In television,
"three strikes and you're out" means as much as it does in baseball.
So, Bruce Boxleitner has good reason for joy over the high ratings of his
third TV series, CBS' Scarecrow and Mrs. King.Bruce Boxleitner Hits Pay Dirt by Pat Hilton
In television,
"three strikes and you're out" means as much as it does in baseball.
So, Bruce Boxleitner has good reason for joy over the high ratings of his
third TV series, CBS' Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
Nevertheless, he knocks on the formica in his trailer-dressing room. The 33-year-old actor has often had great expectations, only to see his hopes dashed. He mentions the films "Tron" and "The Baltimore Bullet," last year's TV flop "Bring 'Em Back Alive," and his first TV series, "How the West Was Won."
"You vividly remember that series, right?" he laughs mockingly. "Everybody was saying, 'This is it, kid.'"
The tall, handsome actor is frank about the setbacks, even thought he found them shattering at first. "I'm a persistent cuss," he explains matter-of-factly. "You just go away and lick your wounds. You have to grow a shell and thick skin, and say rejection is part of this. None of those at the top were successful all the time. They had to fight to get there."
But dealing with rejection is not Boxleitner's problem at the moment. During a short break on location in Los Angeles, the actor reflects on success.
The espionage series in which he plays Scarecrow with co-star Kate Jackson as Mrs. King is one of the most popular new shows. "I'm soused to being almost successful," he says, "getting a lot of hoopla, and then seeing things not pan out, that I'm a little wary. It's not easy to relax and enjoy it."
Even so, he says the show had the feel of a winner from the start. He gives much of the credit to Kate, and he speaks of her with deep respect. "We bounce off each other, and that's the essence of the show."
But even quick success has its shadows. Jackson's serious ankle injury last month took a long time to heal Then, she re-injured it. For a while, the show had to work around its leading lady, a situation Boxleitner termed "a mess."
Boxleitner first got into drama because he couldn't make first string in high school athletics in the Chicago suburb of Mt. Prospect. Not content to sit on the sidelines, he became the first sophomore ever to get the lead in the school play.
"Once I got on stage and heard that applause, it was pretty addictive," he says. And when he starred in "A Man For All Seasons" during his senior year, the play won a state championship award and his future was set.
His parents warned him about starvation and other such occupational hazards, but there was Boxleitner's rather abysmal school record to deal with. "I wasn't the best student in the world. I was always looking out the window," he chuckled. "As soon as I discovered drama, I became a worse student."
Actually, his love for acting goes back even earlier. Summers spent with his grandparents on a farm included weekly trips to town and Saturday afternoon matinees.
"I got so lost in that world," he says. "I'd go back to the farm and build a fort with the hay bales and be Errol Flynn. This is like doing that again," he says of his profession. "I don't think I have ever lost that part of me. I used to sit and watch television, watch actors, and dream I could do that. And here I am, actually doing it. It's like never really having to grow up."
Boxleitner has found other ways to hang on to the best part of his childhood. He and his wife, former actress Kathryn Holcomb, whom he met when they both made How the West Was Won, live with their three-year-old son Sam in Hidden Hills, Calif. It's rural enough to tolerate their goats and horses.
Describing himself as "basically a country boy," Boxleitner also considers himself a disciplined person: "I don't drink too much. I don't eat too much. I exercise." Besides horseback riding, he runs about 20 miles a week. He also - surprisingly for a boy who once hated school - reads voraciously and favors history. One of his hopes is to make a miniseries based on a favorite, though obscure, early American hero - George Rogers Clark, brother of William Clark (of "Lewis and Clark" fame).
Right now, he'll be happy to have a good run with "Scarecrow" and develop a clearer identity. "I think success in this business is definitely longevity. I just want to be able to keep working." And with his dogged Midwestern work ethic an integral part of his makeup, Bruce Boxleitner has every reason to get his wish.