At 23 he debuted onscreen as the Emperor Caligula in The Robe (1953) and received rave reviews; he seemed set for a great film career until 1958, when he was arrested for possession of narcotics. For over a decade he was black-balled in Hollywood and found no acting work. In the late '60s he started finding roles on TV, and was given a costarring role in Bette Davis's film Bunny O'Hare at Davis's insistence; since then he has appeared in numerous films. He authored an autobiography, The Comeback.