Las Vegas Weekly

May 25, 2010 · 3:34 PM

Wayne Newton’s two new movies, and he’s a villain once again

By Robin Leach

Wayne Newton dips Cheryl Burke during the grand opening of his Once Before I Go at the Tropicana on Oct. 28, 2009.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Superstar entertainer Wayne Newton has shot two movies in the short time since he ended his run at the Tropicana. Mr. Las Vegas was on a coast-to-coast commute filming one in Los Angeles and the other in Maine back to back.

Wayne laughed when he said he’d once again been cast as a villain. (Remember him as Professor Joe Butcher in the James Bond flick Licence to Kill in 1989 with Timothy Dalton?) He filmed 40 West in rainy locations in Maine.

“I play the husband who not only kills the wife, but I also torture the guy she was having an affair with,” he told me. “That’s pretty gruesome, but a week of nothing but rain was actually worse!”

Wayne is one of only five actors in the film and appears onscreen for most of the motion picture.

In Back to Zero, which he filmed in California, our hometown hero plays an attorney, one of two brothers who inherit their father’s gaming debts.

Wayne and I were backstage at The Venetian Showroom for the taping of the Mike Huckabee shows on Fox News last week. It’s incredible to remember that during his 40 years in Las Vegas, he has performed more than 30,000 solo shows.

He’s appeared in 14 films since his screen debut in 1969 with 80 Steps to Jonah and was seen last year in the box office smash The Hangover.

He also told me that he’s been thinking about and planning a unique, new live stage production, but that it’s very early in its development. No word yet on release dates of either film, but Wayne promised to let me know when he knows.

“I really enjoy acting. It’s completely different than entertaining on the stage. It’s fun to stretch in a different medium. I just wish the bad weather hadn’t gotten to me so badly!”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

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Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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