,

-do you feel anything special?

-I enjoy that very much.

Because I remember my father loved it. My father loved it.

And I loved him. Something must have attracted him. I don't know any more because I have no access to him,

but I can remember him standing next to me, davening in the shul.

Really, really so involved in it. And I loved him for it.

The inequities of being an American, coming to America, not being able to make a living for his family,

yet on those holy days and on Friday nights he would go to a synagogue,

or early in the mornings, the early morning prayer.

All of a sudden it took him out of his depression.

It was like shooting up. All of a sudden he got a surge of life.

Maybe today will be a little bit better. That's where religion or philosophy means a great deal,

and not just Judaism. All of the religions.

A Jewish mother gave her son for Christmas a blue tie and a red tie.

So he shows up on Friday night with the red tie and she says, "You don't like the blue tie?"

-That's a good Jewish joke.

-You can say it as a French joke. You don't have to be Jewish.

-You don't have to be Jewish to love a bagel.

-Did your father and mother take pleasure, as any mother would,

-but as particularly Jewish parents always have, out of your success here in Hollywood?

-Yes.

-I think my mother never forgave me because I never married a Jewish girl.

-You married out three times.

Not only the three, but the ones I took out for dinner!

-All non-Jewish.

-The shiksa is a long-time Jewish tradition.

Well, yes, right. But my mother wasn't that orthodox.

She wasn't that Jewish in that sense. My father was.

My father was so pleased I went out with a nice girl, period.

Everybody was so afraid their son was going to be a fegele!

"Just go out with a girl! It's all right by me."

Two mothers were talking and one says, "How's your son Irving?"

She says, "With Irving I've got a lot of mitzvah and tsuris." Good luck and trouble.

She said, "What's the mitzvah?" She says, "Well, the tsuris is that he's a homosexual,

"but the mitzvah is he's going with a nice Jewish boy."

The playful Tony Curtis was much-loved by TV audiences

and continued to delight the following year on the Wogan programme,

but the interview also went on to explore the darker side of his life.

Good to see you. We haven't met before, but we have seen you quite a lot on these shores.

-Is this a place you've run to?

-Yes, I come to England a lot. I like it here.

-What is it about it?

I like your fish and chips. LAUGHTER

-I like your ladies.

-Not the fish and chips!

-The ladies!

-Tell me about, looking back,

to those '50s and '60s you were the trendsetter. People copied everything you did.

-Were you conscious that you were setting trends?

-I was unconscious!

Really unconscious. I really never planned anything.

Everything has always been somewhat spontaneous. I just let it happen.

I didn't try to imagine myself as a trendsetter, one way or another.

-I just wanted to get through the day. The meaning comes after the work.

-Yeah.

Life... The only way you can come to any conclusion about life is after you've lived it.

-But then you're dead!

-People asked me to write an autobiography. I said, "I don't know how it ends!"

But it'll be too late!

-And who would want to read it?

-A lot of people are writing Hollywood exposes.

Yes. Jackie Collins wrote Hollywood Wives. I've had more Hollywood Wives than she has!

-It's crazy!

-Boasting again, eh?

-Right on!

-It's not like that anyway.

-No...

-Of course not. It's worse!

-Worse, worse, worse. And you, Terry, how are you?

-I'm bearing up.

-It's the throat, you know.

-How many shows have you done? AUDIENCE "Awww"

-They couldn't care less about me.

-No?

-I went down and breathed on them and they all ran out.

It's the barber you go to.

I shouldn't have had that garlic. How did you get on to me? This interview is about you.

-You think so, huh? OK. All right, pal. I'm here in England for a reason.

-Yeah?

-I'm going to the Cannes Film Festival next week.

-That's why you're in England?

-Yes!

It's one way of getting there. I made a film for Nic Roeg, a very fine English director,

called Insignificance. And it's been selected as the only British entry in the film festival.

That makes me feel really nice to be part of a British film being entered in the festival,

so that's a very exciting thing for me. The possibilities of a film like that winning an award

is a wonderful experience. So I'm on my way there.

So when you're down there, does it put a lot of pressure on you?

The pressure comes from the organising committees.

You're obligated to appear at certain functions, you know, and to get there.

Then the usual thing comes in. If some actors get more attention than others, people get very nervous.

Not the actors, but the agents. So you have all this kind of bickering that goes on.

Do you ever say to yourself, "Here's me, the boy from the Bronx"?

-No, I don't.

-Why not?

-Because I didn't come from the Bronx!

LAUGHTER

I came from Manhattan. And I was born and raised in Manhattan.

