COVERSTORY  02.26

Candy Spelling

Three Fascinating Life Chapters

Photography by Fadil Berisha.
Story by Diana Addison Lyle

Candy Spelling has called Beverly Hills home lifelong. Chapter 1.0 of her life in the famous entertainment town was her childhood spent with her family. Chapter 2.0 skyrocketed her into a sphere she could never have imagined. She was in her early 20s and spending the night with a girlfriend while her parents were out of town when she had agreed to a double date on that Saturday night, starting with dinner at La Scala, and then the private nightclub, Daisy, on Beverly Drive. It was there that they sat at Tina Sinatra’s table, and later on, a well-known, charming playboy around town, Aaron Spelling, asked Candy to dance. Candy describes that encounter vividly:

“There was something indescribable between us from the moment we met. It was a profound connection. I remember feeling like we could see something in each other that no one else could. We danced to eight or nine songs together, including ‘My Funny Valentine’, and during one of the dances, Aaron said, ‘I’m going to marry you some day.’”

They dated for the next two and a half years exclusively – oftentimes glamorously, and sometimes like teenagers parked off Doheny Drive and Carmelita Avenue with Aaron’s 120-pound Belgian Shepherd, Adam, on board, while all three of them steamed up the windows of the black Cadillac Brougham! They were married on November 23, 1968, and their first dance as husband and wife was to ‘My Funny Valentine’, the same song from their first encounter at the Daisy. Candy says that once they were married, she knew it would be forever.

She describes hers and Aaron’s union in its broadest sense:

“I was a young girl when I married the hardest-working television writer in Hollywood. Fortunately for me, my new husband’s talents at the typewriter were matched by his kindness and generous spirit. With his loving support, I was able to overcome emotional obstacles and fill the shoes his immense success laid out for me. For almost four decades, my job was to raise our two beautiful children, entertain, and create the stable homelife Aaron needed so he could be out there in the Hollywood trenches. When Aaron died, I not only lost my life partner, but I was also suddenly missing the force of nature who had defined me and our family. For the first time in 38 years, I had to learn to function in the big, scary world on my own.” The year was 2006.

So began Chapter 3.0 of Candy Spelling’s life and this time, she was certainly no ingénue. In 2012, she starred in and executively produced the series Selling Spelling Manor wherein she moved out of her family’s legendary 56,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion. The show broke rating records for the HGTV network.

Candy’s natural creativity and artistry were observed in other professional quarters, and New York Broadway came calling. Her first co-production, Promises, Promises, starred Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. It went on to be nominated for four Tony Awards. Candy’s second Broadway show, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, opened with Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role. That was followed by Nice Work If You Can Get It, which was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won for Featured Actor (Michael McGrath) and Featured Actress (Judy Kaye). 2013’s After Midnight, based on Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club, was nominated for seven Tony Awards.

Candy had found her niche and had become an unstoppable force of nature in a world in which she thrived.

In 2016, she produced The Color Purple which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. In 2018, her production credits included The Iceman Cometh (starring Denzel Washington), the revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel, which won two Tony Awards. That was followed by Three Tall Women, which also took home a couple of Tony Awards.

Candy’s successes kept multiplying. In 2021, her Broadway production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical won 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Also in 2021, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical took home a Tony Award for Best Performance as an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. That was followed by MJ The Musical which won four Tony Awards in 2022, including Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical.

Candy says passionately, “Broadway has been my Best Emotional Return on Investment.”

She dives intensively into that happy topic with enthusiastic sentiments:

Candy & Aaron Spelling

There was something indescribable between us from the moment we met. It was a profound connection. I remember feeling like we could see something in each other that no one else could. We danced to eight or nine songs together, including ‘My Funny Valentine’, and during one of the dances, Aaron said, ‘I’m going to marry you some day’

“I’m most proud of the two Tony Awards that I’ve won. They always make me smile when I walk into my den and right along next to my husband’s Emmys are my two Tonys. We have a little mixture going there – Moulin Rouge! The Musical (2021) and The Color Purple (2016).”

I ask Candy if she was aware of her talents before the birth of her Broadway career.

“I had always helped my husband throughout his career, particularly when it came to casting and wardrobe. At the time I didn’t think anything of it. I just thought I had better taste than the wardrobe person (laugh). It was only after my husband passed when I was introduced to Broadway that I got bitten by the bug.”

With the warmest of smiles, Candy describes how compellingly Broadway pulled her in:

“My first production was Promises Promises, and the first time that the cast and orchestra came together was a powerfully impactful moment for me. To this day, I literally cannot wait to get to New York for that uplifting moment. Every stage of Broadway is so different from television, and it all happens immediately. The live aspect of it is thrilling, and when you hear that audience applause, there is something magical about it.”

We chat about the immense skillset that actors need to perform on Broadway.

