Robert Englund Talks about Carolyn Jones and “Eaten Alive”

Robert Englund at premiere of Freddy vs. 

Jason . Photo: Featureflash/Shutterstock

Before he gained fame as Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street, Robert Englund made a low-budget thriller called Eaten Alive (originally titled Death Trap). The film, released in 1977, gave him the opportunity to meet and work with one of his favorite actresses, Carolyn Jones, among other stars. “It was just a strange moment in time, and I cannot reiterate enough to you; it was magical,” Robert tells me. “It was one of the most wonderful sets, to this day, that I’ve ever walked on to.”

Englund played Buck, a patron at a brothel run by Miss Hattie, played by Carolyn Jones. I interviewed Robert about what it was like on the set of that cult classic. Because England’s parents were fans of Carolyn Jones, he was aware of her when he was quite young. He developed what he calls a “weird, strange, beatnik, bohemian crush” on her ever since he saw her starring role in A Hole in the Head.

Robert Englund: The first kind of connection that I have to Carolyn Jones is that my parents were huge fans, especially my mother. So I was aware of Carolyn as an actress when I was quite young. And then I kind of have this weird, strange, bohemian crush on her from A Hole in the Head.

The reason is strange. It was not only her bangs and her sort of surfer girl, beatnik, Goth persona but it was also that I was a young surfer, and if my memory is right one of the props she had was a blue or turquoise surf board. It was the first time I’d ever seen that unique look, sexuality, and the surfboard, all of those things sort of bundled together. She really took up a crease in the gray matter of my brain. And so that’s sort of the set-up with my fascination with Carolyn Jones. Now obviously I saw her in other movies after that, and she’s this wonderful, accomplished actress, and again my parents are huge fans of hers. She was right up there in their pantheon of favorite women actress of the time.

So now it comes to happen years later that I star in a couple of movies for “A” directors in Hollywood, and I’m at a bit of a lull in my career. I’ve done a couple of small roles for “A” listers. I had just finished starring in a Daniel Petrie film called Buster and Billie, then for Bob Rafelson I starred in a movie with Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, Scatman Crothers and Arnold Schwarzenegger called Stay Hungry, based on an award-winning novel. This is sort of where I am, and I do some smaller parts for the great Robert Aldrich. I killed Burt Reynolds in a movie and a couple of other people, I’m on the Paramount lot, and they’re going to put me under contract at Warner Brothers. In the middle of all of this, I get offered—and this is what’s fun for you, James—my first horror movie. It’s Tobe Hooper who’s done Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I go to work across the street from Paramount in the old Raleigh Studios, and I walk onto the soundstage. It is the most miraculous thing I‘ve ever seen at this stage in my life. It’s a Texas Victorian farmhouse in forced perspective with monkeys chained in antique cages and Gila monsters and tumbleweeds and a gravel driveway with a ’67 El Dorado Cadillac in perspective cactus and Mesquite going into a cyclorama in the background. I go to work on this movie, and I’m having lunch now with Mel Ferrer, the husband of Audrey Hepburn. I’m hanging out with Stuart Whitman, and I’m with William Finley, and the fabulous Carolyn Jones!

Here’s Carolyn Jones, and I’ve got lots of scenes with her, because Buck goes to the whorehouse that she runs and she’s playing the madam. Because I love Hollywood—old movies and new movies and all of kinds and theatre—I know so much about all of these people—William Finley, Mel Ferrer, Stuart Whitman, Marilyn Burns, Carolyn Jones, Neville Brand.

I’m working on this movie and everything’s going fine. Apparently there’s a problem, and I’m sort of sheltered from this. It’s a question you must ask of Tobe Hooper. Tobe is either fired or let go or terminated, so now I don’t know any of the details. And we’re all left there. By this time we all love Tobe. He’s articulate, he’s intellectual, he’s funny, he’s smoking his Sherman cigarettes. We all feel like we’re in really good hands with Tobe Hooper. He’s just a wonderful, iconoclastic talent. We all want to be around him. But he’s gone. And I have a lot of stuff left to shoot with Carolyn Jones and the whorehouse—the Texas brothel—and I remember one break night when we’re working hard, and we’re working without Tobe. And none of us know what’s happened here. We’re trying to finish this movie. We think it might be a nasty, ugly, terrific little horror movie because of the talent involved, we kind of liked the script, and the set where we’re all working on is phenomenal; it’s wonderful. So now I’m working and I’ve done a marathon day, and here’s my Carolyn Jones punch line for you:

