Thaao Penghlis Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson

Looking as fit, youthful, and handsome as ever, thrice Emmy nominated, Thaao Penghlis, was a model of class, sophistication, charisma, and information. As has always been the case, the conversation flowed and the time flew. We talked about Thaao’s travels to Egypt and Greece, how to best visit his family’s homeland, The Lost Treasures, his podcast, his passion for cooking, his first appearance on a cooking show, and what he cooked, the recent drop of the paperback of his Seducing Celebrities One Meal At A Time, why he’s no longer on Days of Our Lives, and the illness that he faced without fear, with grit determination to best, which indeed he did. Diagnosed with colon cancer early in the pandemic, Thaao, who’s spent his life with extreme discipline––a Mediterranean diet, little to no junk food, regular exercise, daily meditation, yet he was predisposed to the disease which took his mother. With the same no-nonsense directness, Thaao faces everything in life, he took on his illness and beat it into remission, with the support of loving friends, which he credits with helping him get through the six months of hellacious chemo and radiation, where trim to begin with Thaao dropped 50 pounds. You’d never know any of that to look at him today. When last we met almost two years ago he was not quite on the other side of it but not yet ready to talk about it. Leave it to Thaao to use his challenge to be of service to others discussing it openly, including a suggestion that might ease the path for others now facing treatment. As is Thaao’s style, even this conversation was done with great good humor… culminating with a fabulous story about Robert Redford which got cut short when Thaoo’s battery died. Suffice it to say it has a happy ending with “Bob” as he calls him, being gracious and familiar.

Yes, Thaao's first cinematic starring role was in John Avildson’s, Slow Dancing in the Big City, followed by Ken Russell's, Altered States, with William Hurt, and as Dame Edna’s love interest in Les Patterson Saves the World. He also played the lead, Nicholas Black, in the television series, Mission: Impossible, and starred in several mini-series, including, Tribe, Memories of Midnight, and Under Siege. We talked about none of that. We stayed focused on his current events, the projects Thaao’s working on now with a new writing partner, and his aspiration to produce as well. The weight’s back on, he’s working out thrice weekly, and throwing his fabulous dinner parties. oh please invite me!

Spending time with Thaao is like a feast for the soul - where every course is new, exciting, and delicious, and at the same time, comforting, and familiar.

Thaao Penghlis Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson

Wednesday, 6/19/24, 5 pm PT, 8 pm ET

Streamed Live on my Facebook

Replay here:

https://bit.ly/3KXmSNn