Was it because Bette Midler hated him so much and had him black listed?
He was at one point one of the hottest actors in Hollywood
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Was it because Bette Midler hated him so much and had him black listed?
He was at one point one of the hottest actors in Hollywood
by Anonymous | reply 89 | August 16, 2021 6:58 AM |
Why did she hate him (if that is indeed true)?
by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 21, 2020 12:43 AM |
He got fat during the second season of Wiseguy and lost his looks.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 21, 2020 12:44 AM |
I remember seeing the film they made together, and it was actually kind of fun. There were all sorts of things in the newspapers about Bette hating him, apparently he didn't treat her well during the filming. I forget the details though.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 21, 2020 12:45 AM |
He was a shitty actor?
by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 21, 2020 12:45 AM |
He never appeared especially bright, on or offscreen, but he had IT--sex appeal in spades. His TV show WISEGUY was very entertaining and he was good on it.
I take Bette Midler's takes on her co-stars with a grain of salt. The numbers of actors and colleagues she has pissed off, alienated, and treated poorly are LEGION.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 21, 2020 12:47 AM |
Jinxed! was a jinx for everyone involved, but both Wahl and Midler recovered a few years later with Wiseguy and Ruthless People.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 21, 2020 12:47 AM |
I read that Ken gave an interview where he said when he kissed Bette Midler he had to think of his dog to get thru it or something like that.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 21, 2020 12:49 AM |
Wahl is still a beautiful man.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 21, 2020 12:49 AM |
Midler with play Bella Abzug to Julianne Moore's Gloria Steinem later this year. How will she compare with Harvey Fierstein?
by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 21, 2020 12:55 AM |
Also... drugs, OP. Many, many drugs.
Allegedly.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 21, 2020 12:58 AM |
Republican
by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 21, 2020 2:08 AM |
The Barbi twins.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 21, 2020 2:11 AM |
he's my facebook friend..he married one of the Barbie twins and screws the other sister. He's a big animal activists and a trumpster now
by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 21, 2020 2:12 AM |
I think another problem with Jinxed! was the choice of director Don Siegel. Midler famously got him back when she used the experience for a scene in Beaches.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 21, 2020 11:22 AM |
Bette couldn't stand him. She said he was a lousy person and every other word out of his mouth was some slur against gays or non-whites.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 21, 2020 5:21 PM |
R16, considering he’s a Trumpster, I believe that totally.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 21, 2020 5:43 PM |
Ken Wahl's looks and weight didn't change noticeably in Wiseguy's two-year run before the follow-up short season with Steven Bauer, [R2]. Whatever happened to him physically was afterwards.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 21, 2020 5:52 PM |
Not only did he marry one Barbi twin and, with her permission, screws the other Barbi twin, but Wahl suggested an incestuous 3-way with them. IIRC a Howard Stern interview with one of the twins.
A fucked up guy.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 21, 2020 6:04 PM |
R18, I remember seeing wardrobe tricks to cover his growing girth. They added a layer to his shirts and raised the belt line. His action scenes were hilarious by the end.
That’s what stopped his career. Whatever The National Enquirer wrote about him turned old farts against him.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 21, 2020 6:05 PM |
He said Bette Midler was ugly and that it was torture kissing her.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 21, 2020 6:07 PM |
lord, it probably was r21
by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 21, 2020 6:16 PM |
Barbie Twins, motorcycle accident, drugs, got fat, drugs. A tale as old as time.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 21, 2020 6:44 PM |
Wiseguy was such a good series. I wouldn't mind a reboot of that on a streaming service.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 21, 2020 8:16 PM |
[quote]Wiseguy was such a good series. I wouldn't mind a reboot of that on a streaming service.
Not a reboot, but Tubi has the series.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 21, 2020 8:22 PM |
I want to know why Michael "The Pretender" Weiss kinda faded out. I dated a french guy that looked just like him.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 21, 2020 8:27 PM |
This guy was never on my radar, and I had no clue he existed. Perhaps I was too young. But I looked at his photos online for about 10 minutes, before falling back asleep. I’m running a fever, have a sinus infection, and have been in bed for the last few days.