 I’m working with Carolyn and some of the girls playing the prostitutes. It’s midnight, and none of us are in a good mood. Carolyn turns to everybody and she goes, “Darlings, I’ve been Cinderella until now. At midnight, kids, I turn into a pumpkin.” I remember that was her warning. She was no longer going to be nice or easy or malleable or even professional, because we had all gone beyond the call of duty. It was such a perfect moment, and she said it with such gusto. It wasn’t diva; it was actually her reminding all of these young people that had taken or fallen into the position of finishing the movie, that they’d better respect the talent. They need to take care of us because we were the ones in front of the camera. And it was this great, wonderful moment that I can close my eyes as I’m talking to you and remember her standing there and saying it.

JP: This movie was the first one she had done in six years. Did you sense her enthusiasm?

RE: Well, here’s the thing you have to understand: before Tobe Hooper left the set and after. When Tobe was working on the movie, even though we were working on a giant killer chronicle, psycho horror movie, it was a great experience. Everybody got along, everybody was welcoming. We all knew what we were making, but when we walked through these giant sound stage doors we were in a magical place. It might have been a low budget movie, but we knew it was going to be a great little low budget movie. It was not joyous but everyone was kind of happy; nobody was begrudging the fact that they were in a horror movie. People were nice to each other and Carolyn was not unhappy. She only got testy after Tobe Hooper was removed.

JP:  Eaten Alive reunited Carolyn with Stuart Whitman. They had made a movie together, Johnny Trouble, in 1957. Do you remember anything about their interaction?

RE: You know, I’ll tell you why I don’t. They didn’t have a lot of scenes together that I was part of. I saw them on the set together and I saw them talking. She seemed to be fine. I was a little intimated by Stuart because I had seen a film of his called Sands of the Kalahari, which I really loved. But I do remember seeing Stuart and Carolyn talking and joshing together on the set.

When I was out in the coffee shops after we worked, I was mostly with Marilyn Burns and Neville Brand, but I do remember having lunch with Carolyn Jones. It made me feel so cool, that in her company, that other people from Paramount were walking by and saw me with the Carolyn Jones! I’m not sure if she wore a wig or her own hair, but she had this great hairdo. She was wearing slacks and a nice blouse. And with that wig on she looked young and beautiful still. It just made me feel great to be with Carolyn Jones! I just hung on to every word. I would like limit myself to one or two questions about films of hers that I like, and I tried not to be like a gushing fan. For a young actor in the ‘70s it was very intimidating.

JP: I understand that Carolyn was very accepting of younger actors.

RE: Carolyn was welcoming, and would answer questions. We were having lunch, we were having coffee together, and it was just a wonderful, great experience. I remember it so well.

Cousin Itt's Bad Hair Day

 Cousin Itt (Felix Silla) welcomes a visit from Gomez  (John Astin) 

and Morticia (Carolyn Jones) in his bedroom. "Every time they 

came in, they had to scoot down, especially when Ted Cassidy 

(Lurch) came through the door. It was funny. He had to crawl 

down on his hands and knees to go out the door!" says Silla. 

(Courtesy of  Felix Silla)

Felix Silla played the recurring role of Cousin Itt in The Addams Family from 1964 to 1966. The Italian-born actor joined Carolyn Jones, John Astin, Jackie Coogan and other cast members on the 20^th episode of the first season. Carolyn was intrigued by the introduction of Silla's character. “What side of the family is “it” take after?" she asked creator Charles Addams. "Both sides, I hope."

Silla, who made guest appearances in Petticoat Junction, The Monkees, Bewitched, H. R. Pufinstuf, Night Gallery, Star Trek, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Married…with Children, also in the cast of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century.

I interviewed Felix for my book, In Morticia’s Shadow: The Life & Career of Carolyn Jones, and we discussed not only his memories of the actress behind Morticia but also what it was like to don the unusual costume that transformed him into Cousin Itt.

James Pylant: Do you have any special memories of working with Carolyn Jones?

