PEOPLE tell me that
I'm a lot like Gidget in real life. But PETER DEUEL isn't anything
like Gidget's brother-in-law, John. Well, I guess that's not
exactly true, because John is basically a warm person, and Pete
is just about the warmest person I've ever known.
I've been in this business about one year and I've learned much about it and the people in it. Pete is so different. Half the people I've met seem so phony compared to Pete. He'll come to rehearsal barefooted, with a beard, and wearing a tee-shirt with Coors beer written on the back of it. And the next day you'll see him in a full Ivy League suit. He is full of fun and he makes me happy to be around him. Pete's anything but a square. Sometimes I wish he didn't always treat me like Gidget, but treated me a little more like other girls on the beach.
He certainly doesn't seem to be a person who should be a doctor. Pete told me that he is the first one in his family who hasn't studied medicine and gotten his degree like his father, grandfather, and even his great-grandfathers!
I'm really glad he didn't because he would not have become the fine actor he is--and the good friend that I have so much fun with.
Pete also told me his other ambition was to be an aviator and as a boy he learned the make and power of every ship in the air. I got a kick out of hearing how he decided to become an actor. Peter was going to St. Lawrence University and appeared in school plays. His daddy, Dr. DEUEL came to the school to see him in The Rose Tattoo. The next day, Pete says, his father said to him at the breakfast table, "Peter why don't you go to New York now and stop wasting your time and my money."
And that's the way, Pete told me, he went to New York and got into the American Theater Wing. Of course, he's had a lot of experience since and I'll have to go on a long way to catch up with him. Gidget is my first show, and Pete has done so many since he started in the Armstrong Circle Theater. He even toured with TOM EWELL in Take Her, She's Mine, and has been on so many big network shows before he came to Gidget.
And I'm awfully glad he did. I'm even
happier that he didn't follow his ancestors' footsteps and become
a doctor. Because he wouldn't have become the good actor he is--and
the good friend that I have so much fun with.
