Robert Wagner

LACSD Homicide Bureau Lt. John Corina says Wagner's story about Natalie Wood's death "just doesn't add up" and has named Wagner a Person of Interest. [February 2018]

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reopened its investigation into Natalie Wood's death in November 2011, following statements made by the captain of the yacht Wood disappeared from the night she drowned, Dennis Davern. Lana Wood and Marti Rulli maintain that the investigation is ongoing as of 2017 but that mainstream media won't report the uncovered information unless they get a direct quote from authorities.

On September 21, 2006, he became a grandfather for the first time when his elder daughter (with ex-wife Marion Marshall), Katie Wagner, gave birth to her son, Riley John.

Best friend of Eddie Albert. Wagner attended his lifelong friend's funeral on 26 May 2005.

Is portrayed by Michael Weatherly in The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004). He later portrayed Anthony DiNozzo Sr., the father of Weatherly's character Tony DiNozzo, on NCIS (2003).

Author Suzanne Finstad sent him a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter after he defamed her during a July 16, 2002 Larry King Live (1985) appearance. Wagner hasn't acknowledged Finstad's existence since then.

He sued Aaron Spelling Productions for $20 million in June 2000, charging that he was cheated out of profits on the Fox soap opera Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990). He claimed that he was entitled to profits as part of a ten-year-old settlement between producer Aaron Spelling and Fox that gave Spelling the right to produce "Beverly Hills, 90210" in exchange for "Angels 88", a never-produced series in which Wagner had a stake. According to the suit, the conflict dates back to 1973 when he and his then wife, Natalie Wood, made a deal with Spelling to submit ideas for pilots to ABC. One idea that the couple submitted led to the action series Charlie's Angels (1976). Following the terms of their deal, Spelling, Wagner and Wood equally shared profits from the series. In 1988, Spelling developed a new series, "Angels 88". According to the terms of their contract, Wagner was to receive 7.5% profit participation -- whether or not he rendered services. Fox committed to the series, without his knowledge, and then reneged, giving Spelling "Beverly Hills, 90210" instead. Since Spelling was given "Beverly Hills, 90210" in exchange for an asset in which Wagner had an interest, Wagner claimed that he is entitled to the same profit participation on "Beverly Hills, 90210" as he had on "Angels 88". The suit alleges breach of contract and fraud and seeks 7.5% of gross profits from "Beverly Hills, 90210" as well as damages of not less than $20 million.

Is good friends with Don Johnson and served as best man at Johnson's 1999 wedding to Kelley Phleger.

Recently sold the Brentwood ranchette he's shared with Jill St. John since 1983, for $14 million and moved to Aspen, Colorado. [August 2007]

In mid-October 1981, Wagner reportedly made a string of telephone calls to the Los Angeles/Long Beach Coast Guard base in San Pedro, California to find out about search and rescue procedures.

His wife Jill St. John, his deceased former wife Natalie Wood, and his Hart to Hart (1979) co-star Stefanie Powers attended ballet classes together as youngsters.

He also starred on the police series Switch (1975), but Wagner's greatest success was opposite Stefanie Powers on the internationally popular Hart to Hart (1979), which ran from 1979 through 1984 and has since been sporadically revived in TV-movie form (another series, Lime Street (1985), was quickly canceled due to the tragic death of Wagner's young co-star, Samantha Smith). Considered one of Hollywood's nicest citizens, Robert Wagner has continued to successfully pursue a leading man career; he has also launched a latter-day stage career, touring with Stefanie Powers in the readers' theater presentation "Love Letters". He found success playing Number Two, a henchman to Dr.

Has appeared in three films with Faye Dunaway: The Towering Inferno (1974), The Calling (2002) and El padrino (2004).

Engaged to Tina Sinatra (June 1970 - January 1972).

Wagner's wife Jill St. John starred in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971) which also featured his late former wife's real-life sister, Lana Wood. During a Bond girl reunion photo shoot in September 1999 for Vanity Fair magazine, an altercation occurred between Wood and St. John when photographer Annie Leibovitz asked for a picture of them together. Reportedly, St. John was so adamantly opposed to the idea that it made Wood cry. The couple's publicist, however, said it was he who vetoed the photo because Mr. Wagner would prefer his present wife not be shot with his ex-sister-in-law.

Several years of unemployment followed before Wagner made a respectable transition to television as star of the lighthearted espionage series It Takes a Thief (1968).

Has made seven movies with wife Jill St. John: Banning (1967), How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967), Around the World in 80 Days (1989), The Player (1992), Something to Believe In (1998), The Calling (2002) and Northpole (2014). On TV, she guest-starred in the pilot episode of his series Hart to Hart (1979) and they made a joint guest appearance on Seinfeld (1989).

Cooperated with Gavin Lambert (author of the novel and screenplay Inside Daisy Clover (1965) that starred Wagner's late wife Natalie Wood on Lambert's biography "Natalie Wood" (2004). A friend of Wood's, Lambert believed that Wood's memory was sullied by the tabloid headlines generated by her tragic death, with the result that no one remembers his friend as a human being, and so wrote the book to correct the public's misconceptions about Wood.

Father of Katie Wagner (b. 1964) with Marion Marshall and Courtney Wagner (b. 1974) with Natalie Wood.

In the mid-'60s, however, his film career skidded to a stop after The Pink Panther (1963).

Robert Wagner tells in his biography that when he was in Paris for the shooting of The Longest Day (1962), he made a mistake when, one night, he was about to get back to is hotel. He was drunk and grabbed the man at the desk because the employee did not recognize him. Robert Wagner simply entered the wrong hotel lobby.

In 1960, MGM toyed with the idea of doing an all-male remake of The Women (1939) which would've been entitled "Gentlemen's Club." Like the female version, this would have involved an all masculine cast and the plot would have involved a man (Jeffrey Hunter) who recently discovers among his comrades that his wife is having an affair with another man (Earl Holliman) and after going to Reno to file for divorce and begin a new life, he later finds himself doing what he can to rectify matters later on when he discovers that the other man is only interested in money and position and he decides to win his true love back again. Although nothing ever came of this, it would have consisted of the following ensemble had it did: Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Heal), Earl Holliman (Christopher Allen), Tab Hunter (Simon Fowler), Lew Ayres (Count Vancott), Robert Wagner (Mitchell Aarons), James Garner (Peter Day), Jerry Mathers (Little Martin), James Stewart (Mr. Heal), Ronald Reagan (Larry), Troy Donahue (Norman Blake), and Stuart Whitman (Oliver, the bartender who spills the beans about the illicit affair).

Has known his wife Jill St. John since 1959. They've been a couple since 1982, eight years before their wedding.

Was originally going to star with Victor Mature and Debra Paget in The Proud Ones (1956).

He went on to play the title roles in Prince Valiant (1954) and The True Story of Jesse James (1957), and portrayed a cold-blooded murderer in A Kiss Before Dying (1956).

He played romantic leads with ease, but it was not until he essayed the two-scene role of a shell-shocked war veteran in With a Song in My Heart (1952) that studio executives recognized his potential as a dramatic actor.

Appeared in six films with Jeffrey Hunter: The Frogmen (1951), White Feather (1955), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The True Story of Jesse James (1957), In Love and War (1958) and The Longest Day (1962).

After making his uncredited screen debut in The Happy Years (1950), Wagner was signed by 20th Century Fox, which carefully built him up toward stardom.

R. J. Wagner was born 1930 in Detroit, the son of a steel executive. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was seven. Always wanting to be an actor, he held a variety of jobs while pursuing his goal, but it was while dining with his parents at a restaurant in Beverly Hills that he was "discovered" by a talent scout.