George Hamilton Stars in La Cage aux Folles

George Hamilton takes the stage as Georges, the suave, gay nightclub owner, in the national tour of La Cage Aux Folles

Like Elizabeth Taylor, George Hamilton is one of those performers who always seems to have been famous. True, while Liz was trying Spencer Tracy’s patience in Father of the Bride, Hamilton was still bouncing from one school to another, thanks to a disruptive family life. But once he hit Hollywood in the late 1950s, he became a fixture in the pop-culture pantheon. And with his perfect pocket square, beautiful hair, and gentlemanly willingness to please—not to mention his longevity in the business—there’s no mistaking him for anything other than a star of the old school. Which doesn’t mean he hasn’t kept a hand in the game. An entertainer through and through, he’s eaten rat on the UK edition of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here and tripped the light fantastic on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.

	La Cage Aux Folles will open at Bank of America Theatre on December 20.

“Dancing with the Stars was a real challenge,” he admits. “What started out as a few hours of dancing a week stretched into eight hours a week. I remember talking to Jerry Rice, who is probably the best wide receiver ever. At 44, he was complaining that his knees and back hurt. And here I was at sixtysomething and I told him, ‘Pal, suck it up. You can’t imagine what I’m going through.’”

Now, at 72, he’s hit the road with La Cage Aux Folles, playing Georges, the suave gay nightclub owner who juggles the emotional demands of his better half, drag performer Albin (portrayed by Christopher Sieber), and the effort to make a good impression on the less-than-tolerant father of the girl his son intends to marry. “This is a real challenge. There’s a lot of stuff to do. I’m onstage for two hours and 45 minutes. But the music is incredible, and if you don’t take on challenges, you rust out. So I’m hoofing and hopping. More hopping than hoofing.”

Hamilton has always made a point of performing live—most notably in Neil Simon’s The Star Spangled Girl and Chicago—but like much of his career, those efforts have often been overshadowed by his bespoke appearance, debonair personality, and romantic life. “I’ve put a lot of time in this business, but it’s always, ‘George- Hamilton-and-his-tan.’ For me, that’s a laugh, because that’s just my war paint. I know what people expect and I give it to them. But I’ve done a lot of movies and I’ve learned a lot from a lot of great actors.”