Pop Culture Renaissance Man : A Conversation with Brett Halsey

With a career in film and  television which  spans over fifty years, Brett Halsey has dabbled in just about everything. Starting his career at Universal Studio’s New Talent Program in the early 1950’s Brett Halsey branched into the realms of television, film, radio, directing, producing, writing and teaching. He has found success and fame on both sides of the Atlantic, first beginning his career in the “young stud” variety in the mould of Marlon Brando or James Dean, before moving to Europe where he found his own cult following in a number of spaghetti westerns, spy films, swashbuckler fantasies and serious dramas. Through his career he has done it all – juvenile delinquent pictures, B movies, horror films, gangster films, westerns, voice acting, commercials, TV movies, soap operas, mysteries and dramas. He’s played nice guys, handsome villains and, in one stand out role, a human fly. Brett Halsey has traveled the pop culture journey for a long time, finding success in every corner along the way.

Describing himself today as “a novelist who acts,” Brett Halsey is also the author of two novels, and has just recently completed a third. One of the nicest guys in Hollywood, Brett Halsey’s story is the true experience of the working actor in the entertainment industry. Falling in and out of the spotlight during various stages of his career, Brett Halsey has managed to reinvent himself time and time again to ensure his continuous success in the entertainment world.

Researching Brett Halsey’s career was often a bit daunting because there isn’t a specific place to start. He never really did any one sort of thing - he did plenty of everything. His appearances on television has spanned the decades in some of the most beloved programs of all time, he is a European star and he has appeared in some of films biggest cult films including Revenge of the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Cry Baby Killer, Return of the Fly, Twice Told Tales, Return to Peyton Place, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack, Today We Kill Tomorrow We Die and The Godfather Part III. Few actors have proven to be as versatile as Brett Halsey, making him a true pop culture renaissance man.

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PRESENTS

POP CULTURE RENAISSANCE MAN:

A CONVERSATION WITH BRETT HALSEY

I spoke to Brett Halsey from his home in Los Angeles, California via telephone in April 2010.

An early publicity shot of a young Brett Halsey

Sam Tweedle: I’ve been researching your career and going through some of your films and television work for about a month now and it has been overwhelming. You’ve produced such a massive body of work and I didn’t even know where to begin. You’ve written, taught, acted, produced and directed. What keeps you branching out?

Brett Halsey: I guess to avoid stagnating. If there is nothing particular to do in what I’m doing then I’ll do something else.

Sam: Have you had periods when you’ve stagnated? According to your imdb profile you’ve been working steady since 1953.

Brett: Yeah, but in show business you can have a period of three or four months when nothings happening so you can go and do something else. When the acting was slow, I was offered a chance to teach so I went into teaching.

Sam: What got you interested in acting in the first place?

Brett Halsey publicity photo for "To Hell and Back"(1955)

Brett: When I was about five years old I was in a church play. I played King Midas. This is not a direct memory but a reconstruction of a memory. One of the things that impressed  me was that when I was on stage, for the first time in my life, I had a group of adults listening to me. King Midas had power and it was the power over the audience that intrigued me. I didn’t know at that time that I wanted to be an actor, but the acting bug infected me. I acted in church plays and school plays. [Just] after my seventeenth birthday I went into the navy and I was in there for two years and through a mutual friend I went to work for armed forces radio. It was performing and I liked it and I decided that when I got out I’d make that my career. I thought I’d go into radio, then into television and then in the movies. Well when I was going to school I was working as a page at CBS and Jack and Mary Benny took a liking to me and arranged to have me put under contract to Universal.

Jack and Mary Benny helped Brett Halsey get his start in Hollywood

Sam: How much were you involved with The Jack Benny Show?

Brett: That was one of the shows that I worked for. [Jack and Mary benny and I] were kind of friendly but didn’t have an intimate relationship. We’d just say “Hello. How are you.” One day Mary requested that I work the sponsor booth. The sponsor’s booth in radio was apart from the audience. She had guests and she introduced me to them and was very excited about it and I didn’t know why. Later I got a call to go to Universal and they wanted to see me about auditioning for a place in their new talent program.

Sam: Explain the new talent program for me.

Brett amongst other members of Universal's New Talent Program. That's Maime Van Doren in the middle.

