Noshing With Thaao Penghlis – April 18, 2024

Ira's Everything Bagel

Author, Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time

Host, Thaao Penghlis’ Lost Treasures Podcast

This week on Ira’s Everything Bagel Podcast, host Ira Sternberg sits down with actor Thaao Penghlis, author of Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time and host of Thaao Penghlis’ Lost Treasures Podcast. In this delicious episode, Thaao shares his experiences exploring the world, the art of cooking, and the fascinating intersections of his Greek heritage and acting career. From learning lines for Days of Our Lives to hosting legendary dinner parties, Thaao’s journey is as diverse as it is inspiring.

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Exploring the World Beyond Acting

Travel as an Outlet

Thaao Penghlis discusses how travel has been an essential outlet from his acting career. He explains how exploring different cultures and histories has enriched his life and work. Travel not only provided him with a respite from the rigors of acting but also helped him improve his dialogue delivery on television. The experiences and stories he gathered on his journeys have significantly influenced his performances and writing.

Influence of Iconic Actors

Throughout his career, Thaao has been influenced by many legendary actors. He talks about the importance of listening, the imperative of relaxation and humor, and how these elements have shaped his approach to acting. Thaao’s reflections on these influences offer valuable insights into his craft and the lessons he has learned from the greats.

Learning Lines for Days of Our Lives

Thaao Penghlis is best known for his roles as Count Tony DiMera and Andre DiMera on Days of Our Lives. He shares the techniques he used to memorize lines and the challenges of playing dual roles. Thaao’s dedication to his craft and his ability to portray complex characters have made him a beloved figure in daytime television.

Writing and Culinary Adventures

Why He Wrote the Book

Thaao’s second book, Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time, is more than just a collection of recipes; it’s a reflection of his life experiences and interactions with celebrities. He discusses the inspiration behind writing the book and how he wanted to capture the essence of his encounters with Hollywood’s elite through the art of cooking. The book includes recipes for dream Hollywood dinner parties, imagining the perfect meals for celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and George Clooney.

The Role of Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts wrote the introduction to Thaao’s cookbook, highlighting their close friendship and mutual admiration. Thaao shares anecdotes about their relationship and the impact Doris had on his life and career. Her involvement in the book adds a personal touch and underscores the deep connections Thaao has made throughout his journey.

Life as a Work in Progress

Thaao believes that life is a continuous work in progress. He discusses how this philosophy has guided him through various challenges and successes. Thaao’s approach to life, characterized by constant learning and adaptation, is evident in his diverse body of work and personal achievements.

Hosting Legendary Dinner Parties

Cooking for the Greats

Thaao Penghlis’ real-life dinner parties are legendary in Hollywood. He talks about the celebrities he has cooked for and the joy he finds in bringing people together through food. Thaao’s passion for cooking is evident in the way he describes these gatherings, highlighting the importance of food in creating memorable experiences.

Challenges of Writing the Cookbook

Writing Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time presented its own set of challenges. Thaao discusses the process of developing recipes that resonate with the personalities of the celebrities he admires. The cookbook is not just about food but also about capturing the essence of these iconic figures through culinary creativity.

The Lost Treasures Podcast

Exploring Greek History and Culture

In Thaao Penghlis’ Lost Treasures Podcast, Thaao channels his passion for Greek history and culture. The podcast explores the Trilogy of Homer through the life of German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who uncovered the real-life locations and treasures described in ancient epic poems. Thaao’s fascination with his Greek heritage is a central theme in the podcast, offering listeners a deep dive into historical exploration.

The Journey of My Days, My Lives

Thaao’s first book, Places: The Journey of My Days, My Lives, delves into his Greek and Australian heritage and recounts his adventures in the entertainment industry. From an afternoon tea with Jacqueline Kennedy to his numerous travels, the book offers a personal glimpse into Thaao’s life and the experiences that have shaped him.

