CR: In 1968, you starred with Harry Guardino in a memorable TV-movie called Jigsaw, a remake of Mirage (1965), based on the novel Fallen Angel by Howard Fast. You played Jonathan Fields, an amnesiac who consults a private eye. This was one of the first made-for-TV movies, featuring a fine cast of Hollywood veterans, including Hope Lange, Pat Hingle, Victor Jory and Paul Stewart. Any comments about Jigsaw?

BD: Jigsaw was an underrated movie directed by a much underrated director, James Goldstone. The highlight is a scene where my character unwittingly ingests LSD, the chemical of choice at that time, and I go into a sustained freak-out monologue that required a fully-loaded camera magazine to photograph. Marian Dougherty, who was head of talent at Universal, later made this required viewing for all the studio contract players, as an example of how to make material colorful and arresting.

CR: Congratulations! In 1969, you co-starred with Louis Jourdan in a superb TV-movie entitled Fear No Evil, about a psychiatrist specializing in the occult who becomes involved in the case of a man possessed by a spirit in an antique mirror. In my opinion, Fear No Evil was as good as the classic anthology movie Dead of Night (1945), which featured an episode with a similar theme.

BD: Fear No Evil had a pre-Archie Bunker Carroll O'Connor in it, a down-to-earth guy. It also had Lynda Day George, with whom I had steamy love scenes. Lynda had the flu. When I came home that weekend, I passed it along to the entire family. Louis Jourdan taught me a fascinating word game in which I became his accomplice. We could convey secret information and astonish people who had no idea how we were able to baffle them.

CR: In 1971, you turned up in a two-part episode of The F.B.I. entitled The Mastermind. Any memories of working with guest stars Clu Gulager, Scott Marlowe and Steve Ihnat (who died shortly after filming wrapped)?

BD: The Mastermind episode of The F.B.I. was, I believe, the best episode ever on that long-running series. Gulager, Marlowe, Ihnat and myself conceive the idea of dressing as cartoon characters to knock off Disneyland. The first part was the caper. Part 2 was the feds in pursuit and the consequences of the robbery. I found Gulager to be a rather eccentric man. Steve Ihnat was taken from us at far too young an age. He was one of the most brilliant actors I ever worked with. As for Marlowe, he was a talented actor, but somewhat withdrawn.

CR: You guest starred in Face of Fear, a 1971 episode of Bonanza. What was it really like working on the Ponderosa?

BD: As I recall, my Bonanza was practically all indoors. Lorne Greene was a Canadian who did a screen test with the woman who later became my wife, Suzy Parker. He was a warm man, very unactor-like. Michael Landon, of course, later became a household fixture. Dan Blocker was inseparable from the character he played. As for why the episode was called Face of Fear, sorry to say that all TV westerns run together in my mind. I was the heavy in just about all of them, jeopardizing the lives of upstanding citizens, so I can't be sure if it was Bonanza or The Big Valley where I held someone prisoner in a well. If Bonanza, then it was the poor prisoner who had a "Face of Fear."

CR: In 1971, you played the title role in The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler, a weird sci-fi action flick starring Leslie Nielsen and Angie Dickinson. This movie was shot entirely on video, and looks rather cheesy today. When appearing in such films as Zachary Wheeler, did you get the sense that you had compromised yourself as an actor, that (however noble your reasons) you were scraping the bottom of the acting barrel for parts?

BD: Did I realize a lot of the material I did was schlock? Of course I did! I was constantly endeavoring to find appropriate choices that might cause me to disappear – become a hole in the screen. To take you through some of what I refer to as my ‘atrocities’ – The Swarm was populated by a swarm of stars prostituting themselves. But how could I point a finger at any of them when I was the busiest hooker in the game?
Other nifties include three Mexican films (Chosen Survivors, Guyana: Cult of the Damned and Treasure of the Amazon), the final two flicks I did for Roger Corman (Heroes Stand Alone, Lords of the Deep), and more than half the Movies-of-the-Week I turned up in. Dreadful stuff. Awful. But I defend some others. There’s good stuff out there, too – like The Mephisto Waltz, Brother John, The Iceman Cometh and The Way We Were.

CR: In 1973, you starred with George Kennedy in the TV-movie Deliver Us from Evil, about a group of hunters who stumble across a fortune from an injured skyjacker. This is an excellent production that really deserves to be released on video or DVD. Any recollections from this shoot?

BD: I have a legion of memories from Deliver Us from Evil, filmed in the Mount Hood area of Oregon. Our lodge was so isolated, one snowy night the producer brought in an auto caravan of young women from Portland, secretaries and the like, so we could have a party. George Kennedy saved my life when I fell in river rapids, snatching one arm before I took the swiftest route to Portland.