Brett: It was a school of sorts. Universal wasn’t the only studio that had them. Paramount and Columbia had them but Universal had the best. It was before the government broke up the monopoly that the studios had on their own theatres so it could develop talent and build new people into stars and part of the studio stable. It created a sort of a family. You’d go to school for five and a half days a week. On Saturday mornings we’d have horseback riding. We had fencing; dancing, English, diction, acting and lectures from various studio heads and stars would come in. It was a comprehensive school. We had report cards.

Sam: It sounds like a really good way to develop talent because you got all the proper training. I think Hollywood today could use something like that. A lot of the young actors don’t learn to act but rely on their good looks.

Brett: Well they put us to work. Our salaries were very low but they were salaries. They would put us to work in movies and we’d do looping and dubbing. I worked in thirteen movies in the two years I was under contract. Some little parts and some juvenile leads.

Sam: On your web-site there is a great picture of one of the new talent classes with yourself, David Jansen and Mamie Van Doren. Who else was in the program at the time you were in it?

Brett Halsey visits Clint Eastwood on the set of "Million Dollar Baby"(2004). Brett and Clint appeared together in "Revenge of the Creature From the Black Lagoon"(1955) which was Clint Eastwood's film debut

Brett: Clint Eastwood. At the time Clint’s greatest achievement was as the ping pong champion in the fire department.

Sam: You and Clint Eastwood appeared in Revenge of the Creature of the Black Lagoon which was Clint’s first film.

Brett: Yeah. We were both under contract and they put us in that. Wherever they needed young actors they would put contract players in the roles. We also had Guy Williams, Anita Eckberg, Kathleen Hughes and Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson were just coming out of it. They kind of graduated but were still around.

Sam: These programs really did produce huge stars.

Brett: Yeah.

Sam: When you finished with Universal you started doing a lot of television. One of the best things you did during this period was your episode in Gunsmoke. You were pretty much the central character.

Brett: One thing I remember from that show in particular was that in one scene, when I’m talking to James Arnass, he grabs me from the front of my shirt and jacket and he lifts me off my feet seemingly effortlessly. That kind of impressed me that he was strong enough to lift me off the ground like that.

Brett Halsey played the "heavy" in the juvinile deliquency classic "The Cry Baby Killer"(1958), which featured Jack Nicholson in his first starring role

Sam: You did a lot of juvenile delinquency films in the early part of your career. How did you get involved in that genre?

Brett: Well I did some small parts in B pictures and the producers got to know me and I eventually got better parts and I started starring in juvenile delinquency pictures. That lasted for about three years.

Sam: One of the most famous delinquency films you did was The Cry Baby Killer which is famous for giving Jack Nicholson his first starring role. What was Nicholson like during his early days?

Brett: He was another one of the young kids starting out. There was nothing outstanding about him. He was just another guy.

Vincent Price with....Brett Halsey? Yup. That's Brett under the fly head in "Return of the Fly"(1959)

Sam: Do you consider Return of the Fly to be your breakout film?

Brett: Yes It was.

Sam: How did you get involved in that film?

Brett: It was directed by Ed Burns who I had worked with before. Apparently they were interested in me at 20^th Century Fox for some reason and the head of Fox’s B pictures, Robert Lippert, wanted me to do it. I turned it down three or four times.

Sam: Why was that?

Brett: I turned it down because I had been working in the juvenile delinquency B pictures and was making five hundred dollars a week with a two week guarantee. So I was making a thousand dollars a picture. I could make five pictures for five thousand dollars. So when they offered me Return of the Fly I said “I want more money. It’s a bigger picture.” So Lippert called me into his office, which was very impressive, and he said “Look Brett, I want you to make this picture. I’m not going to give you any more money. I guarantee you it’s a picture you want to do.” I said “Well, okay.” After I did that picture I was immediately offered a contract with 20^th Century Fox and I went from The Fly right into The Best of Everything which was a big jump.

Sam: One of my very favorite actors is Vincent Price, who you worked with in Return of the Fly and later in Twice Told Tales. What was working with Vincent Price like?

Brett Halsey did two films with Vincent Price - "Return of the Fly"(1959) and "Twice Told Tales"(1963)

Brett: A delight. We became friends socially as well. He was a wonderful actor. Very giving. Everyone I know who ever worked with him came away from it as a good experience.