Balancing Acting and Personal Interests

Greek Identity and Heritage

Thaao’s Greek identity has been a constant throughout his life. He celebrates his heritage in his acting, writing, cooking, and travels. Thaao’s connection to his roots is a source of inspiration and strength, influencing his work and personal endeavors.

Personal Life and Reflections

Thaao opens up about his personal life, including his relationships and family. He shares insights into balancing a demanding career with personal commitments and the importance of maintaining a sense of humor and relaxation. Thaao’s reflections offer a deeper understanding of the man behind the roles and the values that guide him.

Connecting with Thaao Penghlis

Stay Updated and Engaged

For fans and followers who wish to stay updated on Thaao Penghlis’ latest projects and insights, you can connect with him through various platforms. Follow Thaao on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Additionally, explore more about his work and contributions to the entertainment field.

The Impact of His Work

Legacy in Entertainment

Thaao Penghlis’ impact on the entertainment industry is undeniable. From his iconic roles on Days of Our Lives to his engaging podcasts and books, Thaao’s work continues to captivate and inspire audiences. His dedication to his craft and his ability to connect with people through storytelling make him a cherished figure in Hollywood.

Looking Back and Moving Forward

As Thaao reflects on his career, he looks forward to new adventures and projects. His journey is marked by resilience, creativity, and an unwavering passion for storytelling. Thaao’s ability to continually evolve and embrace new challenges is a testament to his enduring legacy in the entertainment industry.

Thaao Penghlis Podcast Episode Conclusion

This episode of Ira’s Everything Bagel Podcast provides an intimate look at the life and career of Thaao Penghlis. From his early days in Australia to his legendary dinner parties in Hollywood, Thaao’s story is one of talent, resilience, and enduring charm. Tune in to hear Thaao Penghlis discuss his experiences, the making of his books, and his vision for the future of storytelling.

For more engaging and insightful conversations, don’t forget to subscribe to Ira’s Everything Bagel Podcast. Stay connected with Thaao Penghlis and explore his work through the links provided.

🔗 Useful Links:

• Check out Thaao Penghlis on Facebook.
• Follow Thaao Penghlis on Twitter for the latest updates.
• Connect with Thaao Penghlis on Instagram for behind-the-scenes content.

FAQs About Thaao Penghlis

How old is Thaao Penghlis?

Thaao Penghlis was born on December 15, 1945. As of now, he is 78 years old.

Is Thaao Penghlis gay?

Thaao Penghlis has kept his personal life private and has not publicly addressed or confirmed his sexual orientation. Therefore, there is no verified information available regarding this matter.

Is Thaao Penghlis married?

As of now, Thaao Penghlis is not publicly known to be married. He has kept details about his personal relationships private.

Who is Thaao Penghlis married to?

Thaao Penghlis is not publicly known to be married to anyone. He has kept his personal life and any potential relationships out of the public eye.

Did Thaao Penghlis leave Days of Our Lives?

Thaao Penghlis has had multiple stints on “Days of Our Lives,” portraying the characters Tony DiMera and André DiMera. He has left and returned to the show several times over the years. His status on the show can change, so for the most current information, it is best to check recent updates from the show or his official social media channels.