Felix Silla: She was a wonderful person, a really talented actress. We worked together, but we never had any conversation. I was brand new to the business. It was my second film so I didn’t really have too much to talk to her about it. But we had a lot of fun working on the show.

JP: What do you remember about the interaction between Carolyn and John Astin?

FS: I had never seen such! It was beautiful, beautiful. You know, John had a lot of fun when she was speaking French. Every time she he would kiss her arm and things like that.

JP: When I watched reruns of The Addams Family as a child, what I enjoyed most of all were the episodes with Cousin Itt. Kids loved your character.

FS: I’ll tell you, I never thought 45 years ago that people were going to keep talking about it. I mean, I’ve done a lot of things. I played in Buck Rogers—I played the robot.  When I say ‘I did Buck Rogers,’ they say what’s Buck Rogers? But everybody knows The Addams Family.

JP: Tell me about your Cousin Itt outfit. That looks like it would be awfully hot to wear.

FS: They started out with human hair, and it was really heavy and very, very hot. Then they realized that the human hair was too flammable. So they came in with the synthetic material, because it was lighter and it was also not flammable. On the set the crew would go get a cup of coffee and smoke a cigarette. So when they’re through with the cigarette, they would just throw it in the floor and step on it; sometimes they would miss. The director said, “If you walk around with that thing like a mop—like you're moping the floor—you're going to hit a lit cigarette butt and go up in flames.” That’s why they came up with synthetic wigs. Not only that, the human hair wig was very expensive. I understand it was like $7,000 or $8,000.

JP: Was it hard to breathe wearing the thick human hair wig—especially under those hot lights?

FS: It was really hard to breathe, yes. It was very, very heavy. In those days, they used these huge lights. I tell you, when you’re standing there in that thing—in 100 degree temperature—it’s very hot!

Linda Purl on "Little Ladies of the Night"

The prolific career of lovely Linda Purl, accomplished jazz singer and stage actress, includes countless guest appearances on classic TV shows such as The Waltons, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, and Medical Center. Linda joined the cast of Happy Days for its tenth season as Fonzie’s girlfriend, Ashley, and later played Charlene in the first season of Matlock. More recently she has surfaced in episodes in Bones, Cold Case, Homeland, Lie to Me, True Blood, and the recurring role of Helene in The Office.

Linda also graced the screen in a number of TV movies, including memorable performances in The Adventures of Nellie Bly and The Young Pioneers. In 1977, she starred as a teen prostitute in the ABC movie of the week, Little Ladies of the Night, which led in the Neilsen ratings. Linda's mother was played by Carolyn Jones, the ex-wife of the movie’s producer, Aaron Spelling. By then, he was married to Candy and the father of future actress Tori Spelling. I asked Linda about her memories of working on the set of that film.

James Pylant: Little Ladies of the Night had such an impressive cast. Not only did you work with Carolyn Jones, but also with Dorothy Malone, David Soul, Kathleen Quinlan, Lana Wood, Vic Tayback, Katherine Helmond, and Louis Gossett Jr. That must’ve been an exciting experience for you.

Linda Purl: It was! It was a big role and it was a challenging role. And, of course, none of us could’ve predicted that it would’ve had the success that it did. And I would say it was one of my earlier jobs in LA. So it was just a great experience.

JP: That was such a different part for you.

LP: Well, it was an eye-opener for me. I went with a male friend—a large male, physically strong friend—and we hung out in Hollywood and met and talked to some young prostitutes. Oh, the vacant stares in their eyes; the hopes for who they wanted to become. They wanted to become actresses. They had come to Hollywood, and they were sure that they could succeed. This was Hollywood Boulevard. You didn’t have to go far to look for this stuff going on.

JP: What do you recall about meeting Carolyn Jones?

LP: I guess my primary recollection of her was that she was so nice, very at home on the set, and she spoke about Aaron. And how grateful she was to him, you know? They had a divergent, but life-long relationship. My memory of her is that she was gracious, that she was very pleasant, and always had a smile on her face; extremely professional. I remember her talking about Bette Davis and that Carolyn was a blonde. She said she had to dye her hair black, as advised by the studio, in order to have a career. I do remember that she joked. I think that’s part of the memory—just the smile.

