I hang out in all the world’s most exotic places for my job but I’ll never take a photo. That’s Harry’s game
Actor’s in Benson family album
When you travel the world filming in exotic locations, a decent set of holiday pics are a must.
If your father-in-law is legendary Scottish photographer Harry Benson, you just don’t bother.
American actor Michael Landes is the star of globetrotting new drama Hooten and the Lady, playing a roguish adventurer who teams up with an English aristocrat to save the world’s lost treasures.
The big-budget show saw him and co- star Ophelia Lovibond film at locations from the Vatican to Red Square to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
But Michael, who is married to Harry’s actress daughter Wendy, got other people to take the pictures.
He said: “Harry did get me a proper camera but I was scared to bring it over because I could hear him yelling, ‘Don’t do that, put it here’.
“We have stills photographers who travel with us and to be honest, they take pictures which are better than anything I could ever capture on my iPhone or whatever.”
Michael, 43, came to Edinburgh with his wife and their kids Mimi, 12, and Dominic, nine, in August for the opening of an exhibition of Harry’s work at the Scottish Parliament. Harry Benson: Seeing America runs until December.
The New Yorker is a devotee of Harry’s photographs, which includes pictures of The Beatles in America in 1964 and ever y US president since Dwight D Eisenhower took office in 1953.
Michael said: “When I started seeing my wife, she said her dad came to America with The Beatles and The Beatles pictures were familiar to me.
“I have been married almost 16 years now and I feel like I am as educated, if not more educated, about Harry than my wife or her sister. She says, ‘Ask Michael – he knows more stuff.’ It’s just because I love him. He’s a real pal.
“He’s cheeky and he’s fun and he’s been all over the world and he’s been a bit of an adventurer because he has had to work and scrap his way through. He has great anecdotes and stories that inspire me on my little journey as an actor because we go in and out of work all the time.
“If you get the chance to go and see the exhibition at the Parliament, I would recommend it. That body of work is pretty extraordinary. He’s l ike Forrest Gump. He’s been everywhere history has been made, like Nixon resigning or Robert Kennedy being assassinated.
“He won’t take a family photo though. The kids are all screaming and saying, ‘I don’t want to do that’. It’s kind of comical to see him trying to do a picture with the grandkids.”
If Michael’s kids won’t sit for their grandfather, they are becoming more aware of his achievements and body of work. He said: “If my kids are learning history, they get to take