Sam: Why do you think that someone who was as good as him got stuck in so many horror roles?

Brett: Because those were the roles that were offered to him and they paid him well. I often wondered that about some of the directors I’ve worked with in the B’s who were really really good directors but, since they were working in the B’s, nobody wanted them to direct the A’s anymore.

Sam: You also appeared in Return to Peyton Place which is a guilty pleasure of mine. It has an amazing cast. I get right sucked into that film. What was the reception for that film like? Did it increase your notoriety?

Brett Halsey was married to Italian actress Lucianna Paluzzi when they played "Return to Peyton Place"(1961)

Brett: Not a lot. Return to Peyton Place didn’t do as well as it might have. There was a lot of controversy with the picture. Diane Varsi played the lead in the first one and she was set to play the lead in this one but she just quit the business. I don’t know what happened exactly but the studio went into problems and by recasting Diane they had to recast the whole cast. Carol Linley was very good and Jeff Chandler was in it. Mary Astor played my mother and I learnt so much working with her. I played opposite my ex-wife, Luciana Paluzzi, who played my pregnant wife, and was really pregnant when we were doing the picture. We were in the middle of a divorce when we were doing it.

Sam: Not long after Return to Peyton Place you did Follow the Sun and then you were off to Europe where you found a much larger career then you did in Hollywood. What made you decide to go to Europe and why were you so successful over there?

Seventh Sword for the King (1962)

Brett: An Italian director named Riccardo Freda wanted me for a picture but I was busy. So when Follow the Sun folded, almost the same day, he offered me another picture which I accepted. It was called Seventh Sword for the King. So I went over and did that and I came back and did Twice Told Tales. While I was doing Twice Told Tales I got an offer from a production company in Italy to do three films. So at that time, because of tax freezes, if you stayed out of the country for eighteen months you didn’t pay taxes and by the time the eighteen months were up I had done another picture and they just kept coming. So pretty soon I was an Italian actor. I returned to Hollywood about five years later. You can’t stay away for Hollywood for five years. So I thought I was coming back as a European star but I was coming back [and people were saying] “What. Your still in the business?” So I was home for about a week and at the end of the week I got a call from my agent in Rome and he had another picture to do right away and I just went back.

Sam: Did you speak fluent Italian?

Brett: No. As a matter of fact all the films I made in Italy and Germany and Spain I spoke English. The only time I ever acted in Italian was a call I got to go to Chicago for an American cheese commercial and they wanted the commercial in Italian. When I worked in France I had to work in French.

The Hour of Truth (1965)

Sam: Possibly the biggest achievement of your career was a French film called The Hour of Truth which you were nominated for a best actor award in France. Unfortunately, is not available in North America on DVD. What was the film about and why was it such a success for you?

Brett: Well it wasn’t that big of a success, but it should have been. It got tied up in bankruptcy and didn’t get a big release. It would have been a big success for me if it had gotten a proper release. It was a prize winning story about Jews and Nazis. The basic story was a commandant of a Nazi prison camp was ordered at the end of the war to kill his inmates and then kill the guards, and afterwrds he stole the identity of one of the inmates and went to Israel. I played a Canadian sociologist who was investigating how Israel reacted from the holocaust. In the story this guy in Israel had made a big success for himself and a big help for the country, but I found out who he was so the question is if a person can be redeemed. It ran into trouble in Israel at first because it was a prize winning story and then someone decided that it was anti-Jewish and they started putting up roadblocks when we were shooting in Israel. It was a good picture and I didn’t even know I got nominated until director Vincente Minnelli told me he voted for me.

Brett Halsey with legendary director Mario Bava

Sam: You did a pair of Spaghetti Westerns for Mario Bava, Winchest Jack and Roy Colt and Today We Live Tomorrow we Die. Bava was one of the most ingenious directors ever to come out of Europe. What was it like to work with him?

Brett: Bava was wonderful. He had a great sense of humor. He loved to work. He really liked to make pictures. He was an artist with the camera. He could have been a painter if he wanted to. I didn’t work in any of his horror pictures. Everyone thinks of him as a horror director. I also did a romantic comedy for him called Four Times at Night.

Sam: You have a cult following as a Western star. Do you think of your self as a Western actor?