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Thaao Penghlis Podcast Epsiode Full Transcript
Ira Sternberg: Welcome to Ira’s Everything Bagel, where I talk with intriguing people about everything—their passions, pursuits, and points of view. During his more than four-decade run on Days of Our Lives, Emmy-nominated actor Thaao Penghlis has kept the plots twisting and the passions burning by playing two lookalike villains, Count Tony DiMera and his impersonator Andre DiMera. Now, the actor has turned to writing. A world traveler and celebrated host of Hollywood dinner parties, Thaao has authored the cookbook Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time. The book, reissued by Brick Tower Publishing, presents recipes for what would be his dream Hollywood dinner parties. It’s also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all the usual places. Thaao is also host of a four-episode podcast, Thaao Penghlis’ Lost Treasures. It’s a deep dive into the life of German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. You can follow Thaao on Facebook, X, and Instagram and listen to his podcasts on Spotify. Thaao, welcome to the show.
Thaao Penghlis: Oh, thank you. How are you, Ira?
Ira: I’m doing well, thank you. Well, you’ve been a busy boy all these decades, so how in the world do you have time to travel and write? I know you have time to act because you’ve been on that soap opera all those years, but how do you find the time to do it all?
Thaao: You know, I always found myself overloaded with dialogue after all those years, and the only outlet I had was taking a new journey somewhere, someplace I hadn’t explored before, because that allowed me to study the culture, the cuisine. I loved walking through ancient ruins. I mean, I always thought I was a modern man walking through ancient roads. So when I came back to work, I was filled up, and so therefore the character was able to sustain itself through all those years because I was curious. The more I traveled, the more I felt my work as an actor progressed. And then there was the written word. So along the way, I had these stories. I would do one-man shows. I did my first book, which was called Places, which dealt with those journeys, especially to the Middle East. And out of that, it strengthened the language for me. So that when I spoke certain dialogue, it gave it a different strength in the understanding of that line. The way it was also placed, it varied as I got older and understood the importance of the word, rather than taking it for granted like we do because we just converse with each other. But when you’re acting it out, when you look at someone like Obama who was able to put a line out and then allowed it to land, it had great gravitas to it. And so if it was going to be a funny line or if it’s going to be a serious line, the way he placed it was a man who understood language. And so that also taught me. I was influenced by certain actors like Peter O’Toole over the years. You never know what you’re becoming in your life until one day you reach a certain age and you turn around and you say, “Okay, I’ve landed.” That usually gives an indication when you are paying attention to other people’s progress rather than your own. You feel safe enough within yourself to have the time to listen to somebody else’s story. Not that we don’t in conversations we share, but there is a difference because you’ve basically become rather than becoming.
Ira: The one thing that’s intriguing to me about you is that even though you’re an actor—and I don’t say this in a negative way—many actors, it’s part of the nature of it all, many actors like to hear the sound of their own voice and are not really that interested in listening to other people, finding other cultures, walking through the ruins as you talked about earlier. Yet you have incorporated that as part of your own being so that you’re able to expand not only on the screen or on television but also in real life as well. That’s my take on it, at least.
Thaao: Yes. As an actor, if you’re not listening, how do you know how to respond properly? How do you know how the line lands? How do you have those surprise elements when somebody gives you a different attitude on a line you didn’t expect and you have to adjust to that? It’s all those things that through listening, which is a silence in a way, but at the same time, you’re very much alive because you are embracing the language that’s coming at you so that you can throw it back. It’s the give and take between actors. You know, you throw the ball and they catch it, and then you expect the actor to throw the ball back. Some just drop it. It depends on how they want to play the scene. But I’ve upset a few actors along the line because I always save certain deliveries on the take. I’m not giving it all away in the beginnings. I’ve had actors chase after me wanting to punch me out because I made them look like a fool. That was not my intention, but it is a game. It’s how you win the game. I certainly, in my 20s when I first came to America, had the greatest teachers. I had people who had become great artists and they walked their talk. The Stella Adlers of the world, the Stephen Sondheims, Melancholies. My boss, Robert Elworthy, who taught me about art and respect of art. All these were part of the groundwork I did for myself, not knowing that all these seeds that I had planted in my 20s would contribute to what I’m doing today. All those stories. The great thing about relaxing is that that’s where humor comes out. You don’t have humor when you’re getting nasty. That’s being [__]. When you’re being funny, it’s when you’re relaxed and you’re enjoying the situation. That’s where great humor comes, I think.