JP: Was Aaron on the set much? Did you see any interaction between the two?

LP: No, I don’t think I did. He came on the set a couple of times. Candy came on the set with Tori, a cream puff in her arms at that point. But I don’t remember Candy being on the set when Carolyn was there.

JP: You had several scenes with Kathleen Quinlan. What was is like working with her?

LP: Oh, Kathleen was great. I haven’t seen her in a very, very long time now, but we actually became friends and spent some time hanging out together. But that happens in this business. You get pulled into different projects, your lives go in different ways, you get busy, and you kind of get pulled away from each other. But, oh, Kathleen was great. I remember I had a pool at the time that had a big diving board, and she had been a competitive diver, and so she did these incredible dives! Oh, my gosh! She has a great sense of humor, and she’s just a talented actress, obviously.

JP: You filmed Little Ladies in ’76. Young Pioneers came out the same year, didn’t it?

LP: Gosh, I was busy! Well, I loved doing Young Pioneers, and in fact, we’re all—those of us who are left—are still very close friends—Bobby Hayes, Roger Kern and Kay Kimler. We call ourselves the"Not So Young Pioneers" now.

Stanley Livingston on the Making of "How the West Was Won"

Stanley Livingston had already been in My Three Sons for a couple of years when an offer came along for a role in the epic How the West Was Won. “That was a treat for me, because I always wanted to be in a Western and I never got cast in one. All of my friends were getting cast on Laramie and Rawhide and Wagon Train and if you were a kid all you wanted to do was be a cowboy back then.”

Stanley Livingston recalls the filming of the epic 
Western  How the West Was Won.  (Courtesy of 

Stanley Livingston)

Stan, then 12, starred alongside George Peppard, Carolyn Jones, Debbie Reynolds, and Eli Wallach in the film’s last segment, directed by Henry Hathaway. “I think the first location we shot was Prescott, Arizona,” says Stan. “From there they drove us to what was the middle of nowhere to me. And it did look like a Wild West set, one of those huge panoramic views.”

How the West Was Won, released in 1963, was different from any other film because it was shot in Cinerama. “The camera they’d normally use can be set away from actors at what I would call a comfortable distance and still get a close-up, but that’s not the case with Cinerama. Those are pretty wide-angle lenses. To get those close-ups sometimes you’re maybe no more than two feet away from the camera, which is bizarre. It needed to be right in your face to get a close-up,” says Stan.

I asked Stan if there was a scene or moment in the making of How the West Was Won that stands out in his memory.

“It was working with the director, Henry Hathaway, that made the movie memorable for everybody,” says Stan. “Henry was a pistol to work for. Until How the West was Won, I had worked with quite a few directors—Jackie Cooper, Leo McCarey —some prominent directors—and some other ones were probably known as well within in the industry. But Henry Hathaway certainly had a pedigree of working in film and Westerns, and he was notorious in the industry. Most of the people I've worked with were just kind of normal directors. They’d talk to you and have normal discussions, but Henry Hathaway was a screamer. Not just to the actors, but at everybody.

“There was a scene we shot with George Peppard and the actor who played my younger brother.  It was right outside of town and looked like it was set up to be a mine. There was a hole in the ground and a derrick with smoke coming out. Eli Wallach and his gang rides up and they have a little confrontation and it he makes it known he’s not only threatening George Peppard but may come back to get his family. But in the process of shooting Henry Hathaway wanted some atmosphere, like wisps of smoke coming out of the hole in the ground, and they had a guy down there manufacturing the smoke. It’s a pot and he had to heat it up and pour oil in to make the smoke. Apparently he was not getting the right amount of smoke for the shoot, and Henry would scream, ‘More smoke! More smoke!’ So he kept pouring oil and Henry was getting madder and madder and his profanity was getting worse and worse.

“The next take Henry Hathaway called for the smoke and this guy must’ve taken the entire pot and with oil and dumped it; he just couldn't stand it. And all the sudden smoke just started coming out of there like nothing you’d ever seen in your life. We couldn't see anything. You couldn't see the camera. You knew the guy did it on purpose, to get even. Everybody stays quiet, and we heard this little voice: ’Ready when you are, Mr. Hathaway.’