CR: In 1974, you co-starred with Hollywood legend Glenn Ford in The Disappearance of Flight 412 — about a military conspiracy to cover up UFO sightings, sort of a proto X-Files episode. Could you tell us about working with Ford in this highly-rated science fiction drama?

BD: The UFO movie with Glenn Ford was shot at Oxnard Airport and then Edwards Air Force Base. I played a major in the air force. My thrill was working with Glenn, whom I worshipped in movies like Gilda during my early movie matinees. He didn't disappoint; a nice man. Though I don't believe in UFOs, I subsequently learned I am outnumbered.

CR: You had a good role as a conflicted conspirator in the big-budget thriller Gold (1974), starring Roger Moore, Susannah York, Ray Milland and John Gielgud. What was Milland like at this juncture in his career, his days as a leading man long behind him?

BD: Gold was a big-budget movie, filmed in South Africa and London. Apartheid was still in force, and Susannah York, a militant liberal, used every publicity opportunity to deplore the conditions of the black miners, despite pleas from the producers to cool it. As chief heavy, my demise took place at the peak of a slagheap where I was run down by a Rolls-Royce. Ray Milland had finally eschewed a hairpiece, and created here his new persona as a snarling power broker.

CR: In 1974, you shot a TV-movie called Last Bride of Salem. I hear it’s quite good and look forward to seeing it someday on SCREAM Television.

BD: Last Bride was shot in Toronto and environs. I remember Lois Nettleton was in it, but I especially remember an unknown named John Candy! I met him again on a golf course after he became a star, and he lied graciously, saying he remembered me. His golf swing was memorable only for being bad.

CR: You had a starring role in the Italian-made A Black Ribbon for Deborah (1975), which sounds like yet another clone of The Exorcist. Describe your role in this supernatural thriller.

BD: The Italian movie A Black Ribbon for Deborah was such a clunker I have no memory of the plot. They dressed me and teased my hair to make me look Italian. I referred to myself as "Bobby Botticelli." The leading lady was the producer's mistress, and I recall an embarrassing love scene where I playfully pull her into a shower for some serious simulated lovemaking.

CR: Was your co-star Gig Young difficult to work with?

BD: Gig Young was a sad case. All the years of heavy drinking had so taken their toll that his memory was gone.

CR: What can you tell me about your starring role in Demon, Demon, a 1975 episode of Wide World of Mystery, a 90-minute late-night mystery and suspense anthology series, which ran on ABC? You play an executive who falls in love and marries his secretary (Juliet Mills). However, he soon begins to suspect that she may be a demon who is out to possess his soul.

BD: Demon, Demon was taped, and so hopelessly bad the actors collapsed with laughter attempting to speak their lines. It's a wonder it could be spliced together.

CR: In the mid-seventies, you made two ‘insect threat’ movies virtually back-to-back – Bug and The Swarm. You have the honor of starring in the final film of William Castle, the great horror huckster himself.

BD: Bug is considered laughable by some because William Castle produced it for $4.50, but it was made at a time when special effects were primitive, and I believe it’s genuinely scary. Those were real cockroaches crawling over my bare chest. Bill Castle was a jocular man, always brandishing a cigar, and in dress he affected a much younger personage.

CR: You and Dean Stockwell worked together again on a very obscure film called One Away (1976). This crime drama (directed by Sidney Hayers) sounds like a real curiosity. What was it like to work with Stockwell again 17 years after Compulsion?

BD: One Away was a biker movie shot in South Africa, about three gypsy brothers. The Brit Patrick Mower was the third. Dean Stockwell is an expert and enthusiastic biker. I couldn't ride at all, but my stunt double sure could. I believe we were escaped convicts who happen upon Elke Sommer. She becomes my voluptuous love interest. I have the greatest respect for Dean's talent, yet he and I have never really gotten along. I have a sense he's always resented the fact I was cast in the Compulsion role played onstage by his friend Roddy McDowall. For his part, Roddy never held it against me. I worked with Roddy on Escape from the Planet of the Apes, The Memory of Eva Ryker (1980) and Heroes Stand Alone (1989).

CR: In 1976, you guest starred on Wonder Woman, with Lynda Carter. The episode was entitled Wonder Woman Meets Baroness Paula Von Gunther (played by Christine Belford). Any memories of working on this phenomenally successful TV series?

BD: My appearance on Wonder Woman is an example of how desperate I was to put my children through school. I can't remember if I was being a menace to Lynda Carter, but I would have willingly joined a line to receive her physical abuse. (laughs)

CR: Mastermind (1976) sounds like a very strange film. In this comedy thriller, Zero Mostel plays an inspector on the trail of criminals who have captured a killer robot. Why did you agree to appear in Mastermind?

