Samuel Garza Bernstein is the author of the new biography Roddy McDowall: An Actor's Life--From How Green Was My Valley to Lassie to Planet of the Apes. His other books include Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild. He lives in Porto, Portugal, and Los Angeles.
Q: What inspired you to write this biography of actor Roddy McDowall (1928-1998)?
A: I was bouncing around ideas with my agent, Lee Sobel, and he mentioned there's never been a bio of Roddy McDowall. I was shocked. Roddy deserves a bio! So my first impulse to write about him came from a kind of righting-a-terrible-wrong headspace. I was vaguely aware of a supposed 100-year moratorium on accessing his archives, which, thankfully, is not true.
The thing is, when people have thought about his story, I think they've gotten distracted by notions of gossip and Roddy keeping everyone's secrets. From my perspective, the gossip isn't the main course. Is there some magical story about something Elizabeth Taylor did in bed that's going to change my life? Not really. Everyone had sex. We get it. What about Roddy McDowall’s work? What about his extraordinary life?
I also identified with Roddy as a child. I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid, so I could look at his early years and imagine myself living through him vicariously.
In looking at him as an adult actor, when I was coming of
age, Roddy was a regular on every television drama in existence. I watched him
on Fantasy Island as the Devil, on Hotel with Elizabeth Taylor as her friend
and agent, on a Mae West TV biopic as a vaudevillian drag star. I wanted to
grow up and be like him – vaguely British and handsome and funny and worldly…
And I also had a crush on him.
Q: How did you research his life, and what did you learn that especially
surprised you?
A: His archives at Boston University are extraordinary. I think he basically saved every piece of paper he ever touched. It was difficult because the library in Boston has very limited hours when the collection can be physically accessed—just 11 hours per week.
I couldn't justify traveling to Boston for as long a stay as would be required, so I actually had to hire assistants to take digital photographs of things I needed to read. My two assistants took over 10,000 photos.
In terms of surprises, the normalization of Roddy McDowall’s romantic partners among his friends and colleagues was a very happy discovery. From studio execs to costars, from family to friends, everyone (except his mother) knew and interacted with Roddy’s partners.
The humor with which he, Montgomery Clift, Noel Coward, George Cukor, Sal Mineo, and any number of other gay men treated their sexuality in the volumes of correspondence Roddy leaves behind is also fascinating. These were not people hiding in closets, ashamed or frightened. They were relatively open with everyone within their communities.
I’ll also go on the record pushing back against anyone who wants to characterize this book as “outing” Roddy. Even in our present cultural and political moment of sometimes intense hostility toward inclusivity, we are living in a world where being gay isn’t a scandalous revelation unless it is evidence of profound hypocrisy.
If someone is shocked that Roddy was gay they just haven’t
been paying attention.
Q: Do you have a favorite among McDowall’s performances?
A: I love the obvious contenders: How Green Was My Valley, Lassie Come Home, Cleopatra, Planet of the Apes, Fright Night.... but among my lesser-known favorites are a transitional performance in the 1952 low-budget Monogram film, The Steel Fist. He plays a student coming into adulthood while fighting a fascist regime.
As a child, his performances were full of stillness. Feelings and moments of understanding played across his face with remarkable impact. As he began transitioning to adult roles, his work could often become a bit fussy. He knew the marks he was supposed to hit, so he would sometimes show us how he was getting there. With The Steel Fist he rediscovered the power of stillness.
I love him in a bonkers 1969 movie called Angel, Angel, Down We Go, where he plays a pan-sexual hedonist and spends much of the movie half-naked. He is starring with his friend Sybil Burton Christopher’s husband, Jordan Christopher, in a cast that includes Jennifer Jones, Lou Rawls, and Holly Near (who would later become a famous lesbian folk singer and songwriter). It is a mess of a movie, but everyone seems to be having a wonderful time.
Roddy is also wonderful in his last TV anthology
performance, for Kraft Suspense Theater in The Wine-Dark Sea as a
drunk trying to prove his best friend didn't commit a murder.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: Be your best self. Find your best life. Fear nothing.
Roddy McDowall invented himself as an adult after a childhood where his identity was crafted for him by others. He made the decision to be a force for positivity. He approached every personal and professional situation determined to leave things better than he found them. His life is a blueprint for finding a life of meaning and purpose.
His career could have crashed and burned so many times over 60 years, and yet he always approached his struggles with humor, grit, and flexibility. You can be the star of the show and yet share the spotlight. You could be funny and bitchy in private but use that humor to build people up, not tear them down.
I passionately believe that we can all learn to be better, happier, more interesting people by following his example.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I just finished writing 10 episodes for the fourth season
of After Forever, which streams on Amazon. I'll be the co-showrunner
shooting those episodes in New Orleans in the fall. And I just signed a
contract to write a book about the cultural impact of Eartha Kitt!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I am being held captive by a pack of elderly dachshunds. Send help.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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