“And soon as he said that Henry just fell down laughing. Eli Wallach nearly fell of his horse because they knew they had gotten him. And it’s what he asked for so you know there’s no way he could yell at him again. We couldn't shoot for about five minutes. It took that long for all of the smoke to clear away.”

Stan remembers Hathaway’s anger was directed at him, too.

“He was displeased. He was just screaming at me. That was a little disconcerting. We finally got the scene, and I did what he wanted. He was really happy and put his arm around me and said, “That was great. You did such a good job!” And he wanted to go to lunch with me! This guy wanted to rip my face off, and now he wants to go to lunch?” So I piled into his car and we drove back to Prescott to have lunch. The whole time in the car he was just the coolest guy. He turned into Santa Claus.”

While on their lunch break, Hathaway took Stan into a store and insisted on buying a display case full of rocks—even though it was not for sale. “It looked like it came out of a museum,” Stan recalls. “He paid 200 bucks for this display case—two feet by three feet—lugging it back to the car. He just turned into a changed person toward me. Sure enough, we go back to work and the first thing he starts screaming at me again: ‘you little son-of-a-bitch! Didn’t I tell you. . .?’”

Stanley Livingston tells about pranks on the set of "My Three Sons"

He has worn many hats in Hollywood—writer, editor, cinematographer, director, producer—but Stanley Livingston is forever known as the actor who played Chip on My Three Sons. He starred on that popular TV series from 1960 to 1972. When I asked Stan about how his career in Hollywood began, he said his interest in the performing arts developed in grade school.

My Three Sons in 1965: Stanley Livingston, Don 

Grady, and Barry Livingston. (Courtesy of Stanley

Livingston)

“I started off as an actor on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in the late ‘50s,” says Stan. “I was hired as an extra. For whatever reason on that first job, Ozzie Nelson noticed something in me and said, ‘Hey, I want you to say this line.’ He gave me a line to say, and I guess I said it the way he wanted me to and did it well. I remember when the day was over he came up to my mom and said, ‘We want to have him back; how do we get in touch with your agent?’ Anyway, from that point on I became, I guess, a semi-regular on the show from about 1957 or up to the point I was going to do My Three Sons. On the other side of the Ozzie and Harriet stage they were shooting Mr. Ed, so I would always be over there when they didn’t need me, petting Mr. Ed and giving him something to eat, whatever. There wasn’t a whole heck of a lot for a kid to do on a studio lot.”

In 1959 Stan auditioned for My Three Sons. He was cast immediately, but there was one problem—he had signed a contract with Jackie Cooper a year earlier for a series called Skippy. “The series hadn’t sold,” Stan explains. Cooper graciously freed him from that commitment, paving the way for him to sign the contract for My Three Sons. Meanwhile, Stan’s little brother, Barry Livingston, became his replacement, the “go-to-neighborhood kid,” on Ozzie and Harriet.

Young Stanley Livingston didn’t realize the breadth and depth of the work of Fred MacMurray, who played his father, Steve Douglas. “He was the guy from the Nutty Professor. And I had no idea at that point in my life about Caine Mutiny, The Apartment—the other films. All I knew was he was the big shot and the star of the show.”

Stan, who grew up in Hollywood, remembers feigning illness to stay home so he could watch I Love Lucy. “My favorite character wasn’t Lucy, it was Fred Mertz . . . There was something about him that I liked. And when I found out he was going to be the grandfather on My Three Sons, I was stoked.” But actor William Frawley was not especially fond of children. “For whatever reason, though, he warmed up to me, and I think he could see I idolized him, and we became fast friends. I officially made him my grandfather, we hung out together on the set, and he would take me to baseball games after the show. He was quite a character!”

I asked Stan about working with Don Grady, who played older brother Robbie.

“The first year of the show I didn’t realize Don was that much older than me—he wasn’t very tall.  I thought, This is great, I’m going to have this guy in the schoolroom, and as a really close buddy.

When I said Don always looked younger, Stan agreed. “And so did I. I looked seven when I was ten. You know, I think Don was playing about 13 when he was actually 15 or 16. He just turned 16 when we started shooting. I thought, Wow, this guy’s getting his own car! He was 16, and it was really hard to believe. And then he graduated from high school during the first year.” Stan had no one in the schoolroom until his real-life brother, Barry Livingston, joined the cast of the show as Ernie.

