Q&A Tuesday: Movie veteran remembers the man behind 'The Aviator'

This was 1957, and I had just gotten a job as a bellman at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I had no idea Howard Hughes was there. They gave me the special job of delivering telegrams to the fourth floor - Howard's floor. Instead of waiting for the elevator, I would scurry up the stairs to deliver the telegram in a hurry and hopefully get a good tip. As we all know now, Howard didn't use elevators, either. He was afraid of being trapped. One day, I'm running up the stairs to deliver a letter and he's running down the stairs, and we almost run into each other. I remember he jumped back until he recognized my bellman's uniform, and then he introduced himself.

No. None of that. He always was well-dressed when I saw him. A fresh white shirt. He had a garden bungalow he rented out back. So he was constantly going down the stairs and to the bungalow. We'd meet in the stairwell, and he might check out the mail I had and sort through it and pick a few things out.

I did hear something about him hiring a guy to swat flies for him, though.

He had two pet subjects that he loved to talk about: advanced technologies and public relations. I didn't know too much about either at the time. I was just an actor trying to make it. But he'd talk to me about his experiments at Lockheed.

He liked to say that life is a rhythm. He would warn about "missing your timing." One thing I remember him saying was, "If you want your ship to come in, you have to send it out." I remember that.

I saw him in passing a few years later, but the last time I talked to him, I remember him saying there would always be a job for me at one of his hotels. The whole experience inspired me to write a poem called "The Ballad of Howard Hughes." I ended up leaving the hotel after a few weeks for a part as a bartender in "To See How Movies Are Made." Later, when I came back to the hotel, I noticed all the bellman were driving brand-new cars [laughing], and I was still driving my old jalopy!