This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith & Life

by MacLeod, Gavin

  I’m saving Cindy (Lauren Tewes) for last as I speak about this, because Cindy and I reconnected in a very different way at this reunion. I mentioned the troubles she had been through. It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to go through everything she did as a young actress in Hollywood. By this time she had been through two divorces. But in 1996, she met and fell in love with a wonderful actor by the name of Robert Nadir. She was happier than I had ever seen her. Patti and I connected with the two of them, and it felt great to launch this wonderful new friendship.

  Robert had been suffering some health issues in the past year. He was fatigued. He started tripping over his words, to the point where people accused him of being drunk. He wasn’t.

  In 1998, Robert was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Later that year, we all got together again to tape a reunion special for The Love Boat: The Next Wave, a new series on UPN, starring Robert Urich and Corey Parker. Patti and I came in from Cape Cod, and Cindy and her husband, Robert, came in from Seattle, and we were all in the same hotel.

  We had breakfast one morning, and when Cindy left the table to go to the bathroom, I asked Robert how he felt. He told me he felt terrible—not for himself, but for Cindy. He said he didn’t want to be one of her tragedies.

  It broke my heart.

  In the coming months, I wrote to Cindy and called her. I said, “The only thing that’s going to pull you through this is faith and belief.” I gave her some things to read, and she read them. I’m humbled and so happy to share that Patti and I were able to bring Cindy to the Lord. She found a church up there in Seattle, and started to attend regularly. I communicated with the pastor there, and Patti and I did everything we could to help her through that difficult time from the other side of the country.

  Cindy was strong. She gave her husband the most wonderful life she could. And with the Lord by her side, she managed to carry on with her life after Robert passed away in 2002.

  She turned her back on acting for a while. She went to culinary school and became an expert on (of all things) cheese! She gained quite a reputation as the “Cheese Lady,” and got a lot of press and attention at one point—in a positive way! Lately, she’s done some acting again, and from what I can tell, she’s at peace. I can’t explain why she has been forced to face so many tragedies in her life. But she faced them, and she carries on. And I’m so proud of her for that.

  23

  THE SEA’S HIGHS

  PRINCESS CRUISES KEPT GROWING AND GROWING.

  In 1998, I traveled to Italy once again, this time to witness the building of the Grand Princess, which would be the largest ship afloat in the world when it launched that September. It was named in New York Harbor by the wonderful Olivia de Havilland. I felt so blessed to get to see her yet again! Jesse Norman from the Metropolitan Opera sang. I brought the new Love Boat Captain Bob Urich with me so he could get the full experience. Loretta Lynn was there. I took my business manager and his wife, and we all took a little cruise to nowhere—a one-night cruise in which you go out and come back to the same port—on the biggest ship in the world! It was fabulous.

  Two years later, on February 16, 2000, Princess Cruises celebrated the launch of the Ocean Princess with “Love Story meets The Love Boat.” They reunited Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal from that wonderful film, Love Story.

  Something surprising happened at dinner that night. I had never met Ryan before, and when I stopped by his table to say hello, he said, “I gotta tell you something, man. When I saw you in the play A Hatful of Rain, I was a young man. And you impressed me so much, I decided I wanted to do what you were doing.” Ryan O’Neal had seen me in A Hatful of Rain at the Players’ Ring Theater in 1957! “You made me want to be an actor,” he told me. “I saw you and said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

  “I can’t believe it!” I said.

  “It’s the truth.”

  Once again in my life, I learned that valuable lesson: you never know who’s watching. You never know who you’re going to influence just by doing your work, and giving it your all.

  I spent time talking to Ali MacGraw that night too. She was fabulous! Everybody loved her. I said, “Everybody loves you so much, I’ve got to be careful that you don’t take my place here.” She had been married to Steve McQueen, of course, and the last time I saw him, she was in the car with him.

  We talked a lot about Steve, she and I. We talked about how Steve had given his life to Christ while he searched the world for a cure to his cancer. It felt good to talk about him. It gave me a sense of closure.

