George Hamilton proved his famous Hollywood charm is still very much intact, beaming beside his younger son, George Jr., in a new Instagram photo.
The veteran actor, who marked his 87th birthday on August 12, shared a fresh collection of pictures from a recent visit to Memphis, the city where he was born.
Hamilton made the trip home to take part in Elvis Week at Graceland, the annual celebration honoring Elvis Presley. This year’s events ran from August 8 to August 16, coinciding with the anniversary of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s death on August 16.
The Memphis outing also gave Hamilton a chance to spend time with George Jr., his son with former girlfriend Kimberly Blackford, the swimsuit model with whom he welcomed the child in 2000.
Looking bronzed and polished in a tailored coat finished with a pocket square, Hamilton appeared in high spirits as he posed with George Jr. on the grounds of Graceland.
According to George Jr.’s Instagram profile, he is now based in Panama and has recently begun working in property restoration, with projects in Grenada and Nicaragua.
Hollywood icon George Hamilton showed off his signature megawatt smile while posing with his younger son, George Jr., at Graceland in a photo shared on Instagram
Hamilton is seen in a recent throwback photo he posted from a 1960s trip to Palm Beach, when he was at the height of his fame as a Hollywood matinee idol
‘Thank you Memphis, always great to get back to my roots!’ wrote Hamilton in the caption of his Instagram album about his Graceland trip.
One of the Elvis Week events was an onstage interview on August 15 with Hamilton, who regaled the audiences with his Elvis Presley anecdotes.
Hamilton explained that he had been a ‘close’ friend of Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, through whom he became acquainted with the legendary singer.
Before this month, Hamilton’s previous visit to Graceland had been for Presley’s funeral in 1977, which he attended at the Colonel’s side.
‘He was fighting to keep being business as usual. It wasn’t happening, but he was trying,’ Hamilton said, in fan footage posted by the YouTube account EP Fanatic.
‘And he said: “Go in and say goodbye to Elvis,” and it was in the parlor, and he was holding on as best he could. It was the hardest I’ve ever seen. It was not the Colonel,’ said the Home from the Hill actor. ‘He was shocked.’
Hamilton appeared to have rung in his actual birthday in Manhattan, where George Jr posted a photo of them together and a video of his father blowing out the candle on his cake while out to dinner with a group of loved ones.
His latest travels with his younger son come after he retained a public silence in April when his 51-year-old elder son Ashley Hamilton, whom he welcomed with his ex-wife Alana Stewart, was hospitalized for an overdose.
Hamilton appeared to have rung in his actual birthday in Manhattan, where George Jr posted a photo of them together and a video of his father blowing out the candle on his cake
Ashley, who was once married to Shannen Doherty, was said in April to be in the process of recovery and in stable condition at the hospital, via TMZ.
He has been candid about his struggles with addiction, saying he had racked up ‘half a dozen arrests’ and attended ’32 rehabs’ by the time he was 22 years old.
Ashley, who shares his nine-year-old daughter Willow with his ex-girlfriend Renee Karalian, had been suffering from a rare mucosal HPV-related cancer.
Weeks before he suffered his overdose in April, he publicly disclosed that he had submitted ‘paperwork’ to a Swiss clinic that offers assisted suicide.
A decade ago, his father broke down in tears while discussing Ashley’s addiction on the blended family’s reality show Stewarts & Hamiltons.
‘I am very proud of you. There are about four times that we almost lost you in your life,’ Hamilton told his son, at a point when the latter was sober.
‘I had some really hard times,’ said Ashley while promoting the series in 2016 to People magazine. ‘But my dad never gave up on me no matter what.’
Last year, Ashley went public with the health battle he has waged against his HPV-related cancer, during an interview on the podcast Punk Rock Sober.
Hamilton retained a public silence in April when his 51-year-old elder son Ashley (pictured), whom he welcomed with his ex-wife Alana Stewart, was hospitalized for an overdose
He was still struggling with the illness as of a Soft White Underbelly interview released this March, this time featuring him alongside a death doula.
Hamilton held forth about his harrowing experience with the disease and noted that his nine-year-old daughter was unaware he had cancer.
It was during that conversation that he said he had ‘sent all my paperwork to Switzerland’ to a ‘clinic’ where patients undergo ‘assisted suicide.’
Ashley explained that ‘what I don’t wanna do is, I don’t wanna die in a motel with a f***in’ needle in my neck and leave that stain on my daughter and leave that stain on people around me. That I don’t wanna do. As easy as that would be for me to do, I don’t wanna do that to people.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Hamilton and Ashley’s representative for comment.
