"I really love being creative. I hate being idle. I don't know, maybe it's a sort of puritanical work ethic, or maybe it's just an out and out neurosis, but I love being busy," explains Michael York with evident passion in his voice.

As engaging as he is genuine, York's personal warmth immediately put me at ease in his inviting, antique-filled Hollywood Hills home. Displayed behind the comfy chairs on which we sat was his long time collection of antique theatre figurines, the oldest one dating back to the mid 1700's. Apart from his passion for art and style, apparent in the décor of his home, a love of creating and experiencing new things becomes obvious when looking at his vast, varied career, which spans over nearly forty years. Not only has he covered the full range of genres, characters and script types in his acting, but he also lectures and performs around the world, has had great success recording audio books, and is the author of two books and the co-author of one more.

Although you may remember him most vividly from Logan's Run, Romeo and Juliet, or The Three Musketeers, it's very likely that your kids now know him as "Basil Exposition" in the Austin Powers films, the third of which is set for release this July.

" You know, you go by instinct," says York, when asked what drew him to the original Austin Powers script. "I think because it was revisiting a time that I had lived through, the whole swinging London scene. I'd actually been there. In fact, I had showed Mike a tape of a film that I had made called Smashing Time, shot in swinging London in the late sixties, and I said, "Those costumes, the clothes the people were wearing, they're not costumes. That's what we all wore.' It was a great time, and so the film [Austin Powers] sort of celebrates that, and now we're into the '70's in this new one."

York affirms that the Austin Powers films really are as enjoyable to make as they look, but he also adds that films aren't always so much fun, and at times can even be artistically disappointing. However, he is quick to point out that making a film is never a totally negative experience. "Sometimes the experience of making a movie was more important than the movie itself."

Lately York has been busy promoting and touring for his latest book, Dispatches from Armageddon, a diary of his experience of making the movie Megiddo, published in January. He is also awaiting the release of several other films. "I want to do some more writing, and I'd love to try my hand at a novel," he says of the near future. "I think the great goal is to feel fulfilled, whatever you're doing."