The Lovely Sophia Loren

I had been working on a film on the island country of Antigua with Miss Sophia Loren. Terrible to be on island paradise, with the most beautiful woman in the world. The director of the project wasn't really a fan of the safety of us actors. And, at one point I got hurt pretty bad by a stunt that went wrong. One minute I'm upright, next minute, I'm flat on my back out cold.

When I woke up, I found myself cradled in the arms of Ms. Loren. She had been yelling for someone to call for an ambulance. I looked up, and realized where I was, so I yelled out, "But, take your time!"

Ms. Loren was such a class act on that shoot. The director had an elite lunch set up, with gold trimmed dishes, and his personal chef. He saw Ms. Loren waiting in the chow line with the rest of us plebeians, and the crew. "Come here, Sophia, you don't have to eat that swill." That swill was prepared by the finest Carribean cooks. Not only did Sophia tell him she preferred to eat with the rest of us, but when some of the crew offered to have her move ahead of them in line, she said, "No, dears, I have two hours before my next shot, and you have to be back on set in less than a half hour. Go right ahead." Absolute class act.

A Little Car 54 Tale from Hank...

When I was doing "Car 54, Where Are You?", Al Lewis and I were on location in the Bronx.We were sitting in front of a building, smoking, when a large black Chrysler came to a screeching stop.

The driver flew out of the car, came charging at us screaming, "Are you two cops out of your minds? I've got a deputy chief inspector in my car and he's going to hang you guys!"

Al replied, "Tell him he's a pain in the ass and stop bothering cops on break."

It was then that the driver realized we were actors. He turned beet red, ran back to the car and sped off.

At one point in time, the front of the studio was made to look like a police precinct. A man and a woman came charging in screaming at the desk sergeant, (an actor), "There's a guy beating up his wife!" To which he replied, "Aw, she probably deserved it."

The sergeant then looked at me and said, "Nicholson, you wanna handle it?"

I said, "I can't, Sarge, I've had my nails done." The couple laughed when they realized where they were.

(Webmistress note: And before anyone freaks out that Hank would ever let some woman get beat up by her husband -- the matter was taken care of by REAL police officers.)