Robert Vaughn expected for 'Bullitt' screening

Robert Vaughn will appear at The Ridgefield Playhouse.
Robert Vaughn will appear at The Ridgefield Playhouse.Contributed Photo

When it comes to predicting box-office success, iconic actor Robert Vaughn is not exactly Nostradamus.

Vaughn -- probably best known for his roles in the classic TV show "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and the films "Bullitt" and "The Magnificent Seven" -- made no bones about the fact that he thought those two films would bomb at the box office.

"Both those films, I predicted they would be flops, so my predicting abilities are nil," Vaughn said in a recent interview.

"Bullitt" will be screened at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday, April 16, as part of the Ridgefield Film Society's film series. Vaughn will be on hand for a question-and-answer session following the screening. He'll also be signing copies of his autobiographical best-seller, "A Fortunate Life."

Vaughn, who lives in Ridgefield, thought "The Magnificent Seven" -- a Western retelling of Akita Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" -- would be a flop because it started production right after a Hollywood strike, and lacked a script.

"For the first month, we were in Cuernavaca (Mexico), we mostly played poker, drank margaritas and talked about what a bad picture this is going to be because there is no script," he said. "What they would literally do is put onion skins, hand-written, under the doors of our apartments at night, and that's what we would shoot the next day."

On the set of "The Magnificent Seven," the long friendship between Vaughn and the "King of Cool," Steve McQueen, was formed. McQueen produced "Bullitt" and got Vaughn on board with the project.

"In 1968, he sent me this script called `Bullitt' and asked me if I would read it and consider being in it. While I read it -- and it didn't make any sense to me, the plot was so unclear -- I couldn't imagine why he wanted to do it."

Vaughn said when he told McQueen what he thought of the script, McQueen said, "Well, what's the matter with it?" and Vaughn replied, "It doesn't make any sense."

Vaughn continued: "There was a long pause, because Steve was given to long pauses. And he said `Well man, what can I do about it?' I said, `Well, I suggest you have a script doctor look at it.' "

A script doctor looked at the script and then McQueen sent it back to Vaughn with a higher salary offer. Vaughn said no changes had been made and suggested another script doctor take a look. Another script doctor checked it out and McQueen sent it to Vaughn yet again.

"There still were no changes made," Vaughn said, "but, once again, they elevated the salary. Suddenly, for some reason, after the third raise of salary, the script became much clearer to me."

To this day, the film doesn't make a lot of sense, Vaughn said, "but it's a hugely successful picture throughout the world, because this was the first car chase in a major movie, and it was a wonderfully done chase in the sense that what you saw was what you got -- there was no tampering with the film or speeding up or slowing down or anything that we have today, that can make everything look very different.

"This was just two guys in two cars having a big chase through San Francisco on four consecutive weekends when they blocked out all the streets."

Born into a family of entertainers in New York City in 1932, Vaughn knew he wanted to be an actor by the age of 5. His TV and film career began after Burt Lancaster saw him performing in a play and signed him to his production company.

Vaughn and his wife, Linda Staab, moved to Ridgefield in 1981 to get away from big cities.

"Our children were very young, one was 3 months, the other was 4, we wanted to raise them in the countryside instead of Beverly Hills," he said.

The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge, Ridgefield. Saturday, April 16, 7:30 p.m. $10 adults, $7.50 seniors, $5 students. 203-438-5795,