- Tony Curtis, The Persuaders! TV, 1971-1972. With the Bond producers sniffing around, Roger Moore wasn’t keen on another TV series after The Saint, until the size of producer Lew Grade’s cheque grew bigger than his cigars. “The country needs the money,” Lew added. “Think of The Queen.” Moore then agreed to making a pilot as one of his last saintly episodes: The Ex-King of Diamonds, 1969, when the British Simon Templer was dealing with a brash Texas high roller played by Damon (from a previous Grade show, The Champions, 1968-1969, They worked well off each other but the Persuaders team wanted a bigger name for the series. Grade offered three co-stars. Moore said Glenn Ford was selfish, “not as a person but as an actor.” Rock Hudson was almost a Moore clone, “both six-foot-something, even-featured leading men.” But Tony Curtis “would be brilliant.“ The Curtis version was that Grade enticed Moore aboard by saying: “We’ll get Tony for the other rôle.“ Either way the result was the same. Floperama where it mattered – only 20 of the 24 shows were aired in the US. Perhaps it should have been “Think of the President.” (Damon went on to be Dr Alan Quartermaine (!) for 37 years in ABC’s General Hospital soap: 1977-2013)
Moore and Damon in The Saint – but not The Persuaders. Because of Damon’s quiff, perhaps [© ITC, 1969]
Birth year: 1937Death year: 2021Other name: Casting Calls: 1