“Oh yes,” Candy confirms. “There is no second take, and if you make a mistake, you have to make it look like it’s part of the script. The trick is to convince the audience of that.”

Reluctant to talk about her own skillset, Candy immediately deflects the spotlight from herself onto Myles Frost who made history by becoming the youngest actor (at age 22) to win a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Michael Jackson in MJ: The Musical.

“That is what put the play on the map,” she says, “because we didn’t win for Best Musical, but Myles’s best actor award drew significant attention to this wonderful musical, and suddenly, you couldn’t buy a ticket to the show. Now we have approximately 8 or 9 Michael Jacksons across the world.”

Candy’s immense respect for her late husband is echoed in these words from her memoir:

“Forever Aaron – who is the heart and soul of who I am today.”

She describes him during their 38-year marriage:

“My husband was a genius at giving audiences television shows that became a part of American culture. There was Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210.”

I ask about his secret sauce:

“He didn’t necessarily win a lot of Emmys,” she says, “but he used to say to me, ‘I know how to produce eye candy.’” Candy laughs as she says, “no pun intended!”

“His shows were universally popular, and in the days when he was shooting Dynasty, the cast and crew became a family, and every week they’d meet at a restaurant or at someone’s house. There were regular Dynasty parties. Aaron had such an eagle eye. He surveyed everything and he would notice and calibrate the smallest details. He was an absolute perfectionist. Details mattered. What most people don’t know is that Aaron was particularly brilliant in the cutting room. He knew how to cut a piece at the beginning of the show and transfer it to a much better place at the end of the show. His instincts always served him well.”

We discuss whether poverty ignites a person’s ambitions and Candy offers this perspective:

“My opinion is that Aaron would have been successful no matter what environment he came from, but being very poor as a child certainly intensified his will to be successful. His perfectionism was probably more prominent because of his childhood experience. Aaron knew how not to waste anything. He would take unread newspapers off people’s front lawns and sell them!”

For almost four decades, my job was to raise our two beautiful children, entertain, and create the stable homelife Aaron needed so he could be out there in the Hollywood trenches. When Aaron died, I not only lost my life partner, but I was also suddenly missing the force of nature who had defined me and our family. For the first time in 38 years, I had to learn to function in the big, scary world on my own

Aaron’s show, The Mod Squad, was a leader in social consciousness in this country. It explored the anti-war movement, women’s rights, racial issues, and child neglect. I ask Candy if she and Aaron were committed to drawing the spotlight on these important topics? She answers unequivocally.

“100%. Nobody really knew how bad the prejudices in our country were. Aaron had to step in to help his friends of color who couldn’t buy a house because of the color of their skin. As a child, I was never exposed to racism that much, but my husband was exposed to discrimination in his childhood home state of Texas. He related the story to me of when he was a young boy, and there was a contest at one of the department stores there. The winner would get a bicycle. When they found out that my husband was Jewish, they gave him a football instead. Incidents like that have deeply scarring effects.”

I ask Candy if she’s particularly proud of the fact that many of her Broadway productions, too, were frontrunners on important social issues.

“Certainly, Suffs was very important,” she says. It opened on Broadway in April 2024 and was nominated for six Tony Awards. “It’s based on Shaina Taub’s book about the women’s suffragist movement. It focuses on the historical events leading up to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 that gave women the right to vote. It brings attention to women’s rights and has enormous relevance today.”

We discuss the progress in women’s rights since 1920, and Candy’s response is cautiously measured:

“We’ve progressed a great deal but with what’s going on now, I have concerns.”

Prince Andrew of Britain was recently stripped of all his royal titles following his alleged involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and Candy offers an enlightening perspective.

“I think that Prince William is the voice of much-needed change in the family. I believe that the next five years are going to see a lot of changes in the British Royal family because of his enlightened approach.”

A lifelong Beverly Hills resident, Candy describes some of the immense changes in her Hollywood neighborhood.

“When I grew up in Beverly Hills, it was a very small town. I remember walking from the top of Beverly Drive all the way down and we’d go into the 5-and-10 store. People didn’t lock their car doors. It was so different from today’s Beverly Hills. There is a lot of privilege in Los Angeles because it remains the center of the world’s entertainment industry but when our children were little, we led very different lives compared to the kids now. We were in the Cub Scouts and the Brownie movement, and I would go with my children to those events which were all about social responsibility and doing good works for those less privileged. We recognized the importance of charitable endeavors. Little charities mattered – not just the huge press-illuminated charities. There was something importantly noble in the little charities. So much has changed and I’m sad about it. My grandkids are growing up in a very different world than I did.”

We debate the merits of technology and social media. We agree that whenever science and technological advancements give us something massively useful, it highlights both the good and the blemishes in society.

Candy has always been committed to extensive philanthropic work, and she and Aaron were involved in it long before he became very successful.