-I lived in the Bronx once, but that's...

-If I wanted a geography lesson, I would have asked for one!

Why didn't you come from the Bronx? You ruined the whole thing there!

Well, you've put me... May I stand up? I'll button my jacket.

You told me something about buttoning jackets and sitting down.

-In fact, I'll open it.

-But if you had come from the Bronx, you'd have done that properly.

-Right.

-Now I forgot what you said.

-But when you get down there, remembering the parts that you had,

-you had a very marked Bronx accent, although you came from Manhattan!

-Let me say this.

Living is living. From the first day you're born, the fact that you end up in the movies doesn't make you

-any more special than before.

-Of course not.

-So I don't think,

"Poor little boy from the Bronx or Manhattan ends up a famous movie actor." Both are distinct, strong

and positive. One cannot forget your past and your present. And you hope for the future.

I've learned a very important lesson. I've come through a very serious illness.

I'm an alcoholic and have a drug addiction.

This really almost killed me and I didn't know it.

I thought I was weak-willed. This is usually what people thought of people who drank or used drugs.

But I have since found out through research done in America that it's a disease.

And it's a disease that you have to fight as a disease.

It's an incurable disease that can be cured only by abstinence.

So therefore I thank God that I'm still alive and able to battle it

and able to help as many friends as possible in that.

So the fact that I'm alive talking with you here, with these fine people, that is the blessing.

It's full marks to you for the strength of character it's taken.

Character only comes from the researching. And I can't spread the gospel enough.

There was a time when I said it was all rhetoric and all political.

Drinking and drugs, they're just saying that for whatever.

But it's true. It is killing. And doing a lot of damage to a lot of young people.

And we all somehow have to give a lift and comfort and support to as many young people as possible.

Good for you. Thank you for saying that. There's something I have to give you, a little surprise.

-Where did you get that from?

-I've been hiding it for years. The old cane and JR hat.

-Cor blimey!

-Where did this come from?

-I stole it the last time you were over here.

-No...

-I nicked it from you.

-Did you nick it? Bend over!

-Look at that.

-I'm so glad! Isn't that nice? I love it! Where did you find it? Tell me.

-Let that be my little secret.

-Gee whiz. What a fine show!

-Tony Curtis, ladies and gentlemen!

-I'm happy to be here. Thank you.

Three years later, Curtis was back on Wogan.

Having finally overcome his addiction to drink and drugs,

he had a new passion to unveil.

Thank you, Terry.

-Good evening, London!

-A whistle-stop tour of Europe?

Yes, kind of. I've been travelling all over the place. I was in Paris, then I went to Madrid.

-And here I am in London.

-You forgot for a minute!

-My old home town. I love this city.

-You're not one of those Americans who loves London, are you?

-But I do! And Madrid, Paris, anywhere I'm at.

-You seem to have a certain joy, joie de vivre...

-Yes, I do.

-..that you haven't lost.

-I hope not.

-What's the secret of it?

-I think the secret is keeping your mouth shut.

This is not the secret of doing a talk show!

No, I think it's... It comes and goes, I have found in life.

The joy of living. Sometimes you lose it, sometimes you get it.

-It's up and down.

-And you've had your downs as well as your ups.

Once you learn or once you appreciate how wonderful it is to be alive, it's like surfing.

You find the proper balance and you coast through life. I would like to think so.

-Have you settled down?

-Er...

-Are you a settled man now?

-Well, maybe and maybe not.

-Less of the hellraiser?

-I'm still quite curious about everything.

But I like living, you know, and I enjoy the curiosity about what goes on in life.

-What about movies?

-Yes, I do occasional movies. I'm not that interested in films.

I am interested, but I'm really interested in painting now. I'll tell you what I really want to do.

I think we all should enjoy this or at least expose ourselves to it.

Travelling, you know. Get around a lot more than we usually do. There's always someplace to go,

always something to see, always something to stimulate your thoughts, your feelings.

I think trouble begins in our lives when we get too studied in our living existence,

-where everything gets to be too patterned.

-Break the pattern.

-Really. I think it's good for everybody.

-Is that why you took on to be an ambassador for Los Angeles?

-Los Angeles needs a little help.

-No, it doesn't.

-So they come to Tony and they say,

-"We're going all over the world to tell everybody to come to Los Angeles."

-It doesn't need that!

-Then why did they ask me to come here?

-I don't know!

-I don't know either!

-I mean, why?

I'm not sure, now that you explained it that way! They told me Los Angeles needed me.