Anyhow, I fell asleep, and suddenly, I’m dreaming that this guy and I are living together, and in a full on relationship. In my dream, he drove a truck, and worked as a carpenter, and general contractor. He was really sweet, and his best friend came over for dinner all the time, because he was single, and didn’t know how to cook.
What a weird dream! It was really detailed, and completely logical. No abstract stuff. Well, except for the “Watcher”.
I always have this one person watching me, whenever I dream of ex-boyfriends, or about my ex husband. He was watching me with this Ken guy, and today, for the first time ever, I finally saw his face in my dream, and know who he is. That freaks me out even more, because I had no idea my “watcher” or my “observer” in my dream was a person identifiable as other than myself. I always suspected it was not me, because it felt like it wasn’t me, but today, I saw his face, and it wasn’t me - even though I know philosophy and psychology literature tells me that it probably is.
Weird. This guy isn’t even my type. I like brown hair brown eyes.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 21, 2020 8:32 PM |
I remember Liz Smith (circa 1989) bitched in her column that everyone was talking about Delta Burke's weight, so it was only fair to point out Ken Wahl's weight gain too.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 21, 2020 9:16 PM |
R23 covered it well. Not only was he brutal to our Divine Miss M but he became impossible to work with on the tv show due to ¨ back pain and personal demons¨.- I loved that show´s casting - so many great guest appearances ... Spacey´s ¨the toes knows¨.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 21, 2020 10:43 PM |
Why is Ken Wahl virtually un-Googleable now? Even if you Google "Ken Wahl actor" -- crickets.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | February 21, 2020 10:44 PM |
R30, maybe because he hasn’t had any work in the last 20 plus years?
by Anonymous | reply 31 | February 21, 2020 11:41 PM |
He became a bloated mess and married one of the Barbi twins who shared him.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | February 21, 2020 11:43 PM |
[quote] He got fat during the second season of Wiseguy and lost his looks.
Imagine, getting fat and losing your looks!
by Anonymous | reply 33 | February 21, 2020 11:45 PM |
Why did Michael Weiss burn out? Oh that one's easy. Crysta! Meth. Lots and lots and lots of crystal meth.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | February 22, 2020 12:31 AM |
Ken Wahl was also accident prone having suffered a bad motorcycle crash in 1984 and falling down a flight of marble stairs in 1992. The ensuing botched surgeries, chronic pain and the addiction to painkillers and alcohol didn't help him or his career.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | February 22, 2020 1:17 AM |
There are no pics from him today. Anyone have some recent pics?
by Anonymous | reply 36 | February 22, 2020 1:29 AM |
"Accident prone' is publicist lingo for 'totally fucking wasted'.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | February 22, 2020 1:34 AM |
Whoever this dude is, I’m glad I perused his photos and dreamed of his 1980s self, and myself, because I got to see my Watcher, who, by the way, IS my type, and whom I’m really into.
Weird. I wonder if when we dream, we go into an alternative reality? Dreams really do reveal things about ourselves that no amount of therapy ever will.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | February 22, 2020 1:39 AM |
^He turned into a fat Tom Wopat?
by Anonymous | reply 40 | February 22, 2020 1:44 AM |
Oh noooooo, R39. Oh nooooooo!
by Anonymous | reply 41 | February 22, 2020 1:44 AM |
That is not him. No way. That guy at r39 is actually pulled together—and sober (looking). . I don’t think Ken Wahl is anything close to that.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | February 22, 2020 1:47 AM |
Where to learn my re able ur the Watcher or the Observer...
by Anonymous | reply 45 | February 22, 2020 2:04 AM |
Correction:
Where to learn more about the Watcher or the Observer....
by Anonymous | reply 46 | February 22, 2020 2:06 AM |
If those recent photos really are Wahl, they still can't erase my memory of his dreamy perfection in better days.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | February 22, 2020 2:09 AM |
Neither of those "recent" pics are of him.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | February 22, 2020 2:11 AM |
R48 Yes Ken, we understand your concern!
by Anonymous | reply 50 | February 22, 2020 2:28 AM |
He was once hot enough for this Nissan 240 commercial:
by Anonymous | reply 51 | February 22, 2020 5:58 AM |
Here's a scene from Wiseguy where it looks like he's about to rear-end Kevin Spacey...
by Anonymous | reply 52 | February 23, 2020 2:34 PM |
He was so beautiful. Everyone thought so, as I recall.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | February 23, 2020 2:47 PM |
Isn’t it common knowledge that he had very serious drug issues, which quickly killed whatever momentum his career had at that point?
by Anonymous | reply 54 | February 23, 2020 2:54 PM |
Who was that guy on Wiseguy who died of AIDS? I thought that was Ken Wahl.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | February 23, 2020 3:07 PM |
16 pounds and you go to nifty story material - “My Plumber’s Ass Smiled At Me”.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | February 23, 2020 5:28 PM |
[quote]Who was that guy on Wiseguy who died of AIDS?
