Friday, April 15, 2022

Actor Jonathan Goldsmith was a garbage truck man, and worked construction, while trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood. He's now retired after writing an autobiography, to a farm in Vermont, where he has a tractor.


Goldsmith spent six months driving a trash truck before he got into showbiz and, he said, "went on to star in over 350 shows and movies."



he had been out of show biz for 10 years when he got the audition for the Dos Equiis commercial, and was homeless, living in his old truck in a campground - when he was the only one of 500 actors, to nail the audition for a Hemmingway-esque character with an interesting life. He was parked illegally during the audition, because he couldn't afford the parking meter.

He worked with Tennessee Williams, Dustin Hoffman, John Wayne, was on Gunsmoke over a dozen episodes, one episode of the original Star Trek, Magnum PI, Dallas, A Team, TJ hooker, Fall Guy, CHiPS< Cahrlies Angels, Hawaii Five O, Mission Impossible, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, and so many more, 45 tv series in all. He was in 17 episodes of Dallas

He started acting in Hollywood roles in 1963

He won the Peabody award in 1981 https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/now-that-weve-got-your-interest/

He had a waterless car wash business in the 80s

But his big break was at age 68 for the role of the Most Interesting Man in the World

He is the Make A Wish chairperson of Vermont

He has saved 2 lives. One was a mountain climber who was caught in a snowstorm, the other was a girl drowning in Malibu

7 comments:

  1. A fellow Vermonter! A great guy and he loves to fish too. Absolutely nothing wrong with a friendly person!

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    1. He seems like a real nice guy, who'd had a tough life, but kept pushing through the challenges, and finally got that great reward. Yes, I saw in an interview him mentioning a nice 13 foot deep trout pond... nice to have on your farm! My grand dad had a 40 acre farm, with a field for corn, potatoes, all the root veggies in another, one small field for strawberries, one small one for wheat or whatever deer like to eat, and he also had a nice little spring, and a sweet little stream, and those both fed a small pond he would stock with a couple trout now and then. He also had a VW Bug, a Scout, and that tractor - early 50s Massey Ferguson I think it was.

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  2. He lived on a sailboat for a while in Marina Del Ray:
    https://www.boatus.com/expert-advice/expert-advice-archive/2014/october/meet-the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world

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    1. I saw that... what a cool way to live! I owned a 1959 Chris Craft Constellation 20 years ago, 49 footer, and was anchored in San Diego Bay and lived on it for 3 years (Now you know why I post about boats, especially wood boats)

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    2. good article!

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    3. I ordered his autobiography and am looking forward to reading it

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  3. I sail on Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans, as well as the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.. I really enjoy being out on the water..
    Good work with the site! IU am an avid reader!

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