Occupation: Actor.
Birthday: April 3, 1941.
Birthplace: Kiel, West Germany.
Real name: Hans Gudegast.
Current home: Los Angeles.
Marital status: Married for 24 years to Dale Braeden.
Child: Christian, 20.
Working on: Playing Victor Newman on CBS-TV`s ”The Young and the Restless” and filming Jackie Collins` ”Lucky,” which will air in the fall. The book I`ve been recommending lately is: I.F. Stone`s ”The Trial of Socrates.”
Favorite performers: Madonna, Elvis Presley, Luciano Pavarotti.
Prized possession: My house. It`s beautiful, and I worked very hard to get it. The garden is full of flowers. I like to open the doors as my wife puts on some Verdi or Mozart and the music wafts out over the Santa Monica Mountains. It`s California at its best.
Nobody knows I: Have enormously divergent interests. I`m interested in music, art, sports, politics. I love to eat. Life is so wonderfully exciting in many ways. It`s never boring.
A really great evening to me is: First a good workout-either a sparring session or a tennis or soccer match, then a shower and a massage-the height of luxury-then going with my wife and my son and some friends to a nice Italian restaurant and having a series of interesting conversations.
The one thing I can`t stand is: Provincial attitudes. I am a cosmopolitan. I feel that excessive nationalism and patriotism have led to a lot of disasters in the past. It`s important that we remind ourselves that we all share in this human experience.
If I could change one thing about myself, I would be: There`s nothing I`d change. I like myself.
People who knew me in high school thought I was: Athletic, arrogant, loyal, easily inclined to fistfights and enormously attracted to the opposite sex.
Behind my back my friends say: ”He`s bossy.”
When people first meet me, they think I`m: Intimidating. It`s because I have a certain bearing and because I`m European. We don`t warm up until we get to know someone.
Three words that best describe me: Passionate, persevering and loving.