  I tell you, I never knew what was going to happen on these shipnaming days. For the Island Princess, up in Vancouver in 2003, Olympic gold medalist figure skaters David Pelletier and Jamie Salé came aboard. We had dinner together, and I did a photo shoot with this wonderful couple, and I innocently asked them, “When did you get married?”

  “Oh, we’re not married,” they told me.

  “Oh!”

  Jamie asked for a picture alone with me, to send to her mother (who was a big fan of mine, she said). So I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll do it if you promise me you’ll get married.”

  They laughed and tried to brush it off, but I sent her that picture—and the two of them wrote me back just a few months later: “We did it!” they wrote. “We got married!”

  Speaking of marriages, some funny things happen to people on Princess Cruises—and sometimes the truth is stranger than any fiction we could have created on our TV show. I remember I met this old guy on one cruise, a multimillionaire who got married right there on the ship. He and his whole party ate this big dinner in the Italian restaurant onboard, and we got to talking. That night, before he and his new wife headed back to their cabin, he told me, “Boy, am I going to have a time tonight!” I thought, Are you kidding me? You can hardly walk!

  I didn’t see him over the next couple of days, and as we were getting off the ship, I asked someone from the crew how that newly married couple were doing. “Guess what?” they told me. “He had a heart attack on his wedding night. They had to fly him to a hospital in Hawaii!”

  I thought, At least he flew out with a smile on his face.

  Heart attacks are nothing to laugh at, I realize. In fact, I realize it all too well. I’ve had two of them.

  The first came in 1991, while I was riding a bicycle on Cape Cod. It scared me—and scared my whole family too. I felt blessed to be so close to Boston, where some of the best doctors in the world work, and it turned out an angioplasty (where they go up through a vein in your leg and clean out your arteries up to your heart) was all I needed to feel good as new. I felt so good that I got right back onstage and continued to do live theater and TV guest roles and more throughout that entire decade.

  I did a production of Gigi in that time period with Anne Rogers, Liliane Montevecchi, and a young girl who didn’t have any lines named Anne Hathaway—a girl who would grow up to be that Anne Hathaway! I made my entrance in a hot-air balloon. Many people said Honoré was the greatest role I ever played, in one of the most beautiful shows they’ve ever seen. The New York Post said, “The best Broadway musical isn’t on Broadway. Heck, it’s not even in New York. It’s at the Paper Mill Playhouse, in New Jersey, and it’s called Gigi.” In 2000 I even went out on the road on a national tour of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana: The Musical. That heart attack didn’t slow me down at all.

  Then I got hit by another one in 2004, and that one was a doozy.

  I had flown down to Fort Lauderdale for the naming of the Caribbean Princess. Jill Whelan was set to be the godmother of that great new ship, and she was getting married on the aft deck that very same day. It was so much fun to see her again, and to be a part of that special moment. Bernie came down just for the wedding too. As I said, that Love Boat family really was like a family.

  I felt some pressure in my chest while we were there at the wedding. It passed, so I let it go. But I flew back to LA afterward with my friend and
manager, the great Lee Mimms, and we were picking up my bags when suddenly I felt like an elephant sat on my chest. I said, “Lee, I can’t move.” Lee knew immediately what it was; he had suffered a heart attack himself, in the first class section of the lounge at American Airlines. What is it with airports and heart attacks?

  I wound up going in for a quintuple bypass on Good Friday.

  To tell you the truth, there were moments there when I thought for sure I was a goner. I can’t tell you what a comfort it was to know that I had been saved, to know that I had been born again, to know that Jesus would be there to take my hand, and to take me to see our Father in heaven. But God wasn’t ready to take me just yet.

  Doctors work miracles today. They really do. I was right back at ’em and up on my feet in no time—resuming my schedule with Princess and more.