That was Ray Sharkey, who played Sonny Steelgrave in the first season.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | February 23, 2020 6:10 PM |
sadly he's a right wing asshole. His twitter is a mess
by Anonymous | reply 58 | August 11, 2020 10:52 AM |
barbie twins jinxed him, he was a hot piece of ass till they got hold of him.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | August 11, 2020 11:16 AM |
R59 his right wing views are his own
by Anonymous | reply 60 | August 12, 2020 3:51 AM |
He had a supporting role in [italic]the Favor[/italic], about a married woman who dreams about her high-school boyfriend (Wahl) and their unconsummated relationship. She asks her best friend to visit him and report back. One of the dream sequences is hilarious. Wahl still looked pretty good at that point, 1994. I think this movie was shelved and finally released when Brad Pitt's career took off; he has a small role as the best friend's boyfriend.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | August 12, 2020 10:42 AM |
Did he ever get naked for the camera?
by Anonymous | reply 62 | August 12, 2020 12:53 PM |
It was actually Bette Midler, not Ken Wahl, who was (temporarily) "blacklisted" following the troubled making of the flop comedy "Jinxed!"
It was one of those movies where reports from the set about fights and tension kept leaking to the press during filming, which nearly always spells doom for a movie; it just puts a stink on the whole thing and primes the critics and the public to hate the movie before they've even seen it. In actuality, "Jinxed" wasn't that bad at all, from what I can recall. It wasn't great, but it was nowhere near as awful as it was made out to be at the time.
Anyway, the scoop was that Bette was getting over-involved in everything: the script, the directing, etc. She wasn't being a good little actress and doing what she was told, which led to the director and Ken Wahl both HATING her and bad-mouthing her. The result was that Midler was labeled "difficult" and didn't land another movie role for several years, until the director of "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" decided to take a chance on her, and wound up reviving her film career in a big way. It was a big, unexpected hit, and the critics and audiences loved Bette, which led to her string of successful 80's comedies. At the time of "Beverly HIlls", she was publicly VERY grateful for having been given a second chance, and basically said that she'd learned her lesson about how the game was played, and that from then on, she would just show up on time, do the job she was hired to do, and trust that the directors, writers, and producers knew what they were doing.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | August 12, 2020 1:16 PM |
Because Hollywood already had Matt Dillon. They didn't need another one.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | August 12, 2020 1:24 PM |
He’s dead now 💀
by Anonymous | reply 65 | August 12, 2020 1:27 PM |
R61. I saw The Favor ina theater. I was the only person there. I had a Ken Wahl thing, what a waste of a beautiful man. Drugs are bad mkay.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | August 13, 2020 1:40 PM |
He was always ugly. I never understood his appeal.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | August 13, 2020 2:03 PM |
R51 Thanks for reminding me about that commercial- I think that may have been the only thing I saw him in in the 1980s since I never watched Wiseguy.
But that link is dead, so I found another one:
by Anonymous | reply 68 | June 22, 2021 8:45 PM |
R62 There was a scene in The Wanderers where you can see his ass...and I think his dick from a distance, IIRC.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | June 22, 2021 8:58 PM |
R39 Boy, wifey was sure johnny-on-the-spot with her "THAT'S NOT HIM! I SHOULD KNOW, I'M MARRIED TO HIM" rebuke to that twitter post, lol!
What a nut-case she is. Doesn't she have anything better to do? Seems like a total control freak. Poor Ken. I'll bet he's completely sick of her ass by now. He'd kinda trapped, though. She got her claws into him when he was vulnerable.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | June 22, 2021 9:10 PM |
Because he is an inbred looking uggo.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | June 22, 2021 9:26 PM |
According to Rolling Stone, he tried to strangle Bette during one of their fights. It apparently got really ugly between them.
