How Hamilton took Hollywood

George Hamilton is a Hollywood institution. The 69-year-old may be more famous for his sun tan than for his acting ability, but that has never stopped him getting ahead.

He was just a teenager, on holiday in Florida, when he realised that looking good (and in particular, looking brown) was the key to success. Suddenly girls flocked to him. "I decided then that sun-tanning was going to be to me what the funny blue suit was to Superman," he told John Preston in the Sunday Telegraph.

"I was able to pass myself off as this Palm Beach millionaire with the aid of a good tan and the bespoke English clothes I picked up in thrift shops."

Hamilton headed for Hollywood, where his suave good looks landed him an MGM contract. He became friendly with Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, and cut a swathe through the ladies: his conquests included Jeanne Moreau, Britt Ekland, Alana Stewart, Sylvia Kristel, Danielle Steel - and Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he remains great friends. "Elizabeth is sort of... indoors these days," he says. "But when I call up she always sounds pleased to hear from me. She'll say, 'Sunshine!' and we'll start talking away.

"But I think this happens to a lot of women as they get older," He adds. "They weigh up the desire to go out against the amount of time it takes them to get prepared. In the end, they decide not to bother." ·