  Martha Stewart named the Crown Princess in Brooklyn in 2006. Katharine McPhee was there, fresh from American Idol, and she knocked my socks off with her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Micky Arison and his wife also made quite an impression. He’s the billionaire CEO and president of the Carnival Corporation, which has owned Princess Cruises and ten other cruise lines since the early 2000s. He also happens to own the Miami Heat NBA team. They were both very nice to me. (And they were dressed to the nines!)

  But the naming of the Emerald Princess in 2007 turned out to be my favorite moment with Princess Cruises so far. The naming was set for Mother’s Day, in Piraeus, Greece, so Princess (with my help) decided to bring in two of television’s most famous moms and daughters: Florence Henderson from The Brady Bunch, with her on-screen daughter Cindy, actress Susan Olsen; and my lifelong friend Marion Ross from Happy Days, with her on-screen daughter, Joanie, actress Erin Moran.

  I hadn’t mentioned it before this, but Florence Henderson holds the distinction of having the most guest appearances of any actress on The Love Boat. We had a great time working opposite each other through the years, and we crossed paths all over Hollywood during our respective television heydays. So it was great to see her.

  Florence had to fly back home after the ceremony, but Marion and her companion, Broadway musical veteran Paul Michael, were able to stay and come along for a wonderful cruise through Europe. It was the first time either of them had ever been to Venice, and I said to them, “You have to see St. Mark’s Square.” She and Paul and Patti and I arrived at nighttime, when it was all lit up and the bands were playing. We had gelato together at a sidewalk café and laughed ourselves into the evening.

  My friendship with Marion through all of these seasons of our lives is such an extraordinary thing. She called me in the middle of writing this book, and she was off in Kansas City doing a show. She said, “Oh, it’s great Gavin. It’s about Sherlock Holmes at Christmas, and this young actor is wonderful: he gets all the lines—and I get all the money!” Oh, she makes me laugh. She’s still working! I’m just crazy about Marion.

  After we left Venice, Patti and I, along with Patti’s cousin Lenore Marshall (one of many family members we were able to take on cruises with us over the years) stayed in Italy. Princess hired a car to take us up to Lake Como. One of the Princess executives said, “If you’re going to be there, call me and I’ll show you everything!” So we did.

  There we were in our glorious room overlooking the lake, with all the lights reflecting in the water, and Patti looked out the window and said, “You know what I want to do tomorrow? I want to walk around the lake.” I said, “Patti, it’s gonna take you two weeks to walk around that lake. It goes all the way to Switzerland!” But Italy inspires you that way: you just want to tackle the landscape, and then eat everything in sight.

  Across the way there was a museum where Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother used to live. Everywhere we looked there was history like that, which we love.

  George Clooney has a place there, too, and we drove past that. (Royalty of a different kind.)

  Our friend who worked for Princess took us everywhere. My work was done, and we weren’t in a hurry, so we took a ride and wound up on top of a big hill. We came upon an Italian wedding, and they welcomed us with open arms—and served us food like you wouldn’t believe. There must be some Italian blood in me, because I just loved it. We had such a fabulous time in Lake Como. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

  For me, Lake Como and Tahiti are the tops. Of all the cruises, of all the trips, of all the travel I’ve done in my life, those two places take the prize for most breathtaking.

  In Lake Como, Patti and I would sit outside by the lake at night, with the lights strung, and they would make these pizza pies for us, and then we’d go for some gelato. It was just beautiful. And to think: Princess Cruises gave that to us. That’s part and parcel of what happens with them.

  When I went to Tahiti, my balcony on the ship was as big as my backyard in Rancho Mirage! It covered half the ship in the back. Lee Mimms and I used to have Bible studies every morning. They would bring us breakfast, and then we would sit out there and praise God. Nobody bothered us. It was just beautiful. The ships are huge now! And my stateroom always becomes a refuge. It becomes a place where we go to pray. My own stairway to God. My sanctuary.

