Simple. Pared down. Timeless. The ties were never too thick or too thin; the pants were never too flared or too skinny. In my life with Dad, he wore Western apparel because we went riding - jeans, cowboy boots, the turquoise belt buckle. But it was all very simple, and that classic look is very 'Ralph Lauren.'

I fell completely in love with acting. I guess I was bitten.

It's not what your parents give you. It's what you do with your own stuff.

Dad somewhat enjoyed being called gay. He said it made women want to prove the assertion wrong.

My son Cary's generation likely won't know who my father was, but it's something nice for him that his grandfather was an icon. I had one chance to pass along that name.

Few men in their 70s looked as good as my father did. What was his secret? Genes, maybe, since he didn't exercise or diet, and he kept a candy drawer, drank a pot of black coffee every day, and read in the middle of the night. Still, he took such joy in being a dad - and in life in general - and his happiness showed.

Cary Benjamin sleeps dreamily on my stomach as we're both bonding and recuperating. He's phenomenal.