Veteran actor George Hamilton has addressed a long-running rumor that he was working undercover for the CIA after he rose to fame in Hollywood.
The Love at First Bite star, who will turn 85 on August 12, has long been known as one of Hollywood's most connected stars, being acquainted with powerful business people as well as a laundry list of his fellow celebrities.
During an appearance on the latest episode of the Table for Two podcast, Hamilton told host Bruce Bozzi that he became the subject of persistent spy rumors.
Asked by Bozzi if there were ever moments where he felt as if he was in over his head during his career, Hamilton responded: "I was [in] over my head from the day I went to Hollywood. Most of it was spent over my head. I don't think it's fun to swim in shallow water. I've always liked to be figuring it out as I go."
Bozzi then asked Hamilton to recount his most exciting moment in the deep end of the proverbial water, prompting the actor to remark: "There's too many things."
"Listen, there was a rumor for a while that I was in the CIA," he continued. "This was all over town. People saying, 'We know you're in the CIA.'"
When asked why, Hamilton stated it he was because he had "dated the daughter of the president." In 1966, Hamilton made headlines when he arrived at the Academy Awards with Lynda Bird Johnson, the then 22-year-old daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Then aged 26, Hamilton—who was famed for his perennial tan and string of relationships with a host of glamorous stars—became an international talking point after his brief romance with the president's daughter.
However, Hamilton admitted that he soon found himself to be the focus of scrutiny, with the actor stating that the former president was unimpressed with the relationship, particularly as he had been precluded from serving in the Vietnam War.
"Lyndon B. Johnson was an extraordinary man," Hamilton said on Table for Two. "He did not like the idea [of the relationship]. He was all right initially, but he didn't like the idea when he found out that I was sole support for my family and I was deferred from the draft. Now, this is Vietnam, and I got it very clear: 'It's about time for him to join up.' And I thought, why should I be bullied into going when I am sole support for my family I'm taking care of?"
"But this went on, and it got to a point where I got a call from Lyndon Johnson's office, the White House, that he'd like to see me at the LBJ ranch [in Texas]," Hamilton continued. "And I flew down. We were arriving in his [Beechcraft] King Air and below was a Lincoln Continental convertible going about stall speed of the airplane, it must have been 90 miles an hour down the road, right beneath us.
"And we land, and Lyndon Johnson says, 'Linda's with me…Get in, Georgie.' I get into the Lincoln Continental convertible, and he put the top down."
In an unexpected turn of events, Hamilton said that the president handed him a firearm while also brandishing one himself. They then proceeded to go hunting.
"I'm thinking to myself, I'm six inches from the head of the president of the United States with a gun," he said. "This is where I get it. They'll find me, paint all over the car. And we went riding in the in the car for a little while. And all of a sudden he says, 'There's one. Get him.'
"I'm looking and there was a deer, and I don't know what to do. The last thing I want to do is fire a gun in the car. So I jumped out and shot, and think I hit it, and then it ran over here, ran over there and ran back. Finally it fell. The Secret Service get up, they pick him up, they put him on the truck."
Hamilton said that this happened a few times before the president "turns to me and he says, 'Damn, you're a regular Daniel Boone," referring to the famed frontiersman.
While Hamilton's relationship with Lynda Bird Johnson ended soon afterward, the two remained friends. The New York Times reported that Hamilton was among the attendees when she tied the knot with Chuck Robb at the White House in 1967.
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