Ira: Let’s talk a little bit about the book, but before that, I want to point out to our viewers and listeners that if you detect a slight accent, maybe in Thaao, it’s interesting because you were raised in Sydney, Australia, to Greek-born parents, and then you eventually immigrated to the United States. So there’s a hint of an accent, but it’s certainly not an American accent per se. It’s more mid-Atlantic as they call it.
Thaao: But when I first came, it was “A noice day to die.” That’s how it sounded, and people right away thought, “What did he say?” They couldn’t understand me, especially when I went into a Jewish deli in New York and I asked for a sandwich, corned beef sandwich on rye. They didn’t understand. They kept looking at everybody around saying, “Does anybody understand what this man just said?” So, you know, after a while, you get to change your sound by the way and who you associate with.
Ira: You should have asked for bagels instead. I think they probably understood that.
Thaao: Oh, well, look at your bagels. They look like they’re holding you up.
Ira: They’re great. The interesting thing about soap operas is I don’t think people realize how complex it is. You’re having to learn lines every day and perform every day. In most cases, some maybe tape several shows in one day, but either way, you still have to learn lines for every show. It’s a never-ending process. Did you find it difficult, or did you just find it part of your nature?
Thaao: It was impossible in the beginning. I mean, it was just not natural to look at that many pages and think that the brain could absorb all that. One wonderful producer who was very courteous to me came along and saw my struggle, and she said, “Just do one scene at a time. Don’t put the whole mill of scenes together. Do one scene, finish that one scene, get to the next scene. Number them, put a word or a sentence above what that scene is about.” Because by scene seven, they all sound the same. You have to repeat for the audience that didn’t see the show before. Part of the success of being in a role like that is you enjoy the situation. It’s like a dinner party. If you don’t enjoy cooking the food, something’s going to go wrong. The love aspect will be out of the way, and you’re just shoving it at them. I’ve had to learn how to love all the things I approach. Otherwise, I would have had a problem. I don’t like things being short-changed. I had some difficulties in the beginning because my understanding, like one director said to me, “I want you to sit behind your desk, and when your mother comes in, she’ll sit on the other side.” I said, “I don’t interview my mother. You don’t have a mother sitting on the other side of the desk if you want to have a clear relationship.” Those types of things, because you want the audience to understand the delineation of who you’re working with, what is the relationship. Otherwise, it all becomes a blur.
Ira: I’m assuming you got pushback a little bit by the director or the stage manager.
Thaao: Oh my God, I even told the director one day that he was boring. He couldn’t believe that I would say he was boring. He called me at home at night and started screaming at me, saying, “Oh, you think you’re so good? Well, you’re not,” and went on and on abusing me on the phone because he was so upset that I thought he was boring. He was.
Ira Sternberg: Despite all of that, you still maintained this amazing career on the show. Clearly, your talent outweighed the annoyance with you or their frustrations.Thaao Penghlis: They killed me seven times, you know, that was out of love. Someone got upset, but in the long run, the reason I sustained is all the things we talked about earlier. How do you fulfill yourself as a human being so that when you’re interpreting another, you are able to fill it up rather than just thinking you’re enough. Some actors have the ego to think they’re just enough. My writing’s God, you know. No, we all can learn from each other. I’ve had great relationships. They used to call me “Ten Take Thaao” in the beginning, and now I was called “One Take Thaao.” A lot of things have changed. I have certainly developed and become calmer and easier to work with. Part of it is that I reached the point where I enjoyed and embraced the crew. When I finish, I always thank the crew. I always thank the actors, the people that are around me, the makeup artists. Completions are very important. I don’t think a lot of people do that. You finish nine scenes and the booth doesn’t even say a word. You just gave them nine scenes, one take each, and they think it’s like nothing. You have to remind people that it’s not good enough. I think it’s important that we have the grace to say thank you and nice work. Like when you have a dinner party, and when you finish, we used to send cards and make telephone calls the next day, not just send a one-line text.Ira: The old school way.Thaao: Yes.Ira: I think the word is gratitude too.Thaao: Yes. You know, my boss, my teacher, Melancholies, dear man, such an extraordinary teacher. When I sat with him before he died, I asked, “What is your biggest disappointment in life now that we’re up there in age?” And he said to me, “People.” I’m realizing that more and more. All the good ones that I had as friends, I’ve got a couple left, are gone. Then you realize the nakedness you feel in life when those great people that you had lifelong friendships with have left. You look around and see what’s landed with you. I find that at this stage of life, a lot of people are not happy with what they chose and how they became in life and what they stand for. It’s a work in progress. Life is not easy, but I think gratitude is very important. It keeps you on the straight and narrow and keeps you level with the world.Ira: Let’s talk a little bit about your book, Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time. These are celebrities that you have known, and you write about it. How did you come up with the concept of preparing a wonderful meal for a celebrity that you admire, and what goes into the thinking of that recipe? Is it the personality of the celebrity, or is it your perception of them, or is it a combination?Thaao: Well, firstly, you know, the word seducing, what does that mean really? It’s allowing somebody to feel comfortable enough and trusting enough that what you’re presenting to them will be enjoyed, will be embraced. Each actor that I’ve worked with and I have through the whole book, a lot of those recipes came just out of my head. I’m not a—maybe in the beginning of my cooking experiences in life when I was a teenager, I may have looked at a cookbook, but I have my own cookbook in my head because I understand the tastes of different foods and the combinations. I can taste it as I sense what I can combine. Like Omar Sharif, when I did Memories of Midnight, the miniseries with him, he liked champagne and caviar every day.Ira: Well, who wouldn’t?Thaao: Some people don’t like caviar. But those people, I got a sense of him, his seriousness, his playfulness, his enjoyment of the better or the higher qualities in life. When I met her, she said to me, “I hear you’re a good chef.” I said, “I like to eat well.” Then her boyfriend at the time just grabbed her when he saw me talking with her and pulled her away and said, “We’re leaving.” I never got a chance to really say anything except I had a friend who was a friend of Stan’s and Ashley Meland and said, “Would you bring some desserts over?” I said, “Okay.” So I made these desserts and I took them over. As I entered the back of the house in the kitchen, I could hear them talking about the love affair one of them had with the Prime Minister of Canada. It was so salacious that I just couldn’t stand there and go, “Oh, hi girls, here are some desserts.” I left. Jacqueline Kennedy, when I met her in my youth, what a gracious, wonderful woman. I thought, well, she would want the best. But then, of course, she married Onassis after Kennedy was assassinated. After all those years, I thought, “Okay, I’m going to do a Greek dinner for her.” Each personality that I absorbed or worked with, Telly Savalas, something when I left them became a memory. In that memory, through the years, I was able to expand on it because as I grew older and wiser, I got to understand what they were sharing with me at that moment. The book became—you know, Doris Roberts, for instance, would come to my house every week and she would sit at the head of the table. Doris always loved food, so I gave her a variety of food. She did the introduction to the book. Most cookbooks are just about recipes. Mine is really about how I experienced my life with these people, what they meant to me, and if I had cooked for them. For some, because some I didn’t, but I imagine what it would have been like or those that I did and what was the result of it. I think it came out well. I’m proud of the book. I think it’s a different type of cookbook. It’s got stories along so that when you’re doing a recipe, oh, this is what he did when he cooked for so-and-so. Through that became the Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time.Ira: Have you received any feedback from people who have tried some of the recipes and enjoyed them?Thaao: It’s funny you say that because somebody said to me, “Oh, do these recipes work?” I said, “Well, they work for me, but if you’re going to cook for somebody, then you’ve got to taste it.” Maybe it needs a little more of this or a little more of that, more salt or pepper or something. It’s up to the individual. I give you what I did and how it turned out. I wouldn’t put a recipe there if it didn’t work. But I had one girl on social media the other day who said, “Well, I tried one of your recipes and I don’t think it turned out very well for me and it doesn’t look very good.” She went on and on and I went, “Really?” She said, “Would you like me to send you a private message and show you a photograph of it?” I said, “What’s the matter? You forgot to stir?” I said, “No, I don’t want to see a recipe that didn’t work for you.” Exactly. I’ve cooked every one of those recipes I’ve cooked, so they work. It depends on your ingredients. Some people will shortchange things. When you ask for chicken broth, I like to do things natural. I like to cook a chicken and take the broth. Some people will put a chicken broth cube and that’s a lot different because it’s too much salt.Ira: That sodium will kill you at some point.Thaao: Yes, if you do it.Ira: What was the most challenging part of the book when you were writing it? I’d love to talk to you a little bit about your podcast as well. What was the most challenging part about putting the book together?Thaao: Remembering. I’m the kind of person who will open a fridge and say, “Okay, what am I going to eat?” I don’t plan that much ahead, but what I do have in the fridge, I know I will be able to mix with something and make a recipe out of it, be it pasta or Cornish hen. I have a very good memory, thank God. I would sit at my desk and say, “Okay,” and then I would go through the ingredients in my head and write them down. Then I would think about the story and try to remember every one of those individuals and what remained from that experience. It was recalling all of that. It took me six months to do the book. It’s like PE. Someone did a dinner party for me for my birthday one year and the host’s boyfriend, who was an arrogant restaurateur, saw me with a whole presentation of rack of lamb and he says to me, “Do you know how to cook that blun be like that?” I thought, “What do you think I’m going to do with this? You don’t think I can cook this?” Sometimes I like to put half a chicken on top of a salad or a rack of lamb on top of a salad as a combination. He just freaked out that nobody does that. My interpretation didn’t work for him because he hadn’t seen it before. Because I’d traveled to so many places, you go to the Arab countries and they’re eating with their fingers. Could you go to the Arab countries and they’re eating with their fingers. Could you imagine that person saying, “You don’t eat with your fingers, you eat with a knife and fork.” There are interpretations of many things. That’s what makes life so wonderful.
Ira Sternberg: Have you thought, because of the title of the book, maybe for your next edition, since it’s Hollywood and it’s Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time, you could have a casting couch on the cover. What do you think?
Thaao Penghlis: Well, I’ve had a few of those experiences, a little double entendre, just you. I get very clearly. I think it still goes on.
Ira: Probably so. Despite the fact that you were working hard on this book, and six months is not that long of a time to be writing a book—many people spend much longer—that’s pretty reasonable. You also put together a podcast.
Thaao: Yes.
Ira: What’s interesting about the podcast is it has to do with the life of, as I mentioned earlier, a German archaeologist by the name of Heinrich Schliemann. What drew you to Heinrich Schliemann and his career and his life?
Thaao: You know, I read a story in the 70s called The Gold of Troy, and I, many times in my youth, wanted to be an archaeologist. There’s something about a ruin that still has a secret that hasn’t been told. So when I looked at it, like in Egypt where I saw so many wonderful things, I left telling my own story. When I read Schliemann, from the age of eight, he swore that one day he would find the gold of Troy. Until you’ve discovered something in the Earth or gone into a tomb for the first time before anybody else has, that’s over 4,000 years old, something electric happens within you that suddenly you are in a unique experience of something that hasn’t been touched or seen in that many years. To me, it is one of the wonders of experiences in life. I’ve climbed fences in ancient Greece after being told you can’t go on the other side because there’s a lot of unseen things under the Earth. Well, I was curious. I climbed the fence and dug in there and found all this jewelry from ancient times. Delos was the great port in ancient Greece in the fifth century BC. That really intrigued me, so anything to deal with lost treasures, with—because he was the father of archaeology. I went through 60,000 documents of his at the Gennadius Library in Athens. I read nine books on him. I spent two years writing the podcast. I’d gone to Troy three times. I sat at the edge of Troy looking over the Troad where the Romans, the Greeks, and the Trojans had fought. I’ve gone to the cemetery in Athens, the First Cemetery it’s called, where Schliemann’s buried and spent time there sitting at his graveside at his mausoleum, wondering what is behind that bronze door. How was he buried? Was he buried just like someone’s placed his coffin in a mausoleum? No, I found out later that he was buried under tiles and then he’s under the Earth. Everybody else is on top. He was such an intriguing story. At eight years of age, he thinks he’s going to find the gold of Troy, and then in his 50s, he finds it. He made a dream come true. In many ways, what we perceive and dream about in our youth, we can make come true. For me, the next closest thing to being an archaeologist was to follow in someone’s footsteps and explore him. It took me two years, slowly because of in between the show, to write these stories. The first being finding the gold of Troy and how it was lost and ended up in the Pushkin Museum in its basement, along with the other millions of treasures that the Russians had stolen from the Germans, who had stolen from mainly a lot of Jewish people in Europe. Then the Treasure of Mycenae, which is extraordinary and is in the archaeological museum in Athens. That is a fantastic treasure. How he found it and how he found those masks, thinking this is where the Trojan War began, the war with Troy. How he entertained the ideas in his mind that what he was finding were the beginnings of the Trojan War when really it was earlier, it was of a later Bronze Age. The third was, I met with an archaeologist, where is Ulysses, where’s the real island of Ulysses? I tracked up and down the mountain with him in the footsteps of Odysseus, following Homer’s story. I spent the day and then had a lunch overlooking the Ithaca Bay where he says to me, “Well, I’m having the fish from the sea, from that particular sea.” He says to me, “This is where Ulysses came home 20 years after the Trojan War.” There’s just something about all that, being in there, that made me feel, “Wow, this is extraordinary to be part of this.” When I went swimming in that water, I felt like I was part of the story of Ulysses. I came home and began writing about it. The fourth is really about all the things that happened that I got into trouble. I’m a person who sometimes will attract it because I look confident sometimes, where you have to in these lands that you don’t know, pretending you’re important because you don’t want someone bothering you. I was pulled out of a car by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon when I went to a place called Tyre, where the second largest hippodrome outside of Rome is. They thought I was an Israeli spy. They threw me against the wall. UN officers helped me survive that moment. They tried to kidnap me at the pyramids at night. All these stories are part of the podcast.
Ira: That podcast is available on Spotify and other audio platforms. Just listening to you now, as you earlier said, you were old school, but I think you’re also old world. Is that the same?
Thaao: Well, I think it’s two different things. Old school refers to doing things a certain way that they don’t do now or you look at things a different way. Old world is you’re coming from a much more ancient and older perspective of time.
Ira: I think you’re also old world because you have a sense of history. New world, not everybody has that sense of history.
Thaao: I think it had to do with the teachers I had in my youth. I took the best of what I was given. I don’t like things ordinary. There are a lot of ordinary things in life, people live ordinary lives that don’t take too many chances. People want to play it safe. When you’re broke and you spend your last dollar on an investment and you don’t know where the next dollar is coming from, that dollar tends to then suddenly explode. If you’d not taken that chance with that dollar, you would never have known. My sister sometimes says to me, “I don’t understand where you came from.” My mother used to look at me and say, “Where did you come from?” I think there’s an enigma. I used to call certain people I met in my life enigmatic. I remember when I worked with Ken Russell in Altered States, he said to me, “I want him to be enigmatic.” At that time, I thought, “What does that mean?” As I got older, I got to really understand that word. It stayed with me.
Ira: That’s a great way to leave it. My guest has been Emmy-nominated actor Thaao Penghlis. He’s the author of Seducing Celebrities One Meal at a Time, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all the usual places. As mentioned, he’s also the host of the four-episode podcast Thaao Penghlis’ Lost Treasures, a deep dive into the life of German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. You can follow Thaao on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Thaao, thanks for being on the show.
Thaao: Oh, thank you. It’s a pleasure.
Ira: Join us every Thursday for a new schmear on Ira’s Everything Bagel.