-Maybe they wanted me out of town.

-Los Angeles is where the sun is and where they make the movies.

-Right.

-But it's smog, too.

-A lot of smog.

-Come on now - you're the ambassador!

-A lot of smog.

-You're being too honest.

-But don't let smog stop you. London's got smog.

-It hasn't!

-We've got clean air!

-You've got to be kidding - this is El Smogville!

What do you mean?! Open the door - it'll walk right in on you!

-That's the smoke from Bananarama!

-Oh, I see. OK.

That's how a kid from London talks and a kid from LA talks.

But is it part of your duty to clean up the LA image?

-You know the pictures we get of the gangs and all the rest.

-There are gangs.

-Is it violent?

It is a violent city. It has all of these elements to it.

It is America and as far west as you can go. Like the early West.

And that's part, I feel, of the excitement and interest of Los Angeles.

There's a lot of wonderful things in that city. It has unique places, wonderful museums.

-Down at Venice Beach. A beautiful little community.

-Do you live there?

-I live in Los Angeles.

I have a condominium in Bel Air, or near it, and I live in Hawaii.

That's my primary residence now.

-So you CAN go further west.

-You can go to Honolulu. That's where I live.

I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles and all over now. I want to travel

-and see all the good-looking girls all over the place.

-You're not still at that?!

I'm not? LAUGHTER

-I thought we were going to see a reformed man.

-Yes.

A man who had eschewed the demon drink, the women...

Well, drink will kill you, so I don't drink. Drugs will kill you.

I've changed my life in that sense. I'm a recovering alcoholic and drug abuse person,

so I don't use those substances. I'm almost five years in my recovery.

And that's a very important part of my living experience.

-Does that get any easier to do?

-I don't know about easier. I have no desire, no need...

That's come, Terry, and perhaps my English friends will understand,

it comes from therapy. It comes from re-examining your whole living experience

and how you approach your life. It takes a bit of doing.

But once it's done, OK, it is truly the joy of the living experience.

-Was the painting a therapy?

-Painting's very helpful for me.

But as soon as you begin to reclaim your life,

a lot of gifts that you have as a person start to emerge. You become more of a loving person.

More of a giving person. You find little gifts you had as a kid, you can now encourage -

-painting, writing.

-We've got three of your paintings, by a strange and wonderful coincidence.

-Isn't it?

-Walk to the paintings.

-Those are covers!

-LAUGHTER

-Come round this side.

-The first one we're going to look at is this one.

-Why didn't we rehearse this?

-Come here.

-No! Oh, all right.

-The one in the middle?

-Take the end and we'll lift this up.

-Careful.

-Now step back and let everybody see the painting.

-Have a look at the painting.

APPLAUSE

-What's it called?

-What is this called? Goodbye Charlie it's called.

No, it's called Flowers and... I don't name them. This is a painting that's about a year old.

I put on the paint quite thick.

I like the composition and the way colours work against each other.

Perhaps that's what Hawaii gives me now. The colours.

I don't paint particularly Hawaiian. I don't paint grass skirts and palm trees as much,

-but the colours...

-It's very bright there. How much would this cost? What price are you putting on it?

The gallery puts a price of about 20,000 quid.

GASPS AND LAUGHTER 'Ello! Cor blimey!

Come over here.

-All right.

-We'll take bids in just a moment.

-Here, let me show you this one.

-Now this is entirely different.

This is a little bit of an abstract concept. Again it's the colours that I like so much

-and the shapes and sizes.

-How much would the gallery put on that?

-For you, my dear friend, it'll cost you a Bentley. Do you have one?

-No!

-What kind of car do you drive?

-Something very small and simple.

-What kind of car do you drive?

-I got banned.

LAUGHTER I got him, didn't I?

All right!

We've only got a minute. Come on down here, Terry.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the latest, only about three weeks old.

-Let me just show you this one.

-A woman sighed there. That's your favourite.

-Yes!

There's other colours I use. For me it's really appealing

that you can see how at different times in your life, you express yourself in different ways.

I didn't know you were banned from driving.

Come here! Where are you going?

All right. I won't bring that up if you don't bring up my ex-wives.

All right! It's a deal! Tony Curtis!

-Terry, I love you.

-Wonderful. He's a good man.

-Nice to have him back. Come back any time.

-I will, thank you.

-With or without the paintings. Among our delights next week...

-Keep going.

-..a special programme

-with Cliff Richard.

-And, of course, next Friday the Children In Need appeal. Happy weekend.

I'll see you on Monday at seven. Terry Wogan here!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd