By now, you’ve probably noticed that Dos Equis has a new face for its “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign. But Jonathan Goldsmith, the brand’s 78-year-old former pitchman and the first man to ever make beer seem James Bond cool, hasn’t faded into the background.
Goldsmith’s decade-long run with Dos Equis, in which he was touted as a renaissance man who’s seen it all, done it all and spent time with quite a few ladies in between, is loosely based on one of the most interesting lives in the world, which he details in his new memoir, “Stay Interesting: I Don’t Always Tell Stories About My Life, But When I Do They’re True and Amazing.”
And he doesn’t hold back a thing.
“…I had a lovely dalliance with Jack Warner’s much younger girlfriend, and with one of Groucho Marx’s wives,” he told Maxim. “Two congressmen’s wives (both Republican), six vegetarians, nine Buddhists, eighteen nurses, sixteen teachers, eleven subs, countless receptionists (even one at an abortion clinic, where I’d come with an aspiring starlet), and one runner‑up to Miss Florida, as well as many extra thirteen players, and one Academy Award winner. I broke Henry Fonda’s mistress’s bed. Some of the women I pursued were married. Sometimes I’d get lucky and one woman would refer me to another.”
Goldsmith’s most famous affair was with the stunning redhead Tina Louise of Gilligan’s Island fame. He admits, “She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever been with.”
“I really felt rather proud of myself,” he recalled. “She was so desired after playing Ginger on Gilligan’s Island. I would be the envy of all, if they’d known. But it was our wonderful secret. And definitely good medicine for an out‑of‑work actor.”
A man like Goldsmith, who was in and around show business from the 1960s to the 1990s, has a litany of fascinating tales, most of which revolve around beautiful Hollywood starlets. And you can check out the full Maxim interview here.