Letter: John Gavin the ambassador

Ronald Bergan’s excellent obituary of John Gavin devotes just one sentence to the ambassadorship in Mexico that followed his acting career. I was there at the time too, and it looked as if it would lead to greater things.

Gavin made a great splash when he arrived in 1981 – a film star, a Latino with a Mexican mother, bilingual in Spanish, married to a glamorous actress, what not to like. The fact that like Ronald Reagan, who had appointed him, he had made his political start as president of the Screen Actors Guild was interpreted by observers as a clear pointer to presidential ambition. It was not lost on them, nor very probably on Gavin, that he was a better actor, better looking, better known, had a much better education and, unlike Reagan, had seen active service. Add to that he was a youthful 50 and brimming with self-confidence.

The high-profile role he took in Mexico and the fact that hardly a week passed that he did not fly up to the States to make several speeches did nothing to dispel the belief in his political ambition. It was widely believed that Reagan had promised him a cabinet post if he was re-elected. He did not get it and instead devoted himself to a successful business career.

His diplomatic style in Mexico led to some criticisms. I was incautious enough at an American chamber of commerce event to imply that, when a country had great clout as the US had in Mexico, it could best achieve its aims in a low-key fashion. Gavin complained to the British ambassador, whose deputy I happened to be. Not a man to cross lightly. He might have gone far.