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I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses

Review

I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses

With a career in the movies and on television that traversed 60-plus years, Robert Wagner has rubbed elbows with an amazing number of the silver screen's leading ladies. Whether he knew them in a personal or professional capacity, he had the opportunity to study these legendary stars in a way few people ever did. Fortunately for us, he's now divulging his thoughts and experiences with readers in his most recent memoir, I LOVED HER IN THE MOVIES.

Beginning in the 1930s and extending to the present day, Wagner recalls the famous women he encountered decade by decade and shares his personal interactions with them. He also provides insight regarding various well-known movie studios, producers, directors and cameramen. Before the book is over, it's easy for readers to feel that they have intimate knowledge of Hollywood, particularly during its heyday.

"Anyone who has ever watched and enjoyed the classic movies from yesteryear will love this remembrance by a man who has been there and done that, and is gracious enough to tell the tale."

Wagner dishes the dirt, in the kindest possible way, on big-name actresses like Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn, Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Lana Turner and Marilyn Monroe. He also shares insights regarding the two of his three wives who were actresses, the now-deceased Natalie Wood and his current spouse, Jill St. John.

An especially beguiling story that Wagner shares involves a trip home with a schoolmate from the Hollywood Military Academy, Irving Thalberg, Jr., when Wagner was just eight years old. Little did he know that he would get to meet Thalberg's mother, actress Norma Shearer, and receive an autographed picture of her that day. Readers also learn how Wagner got his start in the movies and how he went on to work in the industry for many more decades.

For those interested in his television career, Wagner includes stories of his portrayal of the dashing and debonair Jonathan Hart starring opposite Stefanie Powers in ABC's hit mystery series “Hart to Hart.” Weekly one-hour episodes were produced from 1979 to 1984, and then Wagner rejoined Powers to make eight 90-minute made-for-TV movies from 1993 to 1996.

Also included here are full-page images of many of the women whom Wagner talks about, giving readers faces --- and often bodies --- to match with the names of the screen stars.

I LOVED HER IN THE MOVIES transports readers back in time and allows them to relive an era that no longer exists today, those days when the pictures were everything and people believed that maybe life could be like what they saw in the movies. It reflects a time when the stars really were larger than life and when the public wasn't privy to their every peccadillo. Anyone who has ever watched and enjoyed the classic movies from yesteryear will love this remembrance by a man who has been there and done that, and is gracious enough to tell the tale.

Reviewed by Amie Taylor on November 23, 2016

I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses
by Robert J. Wagner with Scott Eyman