Bette checked herself into a hospital for "physical exhaustion" during the movie, but the truth was that she had a nervous breakdown and required psychiatric treatment.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | June 22, 2021 9:31 PM |
R72 Interesting. I'll have to see if I can find that article.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | June 22, 2021 9:38 PM |
I want to see Fat Ken. The Barbi Twins must hate his weight gain. They were obsessively bulimic. They'd only eat ice cream for days because it was so easy to throw up. Also a fact gleaned from their Stern interview. It sounded like a whole hive of crazy with Ken being the craziest.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | June 22, 2021 9:59 PM |
R74 I want to see Fat Ken too, lol. I bet he still looks better than the freaky twins whose eyes are too close together (notice how their faces are always photographed from the side...)
But I find it hard to believe that Ken fucks both of them, and that they'd admit it in public if he did. That sounds like some of Stern's own sophomoric speculation.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | June 22, 2021 10:06 PM |
R74 The wife probably likes him fat, because it keeps him dependent on her, and she doesn't have to worry about him going around screwing women half her age.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | June 23, 2021 7:34 AM |
R76 since when did that stop a man cheating
by Anonymous | reply 78 | June 26, 2021 7:25 PM |
R23, like this one? I can't even imagine Busey and Stroud together. Yikes.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | June 26, 2021 7:27 PM |
R80 Yeah, he got HIV from IV drug use, and then slept with a bunch of women, knowingly infecting them. One of them tried to sue him before he died, but he was broke.
He was a major fucked-up individual.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | June 27, 2021 5:05 AM |
R30 Really? I get a ton of photos when I search him.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | July 5, 2021 2:12 AM |
Midler didn't have the power to blacklist him, not then.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | July 5, 2021 2:14 AM |
I think we should get together a DL search party to go find him. He's in Tucson somewhere, right? I want to know what the Barbi sisters have done with him!
by Anonymous | reply 84 | July 5, 2021 2:31 AM |
R20 Career suicide by fork. Matthew Leblanc too.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | July 5, 2021 2:33 AM |
R84 No, I think he's in CA.
He posts on FB and Twitter often...if that's really him...
There must be somebody who lives near him who can snap a pic when he's pumping gas! Jesus, how hard can it be?
by Anonymous | reply 86 | July 5, 2021 2:34 AM |
R13 R19 This is probably where those rumors started. I take it with a grain of salt, because the twins were getting pretty desperate for publicity at this point and Ken was suicidally-depressed and drinking heavily. I actually think both twins are lesbians and he doesn't sleep with either of them. He may even be impotent because of his injuries (which is not uncommon with neck/spinal injuries). I think they have an agreement where Shane takes care of him, she gets to be "Mrs. Ken Wahl" and the sister is along for the ride. It's a fucked-up scenario, regardless of the details (mainly because of the twins, because they are WEIRD).
"THE buxom BARBI TWINS, who shot to fame by posing nude for Playboy, even share a HUSBAND in bed.
The lucky man is movie star Ken Wahl, who's married to 37-year-old Shane Barbi - but shares bedtime romps with her sister, Sia.
'Sia and I are like the same person,' says Shane. 'So it seems fitting that we share things we both enjoy, including my husband.'
It's the second time the Playboy twins have shocked the world.
Recently they told how they had been brought up by a lesbian 'husband and wife' - and even had a gay godmother, the late pop star Dusty Springfield.
'The only dysfunctional part of our growing up was having to keep it a secret from the world. But there's nothing to be ashamed of,' says Shane."
by Anonymous | reply 88 | July 19, 2021 2:50 AM |
R88 Ken had NOTHING to do with that. That was a stunt cooked up by the Zombi Twins to resuscitate their sagging (pun intended) careers. Ken didn't take those photos, either.
Ken is no longer allowed to do any podcast interviews, because it was leading to job offers that he wanted to take, and that was a big "no-no" for his wife. So-- no more interviews, no more jobs, no more social media (she pretends to be him online). For all intents and purposes, he's essentially being held hostage. I wish his fans knew about this, it's very sad.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | August 16, 2021 6:58 AM |
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