Hamilton was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas. He is the eldest son of bandleader George “Spike” Hamilton and his first wife, Anne Stevens (formerly Mrs. William Potter). Hamilton won many awards as a student at Palm Beach High School, West Palm Beach, Florida. After moving to California, Hamilton was put under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was showcased in films such as Home from the Hill, Your Cheatin’ Heart, All the Fine Young Cannibals, Light in the Piazza and Two Weeks in Another Town.
His stepfathers were Carleton Hunt and Jesse Spalding; his stepmother was June Howard, with whom Hamilton said he had an affair when he was 12 years old which was shortly after she married his father. His elder half-brother, William Potter, became an interior decorator for such prestigious firms as Eva Gabor Interiors in Palm Springs, where Hamilton owned a home a few blocks away from Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who became his good friend. Hamilton also has a younger brother, David Hamilton.
Hamilton began his film career in 1952 and although he has a substantial body of work in film and television he is, perhaps, most famous for his debonair style and his perfect and perpetual suntan. Bo Derek writes in her autobiography “there was an ongoing contest between John [Derek] and George Hamilton as to who was tanner”. With his matinee-idol looks it was sometimes noted that Hamilton physically resembled Warren Beatty. Beatty’s political satire Bulworth contained a running gag about this with Hamilton appearing as himself in a brief cameo.
A surprise blockbuster hit came his way in 1979 when Hamilton showed a flair for comedy in Love at First Bite which was the story of Count Dracula’s pursuit of a young Manhattan socialite, played by Susan Saint James. The movie included such scenes as Dracula and his conquest dancing to “I Love the Nightlife” at a disco. The film’s box-office success created a popularity surge for Hamilton, who followed it with a comic portrayal of a famed swordsman in 1981’s Zorro, the Gay Blade. He was nominated for Golden Globe awards for both films. However, film leads dried up quickly. In the mid-1980s, Hamilton starred in the sixth season of the ABC Aaron Spelling-produced nighttime television serial Dynasty. Hamilton played a doctor who uses hypnosis to commit a murder on a 1975 episode of Columbo. Hamilton returned for a second homicide on the long-running Peter Falk detective series in 1991 this time playing the host of an America’s Most Wanted-style television show. Hamilton later became a semi-regular panelist on the 1998 revival of Match Game.