“Don was really interested in his music. And that’s all he did. In between scenes, in his dressing room, he had a little set up where he could compose and write music and seemed to be consumed with that. That was his passion.” Don used earphones to keep from disturbing anyone in the studio. “His dressing room was immediately over our schoolroom. We would always hear his foot tapping to the beat, even though you couldn’t hear the music. We would kind of smile because we knew he was up there doing that.

“We would horse around as kids. Don would always join in. We would play pranks on each other. The stairs going to my dressing room were a straight shot to the door, but Don’s stairs went up, hit a landing, then reversed, went the other way, hit another landing and then went to the door of his dressing room. I remember one time Don was up there on the phone, and Barry and I hatched this plan. We went to the prop man and got a ball of string and snuck up the stairs. At the top we created this cobweb—it went around the railing and down and out and over and all the way down the stairs. We knew that in about 20 or 30 minutes that they would call, ‘Don Grady on the set!’ We were waiting for that. The door opened and he said, ‘I’m going to catch you guys!’ He had to force his way down, snapping these strings all over him.

"Oh, I remember what he did to get even!  He bombarded us one time—we were up in our dressing room—and these dressing rooms, because they were on the inside of a stage, had no roof on them. You could look up and see the ceiling another 30 feet. He collected about 25 or 30 cups—old coffee cups—out of the trash. All of the sudden this bombardment came over, and we were hit by coffee cups. We got even for that one, too.”

Actor Recalls "The Patty Duke Show"

Eddie Applegate starred in 88
episodes of The Patty Duke Show

In 1963 Eddie Applegate landed the role of Richard Harrison, Patty Duke’s boyfriend in The Patty Duke Show. Applegate went on to guest star in several other television series, including I Love Lucy, Daktari, and Gunsmoke. His most recent role is in a thriller, Rain from the Stars, premiering in May 2013.  

While starring in a Las Vegas stage production of Bye, Bye Birdie, Eddie was approached by producer Joe Pasternack about a movie comedy called Moon Walk, soon renamed A Ticklish Affair. He signed on for the part of a yeoman and was cast alongside Shirley Jones, Carolyn Jones, Gig Young and Red Buttons. He recalls a problem early in that filming, when suddenly his lines were no longer bringing laughter from the crew. During a break, the cinematographer told him that director George Sidney’s diversion of Applegate in scenes was dulling the movie’s humor.  “Eddie, it’s a part of the journey,” his agent told him. “Directors are in control, and there’s nothing we can do about it; just enjoy what you can.”

“Which I did,” Applegate says. “I still had a good time making it. But when we were doing some voiceover after the film, the producer said, ‘No, don’t do it that way—do it this way.’ Eddie responded, ‘That’s the way George Sidney wanted me to do it.’ And he looked at me with stern eyes and he said, ‘Mr. George Sidney is not here now. Do it this way.’ So we did it that way.”

James Pylant: How soon after A Ticklish Affair came The Patty Duke Show?

Eddie Applegate: Not too long. A couple of months at the most. We did the pilot for The Patty Duke Show in San Francisco. Then, as it turned out, The Patty Duke Show did sell as a series, but it didn’t go on until the following year. We were all asked to go to New York City to shoot the series because Patty could work longer hours in New York City versus the limited hours as a 16 year-old could work in California. And in the east she could come to school at any hour and get her school work done. Whereas in Hollywood you had to put in certain hours each day—minimum day—and took up the actual hours she could work on a film. So that’s why we went to New York City. Well, we stayed for two years. And then the third year we came back to California.

I was eleven years older than Patty Duke, and I played her boyfriend of 18.

JP: Did you get the role on The Patty Duke Show as a result of being in A Ticklish Affair?