Brett Halsey achieved cult status as a Spagetti Western star alongside Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero

Brett: No. I didn’t know I had a cult following as a Western star. I loved Westerns. I had fun making them. They have this Western festival here in California but they never invite Spaghetti Western actors.

Sam: That’s odd because the Spaghetti Westerns, in many ways, are superior to the American ones.

Brett: Yeah. They just took it to another gritty level.

Sam:  You had such a solid career in Europe so what brought you back to North America in the early 70′s?

Brett: The woman I was married to at the time, Heidi Brühl, was offered a contract in Las Vegas so I came over to be with her and I started working in Hollywood again. I worked here for a while and then I went back [to Europe] in the early 80’s.

Sam: You did a lot of soap operas in the 70’s. What put you into that industry?

Brett: I wasn’t getting work and it, sadly, was steady work and I needed the money.

Sam: You did General Hospital, Young and the Restless and Search For Tomorrow. What was your favorite to work on?

Brett Halsey got stuck in soap opera limbo throughout the 1970's, appearing in "General Hospital", "Loves a Many Splendor Thing," "Search for Tomorrow" and "The Young and the Restless"

Brett: I don’t know if I had a favorite. I didn’t like working in soaps at all. It was just a job. I found it was so restrictive after working in feature films for so long. You can’t deviate from the script. There’s no room for inventiveness. In a lot of films you can collaborate with the director. In the soaps you just learn the lines, do them, and be as good as you can. I couldn’t last more then a year [before] I would just burn out.

Sam: Is that why you changed around to the different soaps?

Brett: Yeah. The first one I was only on was only four months which was Love is a Very Splendor Thing. Then I was on Search for Tomorrow  and by the end of the year I just didn’t want to be there anymore. A year or so another job came up and I’d go off and do another one.

Sam: One role that you did originate was John Abbot on The Young and the Restless. The fans of that show are very loyal. Do you still get recognized as John Abbot or for any of your other soap roles?

Brett: Not so much. When I came back from Costa Rica I ran into someone for The Young and the Restless and they called my agent and wanted to talk to me and I said “No. I don’t have to do that anymore.” Sometimes people remember me as John Abbott but it’s a vague memory.

Sam: During your return to Europe you appeared in Godfather Part III. How did you end up in that production?

Brett Halsey with Diane Keaton in "The Godfather Part III" (1990)

Brett: I was still living in Rome and I knew one of the producers from Hollywood and he called me and said “Francis Ford Coppola wants to see you for the role of Diane Keaton’s husband.” I said “Great” and I went over and met him and then I went to Sicily to shoot another picture, and when I came back I hadn’t heard anything from the Godfather people and it was around Christmas and I had my ticket and I was ready to go home [to the US]. So I got a call and it was the producer and he said “I hear your going home.” He said “No no, your in the picture” and that’s how I was in the picture. I was in it for three months. It was a great experience shooting the picture but it was not a great experience seeing the picture because most of what I did was cut out. The whole story was cut out. The story between Pacino, who was the gangster, and I, who was the white bread judge and the competition for the children and the wife was all cut out. But it was a fun experience. Pacino’s a wonderful actor to work with.

Sam: Your first novel, The Magnificent Strangers, was released in 1979. You’ve described yourself as an actor who was a novelist but not you’re a novelist who is an actor. When did you decide to write your first book?

"The Magnificent Strangers"(1979)

Brett: It was kind of an accident. While I was working in Rome I had this feeling that I was living a part of history. It just reminded me of San Francisco in the 50’s, Paris in the 20’s. It was an epic historical time. So things would happen and I would joke to friends by saying “That’s going in the book. That’s good. That’ll go in the book.” I didn’t think much about it but I came back to the States and I was talking to a friend of mine who was a writer and he said “This is pretty good. You might be able to sell that. So he set up a meeting with his publisher and I wrote the first three chapters. They bought it, gave me a contract and a good advance and the contract said if I didn’t hand in the book I had to give the money back. So I said “I guess I’m an author because I’m not giving that money back.” I had some success with it. I wrote another novel based on my soap opera experiences called Yesterday’s Children which was also well received. Then I started researching the one I just finished. I don’t have a publisher for it yet but it took years for me to get it done but I’ve been getting some good feedback.

