Jonathan Goldsmith. The name might not mean much, but you would definitely recognize his face. Dos Equis built Goldsmith up as the Most Interesting Man in the World with their long-running ad campaign, and Jonathan was further launched into internet infamy when his image was used on countless memes.
Now, the Most Interesting Man in the World is out of work, as Dos Equis makes plans to move on from the campaign. If that’s not enough to dampen Goldsmith’s spirits, the former Dos Equis is also caught up in a battle with his talent agent.
Dos Equis is no longer interested in Jonathan Goldsmith
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The man who bore the title of the Most Interesting Man in the World doesn’t seem negatively impacted by the loss of his position as the Dos Equis spokesman . In fact, 77-year-old Goldsmith says he will continue to embody the spirit of his Dos Equis alter ego, even without the cameras there to catch his antics.
This is no empty boast for Jonathan, a man who once lived on his sailboat in the Los Angeles harbor. Goldsmith plans to occupy his time by writing a book, which already has the working title of Before I Was Interesting . He says the book will be his autobiography, but will also be written as a guide to success.
“I put all of myself into this character,” Goldsmith says of his role as the Dos Equis spokesman. “What you see on screen was all there long before the this role was created — the beard, the mischief, the tan. I have a tremendous lust for life that hopefully comes across in my portrayal of The Most Interesting Man.”
Jim Hord, a rep from the agency that cast Goldsmith, revealed they weren’t very interested in Jonathan’s look. They were looking for someone younger and more clean cut, but he caught the attention of director Steve Miller.
Goldsmith’s final ad as the Most Interesting Man in the World will air this week. The final commercial for Goldsmith’s Dos Equis campaign will launch him off to Mars.
Jonathan Goldsmith fights it out with his former talent agency
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It was discovered earlier today that Jordan Lee, Inc., the talent agency responsible for placing Jonathan Goldsmith in the Dos Equis campaign, has initiated a lawsuit against Jonathan for failure to pay commissions to the agent. The lawsuit alleges that Goldsmith owes the agency their 10 percent commission on his estimated $1 million per year contract with Dos Equis. Jonathan has played Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World for nine years.
Goldsmith has since issued a cross complaint, saying that the owner of the firm, Tim Jordan, is not who he claims to be and that he had acted to put his career with Dos Equis in jeopardy. Jonathan’s complaint asserts that Jordan is really a “C list” actor by the name of Butch Klein.
“He has assumed a fake name (going by the moniker ‘Tim Jordan’) so that he can presumably fool others about his so-called career as a personal manager,” states the cross-complaint. “That he goes to great lengths to hide who he is is evident by the fact that the name of his company is Jordan Lee, Inc., and does business as Gold Levin Talent even, though his former partner’s name is Tom Gardener. Who is the Gold and who is the Levin? What does Butch Klein have to hide?”
The filing of the original suit comes conspicuously close in timing to Dos Equis’ decision to eliminate the Most Interesting Man in the World ad campaign, suggesting there may be some truth to Goldsmith’s cross complaint.
Goldsmith’s allegations listed in the cross complaint indicate trivial matters that wouldn’t seem to have any bearing on the issue of owed commissions. The talent agency’s legal team would seem to have come to the same conclusion. Attorneys for the plaintiff have said that statements made in Jonathan’s cross complaint are untrue and “irrelevant excuses” for Goldsmith not to pay what he owes to his agent.
[Image by David Livingston / Getty Images]