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Angie Dickinson on blowing off This Is Your Life
Angie Dickinson (Police Woman) is the last surviving member of The Rat Pack, albeit a minor player. Frank and Dean loved her (Sinatra literally) as a guest star on their TV shows or when they appeared on talk shows like Carson's Tonight show. She was always clever, quick witted, and not at all hard to look at!
But there was one program she refused to appear on, This Is Your Life, with host Ralph Edwards (originally - Dickinson was slated to appear on a new version hosted by Pat Sajak). The premise: a celebrity is lured into a place nearby the studio where the show was shot. After the star entered the studio, in front of an audience, the host would bring on people from their past to tell stories about the star when they were growing up, getting started in the business, etc.
Dickinson wasn't the only celebrity that considered This Is Your Life to be way too intrusive, when Laurel and Hardy were surprised by the show, Oliver Hardy had to be talked into participating on this LIVE TV show so it was several minutes until the comedy duo reappeared on camera after being ambushed in a restaurant. Their relationship was strained to begin with!
In this excerpt from his interview with Angie Dickinson, Mo Rocca learns the secret why the film and TV star refused to participate in a taping of the TV show "This Is Your Life" with such guests as Bob Hope and Burt Reynolds, and why she decided against writing an autobiography.
By the time Dickinson was to appear on This Is Your Life, the weekly syndicated series was no longer broadcast live. What happened? "Well, when they got me to where they were going to shoot, I mean, you know - 'They're ready for you.'
"I thought I was there for a new series that NBC was doing with directors, once a month a new director would review somebody they worked with, talk about their movies, and would I come on with Brian DePalma and talk about Dressed To Kill." Great movie by the way.
Dickinson, who thought TIYL was a "stupid show" to begin with, continued, "I didn't even comb the back of my hair because I knew it was just him [DePalma] and me. And so when they said, 'This Is Your Life,' I looked around and I was, as if I was stabbed in the back. And I said, 'Oh no it's not.'" Actually what she said was, "I'm not doing this F**king show!"
Angie Dickinson claimed she was banned from the Tonight show as a result. What the connection was I have no idea.
The story continues from there, she also discusses turning down a hefty publishing offer to write her autobiography. See for yourself...
Here's footage from that aborted This Is Your Life taping... you can hear producer Ralph Edwards trying to talk her into it.