Sam: Can you tell me a bit about it?

"Yesterday's Children"(1990)

Brett: It’s called Half Breed and its set in the beginning of the mid-1800s.  One of my central characters is a Spanish priest who comes to California and gets involved with these families.  Then there is a Spanish woman who has an affair with an American and she gets pregnant and it goes on to where the she adopts this child of this American and Indian woman and the child is a half breed. It goes on for about two and a half generations. It’s a real pot-boiler. I just finished it a couple of days ago.

Sam: Do you find writing to be more rewarding then acting?

Brett: Yes because as a writer I’m in control. When I was starring in films I had some control because as a star they respected your opinion and we often had collaborations. As a writer its almost like being God. People do what you ask them to but often when you develop the character the character tell you what they want to do.

Sam: According to the imdb you have a film in pre-production called Mondo Holocausto.

Brett: Yeah, I read that too. (Laughs)

Sam: Did you know you were in that?

Brett: Somebody called me on that and asked if I was interested in doing it and I said we can talk about it and I haven’t heard anything since so I don’t know.

Sam: So you don’t know what it is?

Brett: Oh, I know what it is. They sent me a script. It’s actually an interesting idea. They are doing an over the top horror picture like they did in the 40’s but I think they had some money problems. They called me because they wanted to shoot in Costa Rica and they knew I had lived there.

Sam: You used to teach in Costa Rica for awhile.

Brett: Yeah. For six years at the University of Costa Rica.

Sam: What brought you to Costa Rica?

Brett with Cota Rican film students in the 1990's

Brett: In the 70s, through various connections, I was invited to come to Costa Rica to write a series of commercials for the presidential election. I did twenty two mini documentaries of how wonderful the party was for the country. We won the election and they gave me some credit for that. So I taught at Warner Brothers for a little bit and I had been to the University of Kansas to oversee the documentary they were shooting about the university and they asked me if I wanted to teach there and I said no because I didn’t necessarily want to go to Kansas to live. But a few years later I was in Costa Rica with some political friends and they said “Why don’t you come down here to live” and I said “No, what would I do” and they said “You could teach.” Anyways, they set up an appointment with the head of the department of the university and they hired me immediately so I went to Costa Rica for seven years.

Sam: Did you enjoy teaching?

Brett: Yes. I enjoyed it very much.

Sam: I find it interesting that you’ve done some teaching in Cuba. That’s not unusual for someone living in Canada like myself, but for an American citizen it’s much different. How did you end up in Cuba?

Brett: I was only there for a few weeks in the Master class at the film school, which is one of the best film schools in the world as far as the results. The school is kind of poor. But I was teaching a course on how directors relate to actors. That was interesting because many directors haven’t a clue how to relate to actors. It was very well received. A lot of big American directors and stars have taught at that school. You can’t go down there and wave the flag and say “Look, I’m here and I’m getting away with it” but American’s go to Cuba all the time.

Sam: What’s next for you?

Brett: I’m directing a radio theatre version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I’m working on that now.

Sam: Why do you feel that you’ve lasted in the business as long as you have while most actors’ careers fizzle out after ten years?

Brett: Probably because you could call me a journeyman actor. I know my business. When I’m hired people know they are going to get a positive result and, other then that, some luck I guess.

In his career Brett Halsey has truly done it all, but I believe that it has taken a lot more then just luck. With a combination of good looks, proper training and professionalism, Brett Halsey has been able to reap the rewards that life has to offer. From exotic locations, beautiful women and incredible experiences Brett Halsey has acted and lived amongst some of the biggest and most talented pop culture icons of our time. However, the one thing that stood out to me the most when I was talking with Brett Halsey was how much of a genuine nice guy he really was. Laid back and realistic, talking with Brett Halsey was truly a wonderful experience. While part of his ability to maintain his presence in the entertainment industry is most likely due to his ability to reinvent himself, to continuously branch out into other areas and, perhaps, a little bit of luck, But I truly believe that the fact that Brett Halsey is such a decent guy has had a lot to do with his success.

POP CULTURE ADDICT NOTE: Once again I want to give a special thanks to Carol Summers for arranging my interview with Brett Halsey. Thank you once again for introducing me to such an incredible individual. Your insights, generosity and guidance has meant so much to me.