“I’ve been in philanthropy since I was 22 years old. I married Aaron and I worked a great deal with charities. I determined that there were worthwhile things to do with my time instead of playing canasta. Aaron and I were both very strong minded about helping children and animals, and to this day, I’m still heavily involved in both. In fact, I just got back from a board meeting in the Canary Islands. Children and animals are defenseless.”

Memorable evening at Spelling Manor 1994: Governor Wilson and his wife, Aaron and Candy Spelling, Lew and Edie Wasserman and HRH Prince Charles – now King Charles

Suffs opened on Broadway in April 2024 and was nominated for six Tony Awards. It’s based on Shaina Taub’s book about the women’s suffragist movement. It focuses on the historical events leading up to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 that gave women the right to vote

“I shall never forget the time I volunteered to spend an afternoon with a young girl, and she said to me, ‘my mom is in jail.’ It hit me like a train that this young girl had nothing to go home to. My husband and I were so exceptionally fortunate and anything we could do to help others was very important to us. The first thing that my husband and I did in the early phase of our marriage when Aaron hadn’t been making a huge salary for long was to pay for a new heart for a young athlete in high school. It was a stretch for us, but we were determined to pay for it. It hit both of us very hard and the feeling we experienced after this young person’s life was saved – was one of euphoria. It filled up our hearts.”

Spelling Manor held numerous Hollywood parties and Dean Martin was a particularly special friend to the Spellings.

“He was the sweetest man ever,” Candy says with much sensitivity. “He was very lonely, even though he was married. He didn’t let people into his world. He lost his 35-year-old son, Dean Martin Jr., in a tragic F4-C Phantom jet crash during a military training flight in 1987. He was never the same afterwards. Dean treated everyone with such great respect.”

Other fond memories she has of the stardust and sparkle at Spelling Manor include the formidable presence of Bette Davis who was revered, as was Joan Crawford.

“I was so in love with Rock Hudson,” Candy laughs. “I always thought he was the greatest! When I first started dating Aaron, he took me to a party at Rock Hudson’s house and Princess Grace was there. I was so shy and starstruck to meet her, that I locked myself in the ladies’ room. I was jettisoned into this larger-than-life world when I married Aaron, and in the beginning, it was a huge adaptation for me. I mean, I remember sitting next to Fred Astaire, my childhood idol at a dinner!”

Amongst Candy’s numerous accomplishments in the Chapter 3.0 phase of her life was her election to the Board of Directors of L.A. Inc., the Los Angeles Convention Center and Visitors Bureau. She was also one of the few women members of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, which is dedicated to bringing influential and visionary leaders in international affairs to speak at events in Los Angeles.

“It was a very stimulating period,” she says. “We talked about a lot of heavy-duty topics, and I learned so much.”

Candy’s stardust memories also include the simple pleasures in life.

“I would bake in the middle of the night. My apple pies were always delicious, and Aaron and I would have chocolate soufflé together. Aaron loved that. At Holiday time, I’d make everything from scratch including the bread stuffing in the turkey.”

The best aspect about my life is that I wouldn’t change a thing. I think I was immensely fortunate to have had the life I did. I now have a huge bucket list, and I’m making my way through that

“The best aspect about my life is that I wouldn’t change a thing,” Candy says with certainty. “I think I was immensely fortunate to have had the life I did. I now have a huge bucket list, and I’m making my way through that.”

“I’ve been traveling a lot and just returned from spending a month away. We started in Tenerife, which is the largest of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of northwestern Africa. From there we visited London, then Hong Kong, and then several places in China. I walked up one sixteenth of the Great Wall of China (laughter)! After that, we visited Tokyo and from there we branched out to several places in Japan.

Aaron Spelling never flew, and it’s clear that Candy is packing in the flying miles to make up for that.

She confirms, “I’m getting to all these wonders of the world that I never got to see before. Even at my age, it’s really exciting.”

As for Candy’s favorite relaxation activities, she says, “I play poker once a week; in fact, I played poker last night and I lost, of course (laughter). I’ve always loved crafting and making things with my hands. I’m known for my gift wrapping.”

Candy omits to mention that she had a very successful store in Beverly Hills which was full of creative beauty and detailed craftmanship. In addition, she is a doll connoisseur. She had a famous doll collection at the Manor, and she created and designed the Candy Spelling Fantasy Dolls, which were sold exclusively on QVC.

Looking forward, her New Year 2026 wishes include:

“More Broadway! Definitely. Love everything about those productions. It’s been incredibly gratifying to be involved with the shows.”

“I also have some fun side projects in the works. It’s a little premature to discuss them, but they are percolating and I think you are really going to like them.”

On a far broader and important scale, Candy concludes earnestly,

“Most of all, I wish that everyone could live in a peaceful and happy world. That is my biggest wish.”