EA: I got that as a result of a lot of recommendations here in Hollywood. Bill Asher, the director who hired me during the pilot, said to me, “Eddie, you’ve been recommended by all kinds of people. Choreographers from New York have talked about how you are and your personality, and that’s why we called you in. We would like to hear your version of the script." So I read it. Then he looked at me afterwards and said, with a big smile, “A problem, Eddie. Patty Duke is only 16. She’s a short gal and at the age where she might suddenly shoot up—grow tall. And we don’t know that that’s not going to happen, so we have to protect ourselves. Every actor recommended to us has been short. Eddie, you’re short, too.” With that, I said very nonchalantly—and I don’t know why I said it or where it came from—‘Well, that’s not a problem. I can wear shoes with lifts in them, and I can be six-foot tomorrow with no problem at all.’ He looked at me, smiled, slammed the desk, and said, “Eddie, you’re hired! I’ll call your agent.”

JP: Of all the actors you’ve worked with, who would you say was your favorite?

EA: Oh, I’m prejudiced—Patty Duke. She’s just wonderful; a true humanitarian, always worrying about everyone else. In 1990 we did a movie version of the series called Rockin’ Again. We were up in Canada, in Toronto. I didn’t know the story of it, but in my opinion it sums up Patty Duke. She was doing a scene and she was working around the pool table and fell and hit her wrist and ribs. The next day I didn’t know her whole middle section was taped because of these cracked ribs, and she came up to me and she said, “Eddie, how is everything?” I said, “Fine.” She said, “I just wanted to make sure your trailer is big enough. Is it big enough for you?” And I said, “Yes, it’s fine, just fine.” Here she is—bandaged up, working and worrying about one of the actors and whether his trailer for wardrobe is big enough. She tried to take care of everybody.

Audrey Landers Returns to "Dallas"

Audrey Landers will reprise her role of Afton in

Dallas this year. (Courtesy of Audrey Landers)

Beautiful Audrey Landers, best-known as Afton Cooper in Dallas, graced the small screen with appearances in Burn Notice, Murder She Wrote, Burke’s Law, Silk Stockings, and Cosby, among countless other shows. I interviewed Audrey last summer about her scenes with Carolyn Jones in a 1979 episode of Fantasy Island called “Tattoo’s Romance.” The story called for Carolyn’s character, Ellie Simpson, described as a “selfish and bitter woman,” to exploit Tattoo’s (Herve Villechaize) infatuation with her niece, Donna May Calloway (played by Audrey), who is an aspiring country-western singer.

Audrey went on guest star in four other episodes of Fantasy Island, but “Tattoo’s Romance” was her first and last opportunity to act opposite Carolyn Jones. Audrey’s memories of working with Carolyn were included in my book, In Morticia’s Shadow. We also discussed the similarities between Audrey's characters in Fantasy Island and Dallas:

James Pylant:  You played an aspiring singer in Fantasy Island, but your character’s true passion was to be a songwriter. You’re a singer and songwriter, so I guess you related to that character to some extent.

Audrey Landers: I did. And I remember when my agent pushed for me to get it, it was quite a coup. Typically Fantasy Island had, you know, more established actors, although I had done soaps throughout my whole childhood and teen years. That was a whole different world. It’s funny that it was the beginning for the parts that I played from then on. In Dallas I also played a singer.

JP: Did that have a part in your getting the Dallas role as well?

AL: Actually, no. The character was never intended to be a singer. And the producers wrote that in, as a part of the character. Yeah, so it evolved from the fact that I do sing. And write songs.

JP: I have to ask you--what do you think of the new Dallas series?

AL: I missed the first episode because I was in London, but I did watch, and I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was excellent. I loved the characters. Mostly, they need me in it! (laughs)

JP: That was going to be my next question! I've heard some rumors that there’s an opportunity for Afton to come in with one of the mysterious story lines . . .

AL: Of course . . .

JP:  Especially with the character of Rebecca. What do you think?

AL: Well, you know, I think it makes a lot of sense. It really does. I mean, in the last incarnation of Dallas, Afton had a daughter who was a teenager who was running around with the Ewing boys. And she was named Rebecca. It only makes sense. The writers have decided to ignore that for now.

JP: That’s what went through my mind with the new show’s Rebecca.

AL: Yeah, mine too! And you know, I've been in touch with them a little bit, and we’re talking, but I have no definite answers yet.

A couple of months after our interview, Audrey gave me an update about Dallas: “The news is I will return--but exactly when is a secret.” The second season of Dallas premieres on TNT, January 28, 2013.

UPDATE: Audrey's return to Dallas airs Monday, Mar. 25.