Renaissance man Wings Hauser — prolific character actor, singer/songwriter, director, and scenarioist — who Entertainment Weekly once dubbed “The Biggest Star You’ve Never Heard Of,” passed away on March 15, 2025.
Wings Hauser, Rest In Peace
A statement uploaded to his official Facebook page noted: “Movie icon Wings Hauser took flight in the arms of his film & music partner, Cali Lili Hauser at their studio this weekend…
“Wings Hauser’s one-of-a-kind, legendary career spanned 58 years in movies, tv & music working alongside many of the greatest artists in the industry and earning their respect.”
In a subsequent statement, Cali said: “We were children together, we played life every day, played music and wrote songs together every day in preparation for several upcoming albums, books, and a new movie with original soundtrack like our most recent award-winning release ‘Eve N’ God; This Female Is Not Yet Rated,’
“He said that I was his future, and even though I am a feminist, I found my perfect partner in this man and was happy/proud to be building something together. I never thought I would ever get married or have a partner until I met Wings. Of course, it’s much harder now, but I’m going to fulfill his wishes that I ‘continue the work’ and fulfill all the projects we set up to do in the next few years.”
The son of Geraldine Thienes and blacklisted screenwriter, actor, and film producer Dwight Hauser, eighteen-year-old Hauser made his on-screen debut in an uncredited role in the 1967 war flick First Flight, but largely eschewed the acting profession for the majority of his twenties, choosing instead to eke out a living as a folk musician and busker.
In 1975, Hauser recorded an album for RCA, Your Love Keeps Me Off the Streets, under the name “Wings Livinryte,” then nabbed a guest spot on Cannon, which netted him a SAG card.
He became a household name in December 1977 when he succeeded Brian Kerwin in the role of idealistic legal eagle Greg Foster in The Young and the Restless. During Hauser’s tenure, Greg succeeded in uniting his love-struck widowed mother and her great love, Stuart Brooks, despite his grasping sister Jill’s attempts to sink her claws into the monied gent, but ultimately failed at holding his marriage to wildcat Nikki Reed (Melody Thomas Scott) together.
In 1981, Hauser left the CBS sudser for pastures new (though he returned for a three-episode stint in 2010), and quickly racked up a plethora of credits on both the silver screen — his probably best known for playing putrid, mononymous pimp Ramrod in Vice Squad (and also the writer/performer of the film’s theme song, “Neon Slime”), and murder-minded Sheriff Luther Regency in the Norman Mailer-directed, Ryan O’Neal-starrer Tough Guys Don’t Dance (which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male), — and the boob tube, including Magnum, P.I., The Fall Guy, Murder, She Wrote, Roseanne, Beverly Hills 90210, and Criminal Minds.
Hauser also wrote the story for box-office smash Uncommon Valor, based on stories shared by a childhood friend, Gary Dickerson, who had been to Vietnam.
In addition to Cali (with whom he founded an indie film and music studio), Hauser is survived by his daughter, Bright Hauser (from his first marriage to Jane Boltinhouse); his son, actor Cole Hauser (ex-Rip Wheeler, Yellowstone); his sisters, Helena and Marcia; and his grandchildren, Hutchinson, Holden, Ryland, Colt, and Steely Rose. His brother, Erich, preceded him in death in 2017.
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