It’s also why, after a year of hunkering down with his family during the pandemic (his last night out, believe it or not, was spent with Rita Wilson), he also said yes to playing legendary news anchor Tom Brokaw. That’s the philosophy behind agreeing to do Dancing With the Stars all those years ago-and, he says, he had to fire his agent to do it. Along the way, he co-founded TAE, Inc., one of the largest privately funded clean energy fusion companies in the world. After guest starring in Showtime’s Shameless, for example, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work in Mad Men in 2013. His resume since then has been an intriguing mix of those things you might not expect a former Sexiest Man Alive and Hollywood superstar to do-he appeared on the third season of Dancing With the Stars all the way back in 2006 and made the leap into reality TV with Rinna, first with 2008’s Harry Loves Lisa and now Real Housewives-as well as critically acclaimed guest and supporting roles that indicate maybe Hamlin’s great strength has been as a character actor all along.

(This time, he was given a loin cloth.)įor much of the next two decades, he was one of Hollywood’s hottest leading men quite literally, he was named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1987, while racking up a slew of Golden Globe Award nominations for his work in the hit legal drama L.A. He worked on the stage, gaining notice for his fully nude performance in a production of Equus, before breaking out in Hollywood with the 1981 blockbuster Clash of the Titans. Hamlin, who himself turned 70 this fall, grew up in Southern California and attended UC Berkeley, before transferring to Yale and graduating with dual degrees in drama and psychology. But the “would you believe this?” story drenched with Hollywood and celebrity lore is a fitting introduction to Hamlin at this point in his career-and at this “would you believe this?” time we’re living in, to boot. Of course, Hamlin and Rinna did have two kids together, Delilah and Amelia, who both grew up there happily (the advent of Uber mitigated any transportation woes) and have become models and influencers.

Dual family secrets