  There are a lot of people on these megaships, which is one reason some people say they don’t think they’d like to go on a cruise. But I tell you, as soon as you close your door, those thousands of people are no longer there. You’re in your private room. You can reflect on what you’ve done for the day. You can read. You can watch television. You can just sit and look at the water. You can sing praises to the Lord. It’s all up to you.

  The last ship-naming ceremony I participated in was in 2008. We welcomed The Bachelorette and her husband, Trista and Ryan Sutter, and they brought their baby with them. They were the nicest people you would ever want to meet. He was a fireman from a small town, in Colorado, I think. I had never seen the show. I’m an actor, from the days of acting. I don’t understand this fascination with so-called reality TV. (How can they call it “reality” when all of those shows have writers and there are cameras all over the place?)

  Princess has commissioned two more ships since then, neither of which I was able to attend, but I’m already scheduled to help them launch two more ships as I sit here writing this book. The first celebration in October 2013 will mark the American debut of the Royal Princess—a ship that was officially named by Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, with great fanfare and the smashing of a giant bottle of champagne in Southampton on June 13. To think I’ll be celebrating a ship named by the daughter-in-law of Princess Diana, all these years later. The second launch will come in 2014, and I tell you, I hope this fun never ends.

  I’ve seen Princess Cruises grow from two small ships in 1986 to the sixteen or seventeen megaships they have now. I’ve seen it grow from the very first slogan, “It’s more than a cruise . . . It’s The Love Boat,” to the newest one, which perfectly captures the essence of cruising in two words: “Escape completely.”

  I’ve met so many wonderful people. I’ve taken my family on cruises, and my friends on cruises. I’ve done functions up in Santa Clarita where their headquarters are, and had my kids stand up in the audience—where everyone applauded for them.

  Julie Benson is still there, as I’ve mentioned. She’s been with the company almost as long as I have. And I get to travel with the nicest people. Karen Candy, who has two little boys and a husband, is like a daughter to me now too. She’s the second in command of public relations, and she’s juggling a young family. Her little boy says, “Mommy, I wish you didn’t have to go,” even when she’s only gone for two nights! That’s tough on a mom’s heart. But we all support one another through these things. It really is a family. There are only five people in the Princess public relations office. That’s not a lot of people, and they have a lot of work to do. I love them all.

  Princess even produced a movie on my life story, which they play onboard, on a TV station that reaches every passenger’s roo
m. They called it The Life and Times of Gavin MacLeod, and it won a Telly Award in 2009. How many actors get a gift like that? I’m just so grateful. And I know that none of it would have happened if it weren’t for Aaron Spelling creating and believing in The Love Boat during that golden age of American television—and then believing in me.

  In today’s world, if you do a series for three years it’s considered a hit. Some shows only do nine episodes per season. We did nine years of The Love Boat, and twenty-eight episodes each season. We reached millions upon millions of people because of that. How many actors get to experience such a thing? And then follow it up with a company like Princess?

  Every time I go down into a kitchen on a Princess cruise ship, anywhere in the world, one of the chefs will spot me and start singing The Love Boat theme song—and it doesn’t take long for the rest of that crew to start singing along.

  I mean, my goodness, the watch that I wear on my wrist every day was given to me by Princess. It’s the best watch I have ever had! Alan Buckelew, the president of Princess Cruises, gave it to me to mark my twentieth year with the company. And Carnival CEO Micky Arison happened to catch my show on one of our ships one day, and he sent me a personal e-mail saying, “I just want you to know how much I appreciate what you’ve been doing for Princess all these years.”

  The Princess family has been generous to me in so many ways. They’re a caring, personable, wonderful group of people—from the staff in the kitchen, all the way up to the guy at the top. I hope you can understand why my relationship with Princess is among the relationships I hold dearest in my life.

  To think, I’ve spent twenty-seven years so far with Princess Cruises, going all the way back to that first phone call from Max Hall in 1986. What a year that was for me. In fact, I need to step back here because I still haven’t told you about everything that happened in that incredible year when The Love Boat ended. When that one door closed, it wasn’t just another door that opened for me—it was a thousand doors!