BD: Mastermind was shot in Japan in 1969 and not released until 1976, and then just barely. I believe Mastermind was stuffed in a time capsule and dropped somewhere off Okinawa. (laughs) I did it to get to Japan, but who could resist working with that superb cuckoo, Zero Mostel? I have a memory of dueling with him while in a samurai costume. Inside the killer robot was a midget.

CR: You then co-starred with Robert Mitchum in The Amsterdam Kill (1977), directed by Robert Clouse, who specialized in chopsocky pictures. Describe your role in this production and what it was like to work with Mitchum and Richard Egan.

BD: The Amsterdam Kill was two movies made at the same time. Ours was shot in Hong Kong. Mitchum and Egan were both tough guys, on and off screen. You didn't want to be around either of them when they were inebriated, and that was frequently. Mitchum played pranks on the deaf director Clouse. I did The Amsterdam Kill to get my wife a trip to the Orient.

CR: You played President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, the actor John Wilkes Booth, in The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977). How did you tackle this demanding role?

BD: Playing Booth was fun, carte blanche for ham acting. The Lincoln Conspiracy was shot in Savannah because of the ante-bellum architecture, including cobblestoned streets that presented a horsemanship hazard. My mustache looked like a bat had died on my lip.

CR: Did you agree to a supporting role in Love and Bullets (1979), a Charles Bronson actioner, because it was to have been directed by John Huston, who bowed out and was replaced by Stuart Rosenberg?

BD: I agreed to Love and Bullets because my acting confidence had just been shattered by Irwin Allen on the set of The Swarm (1978). He pre-plotted all his camera angles from drawings and knew exactly how he wanted the actors to look and sound in each scene. All acting creativity was eviscerated. An actor was sent straight back to kindergarten, miming and speaking in a programmed manner. Stuart Rosenberg was an old friend from the golden days of early TV, and it was a chance to see Switzerland.

CR: Anything you can tell us about working with Bronson?

BD: Bronson was a pleasant person, as was his wife, Jill Ireland.

CR: Did you have any scenes with Rod Steiger, who played a gangster?

BD: I had no scenes with Steiger, but he has always been one of my all-time favorite actors for having the courage to be bad.

CR: In 1979, you guest starred on Bill Bixby’s series The Incredible Hulk, in an episode entitled The Snare. What was Bixby like to work with?

BD: The Incredible Hulk was a joy. It's the old "hunt a human" story redone, but it was done wonderfully here. Bill Bixby, taken from us far too early, was a gentleman in the best sense, a "gentle man" who was intelligent and gifted, as well as a fellow San Franciscan. We compared notes on having won Gold Pin at Miss Miller's School of Dance. The hulk, Lou Ferrigno, was so uncoordinated that I worried when he had to retrieve my corpse. I feared he'd drop me.

CR: You were certainly turning up in a lot of genre television in the late seventies and early eighties. In 1980, you guest starred in an episode of Charlie’s Angels — Angels of the Deep — with Sonny Bono and genre staples Anne Francis (Forbidden Planet) and Gary Lockwood (2001). Any memories you’d like to share about this assignment?

BD: Charlie's Angels endures in my memory because, for all the beauty of the leading ladies, none held a candle to the wife of the director (Kim Manners). She was maybe the sexiest-looking lady I've ever seen. And how many guys can claim they actually worked with Sonny Bono?

CR: Director René Cardona, Jr. assembled a great cast for his 1985 adventure/horror movie Treasure of the Amazon. What are your recollections of working with the late, lamented Donald Pleasence and John Ireland?

BD: Treasure of the Amazon was the second movie I did in Mexico for René Cardona, who had a knack for getting semi-names to agree to do crap at the risk of Montezuma's revenge. John Ireland I knew as a fellow Montecitan, a guy who cheated local merchants by never paying his bills. Donald Pleasence was a quirky scene-stealer. In my memoir, I describe how he got hoisted on his own petard by scenes with an Amazonian who had the biggest boobs in Mexico. Donald came up to her nipples, bested for screen attention before he could speak

CR: Tell us about your writing career subsequent to retiring from acting in 1995.

BD: My first book, Inside the New York Giants, is a football scouting grading system. Are You Anybody? is a memoir. Then I wrote a spoof called Dropkick, in which I anticipate the first female football player. That Air Forever Dark is a very macabre adventure story. And my latest novel, Kissing Kate, is a funny tale of an aging star of stage and screen who is recruited for a wealthy community's amateur production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate. I just finished adapting my unpublished novel, Beneath the Third Waterfall, into a play entitled Seeds in the Wind. The novel traces the longstanding friendship of two women who meet first during the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. So creatively speaking, I'm still breathing. I keep busy and I'm happy.

(Harvey Chartrand recently interviewed Nehemiah Persoff for Cinema Retro)