Harry Hamlin On His New Play, One November Yankee

Harry Hamlin always saw himself as a theater actor but life got in the way. A Yale graduate with dual degrees in drama and psychology, he got a scholarship to study at the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco. Before graduating he landed a meaty role in a professional production of the West Coast premiere in the hit play Equus. He played a deeply disturbed young man with a pathological connection to horses and was required to appear naked during part of the show. The play attracted the attention of a casting director at Warner Bros. She insisted that Hamlin meet with her.

“I said, ‘No, no. I don’t want to do movies and television,” shared Hamlin. “But she was so persistent that I finally agreed, just to get her off my back. I sat down with her and said, ‘look, I’m not going to do movies. This is not my deal.’”

Harry Hamlin and Stefanie Powers star in One November Yankee, written and directed by Joshua Ravetch (Photo by Matt Urban)

Ever determined, the casting agent told Hamlin that a big mini series was casting right down the hall at that very moment. “Please. Please do it for me. They’re right here,” she said. “Can’t you read for it?’ Hamlin spent 10 minutes looking at pages of the script, went down the hall and sat next to “a very handsome young man with blonde hair,” as Hamlin describes him. “His father was producing the miniseries and he was reading lines with the actors for his dad.”

A couple of minutes later Hamlin learned he was cast in the miniseries Awakening Land. “This all happened within 10 minutes,” says Hamlin. “The blonde kid was Corbin Bernsen.” Funnily enough, years later he and Bernsen would star together in the NBC megahit LA Law.

Hamlin said “no” to all of the TV and film jobs offered that day and over the next few days. “But the officers kept getting bigger and bigger,” he says. He was even given the opportunity to be in the film Movie Movie with George C. Scott, directed by Singin’ In The Rain director Stanley Donen. “I turned that down too,” says Hamlin. “I called Stanley and said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m going to London to study Shakespeare.’”

But Hamlin’s mother intervened and convinced him otherwise. “She said, ‘You went to Yale. You already have a master’s degree. Plus I want to meet George C. Scott. You’ve got to do the movie,” Hamlin explains. “So I did the movie and thought, okay, I’ll be done with it and get back to theater. But that is not how it works.”

With a career that has spanned 35 years, Hamlin has received multiple Best Actor Golden Globe nominations playing serious law partner Michael Kuzak on LA Law. He was recently nominated for an Emmy for his role as Jim Cutler on AMC’s Mad Men. In addition to working with George C. Scott in Movie Moviem he starred in Clash of the Titans with Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Laurence Olivier.

On stage Hamlin has appeared in myriad roles from Hamlet to a cynical injured war veteran, Moe Axelrod, in Awake and Sing on Broadway. He now stars with Stefanie Powers in the play One November Yankee currently playing at 59E59 Theater.

Delaware Theatre Company’s 2019 production of ‘One November Yankee’ is playing at 59E59 Theaters (Photo by Matt Urban)

The piece centers around three different sets of siblings trying to connect. “As soon as I read it I thought, I have never read anything like this before. It’s a tour de force role for an actor,” says Hamlin of the part drama, part comedic play written and directed by Joshua Ravetch. “Also, the way the play is layered, with its interesting mix of ideas, seems to be a reflection of what was going on in America. And the brother and sister piece was something that I had never encountered in a play except maybe in Chekhov.”

The last time Hamlin did a play in New York was 21 years ago. When his two youngest daughters were born he made a pact with Lisa Rinna that he wouldn’t leave home for more than ten days while his kids were living there. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for years. Now that the kids are flying on their own. I can do a movie on location or go to New York or Washington DC to do a play,” he says. “Whatever tethers I had have had been taken off.”

Hamlin adores doing the play and spending time in New York City, playing guitar and writing songs during his off hours. But there are some things he does miss about being home in Los Angeles. High on the list is wife Lisa Rinna, especially their favorite date night ritual. “A perfect night for us is sitting in bed watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I mean, it’s the only place in life where we cheat on each other,” says Hamlin. “The latest season just came out so she probably watched it last night.” And since he was doing the play he missed it. “I’m sure she cheated on me last night,” he kids. “She will pay for that.”