Robert Wagner has a lot to brag about. His show business career spans nearly 60 years in a town that’s known for chewing up and spitting out young actors as quickly as a piece of Juicy Fruit. With 1950s classics like What Price Glory (with James Cagney) and Prince Valiant (with Janet Leigh) to hit TV shows It Takes a Thief, Switch and Hart to Hart, to his gut-bustingly funny turn as Number 2 in the Austin Powers franchise, Wagner has retained his special flavor for decades.

Wagner, affectionately called “RJ” by friends and family, recently published his memoir, Pieces of My Heart: A Life. From the book’s opening which describes the auspicious moment when, as a teenager, he peeked through the bushes to watch Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott playing golf at the Bel Air Country Club and decided he wanted to be a star, to the ups and downs of his various Hollywood romances—including his secret love affair with Barbara Stanwyck who was 20 years his senior—Pieces is packed with spill-the-beans detail.

For the first time, Wagner writes about the tragedy of losing his wife, Natalie Wood, who died after falling off of their yacht in 1981, and his grief and depression that followed. His poignant account of resurfacing and eventually marrying Jill St. John is proof that life can go on.

We caught up with the very personable, and not at all boastful, Mr. Wagner in Aspen to discuss his new, bestseller.

Amen Wardy Magazine How long have you been in Aspen now?
Robert Wagner Oh my god, I’ve been here a long, long time. I first came here [to visit] in 1949 when they built the chairlift… Jill and I have been married for 18 years, and we went together for a long time before that. So I would say we have been coming here very steadily for the last 26 years and we now live here and in Los Angeles.

AWM It’s fascinating to read about your beginnings in show business and all of the interesting people you worked with and were friends with.
RW I really wrote it to acknowledge those people and honor them because they were also absolutely wonderful to me and made a difference in my life. [Spencer Tracy was an early mentor.] What I really wanted to say in the book is that if you really believe in what you can do and stay at it, you know, and have some people who are mentors that come into your life, your dreams can come true. I always wanted to be in the world of motion pictures and it all happened. I am still bewildered by it all.

AWM What do you think about the differences in show business from when you started in the studio system compared to now?
RW Well everything is different, isn’t it? There was much more individuality when I started out. There weren’t as many people that you were involved with, press-wise particularly. There were people that said, “I want him in the movie.” Or “I believe in him” or they took a personal interest. It’s hard to do that these days with the corporate influence that we’re all facing.

AMW What was it like to go back over your life and re-visit exciting experiences and also tragedy, like the loss of your wife Natalie Wood?
RW Well, it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t write a book about pieces of my heart and not address all of these things that happened to me. Natalie was a great piece of my heart and it was the greatest tragedy I could ever have imagined. One of the things that is also there is that you can go on. Even though it seems that the light has all gone out of your life, it still can come back. And that’s one of the things that I think is important for the book.

AMW The book is full of racy stories and has a “kiss and tell” element to it.
RW I didn’t kind of want it to be that way. But I couldn’t have told it without those wonderful ladies in my life that meant so much to me. They were romances, and those take a piece of your heart. Believe me!

Please see our events for details about Robert Wagner’s upcoming book signing at Amen Wardy.