Person to Person 3/83

"I'm not 22 anymore and I don't hit the ground as easily as I used to," Bruce Boxleitner said recently.

Bruce was contemplating his mortality at that point. All his life he has been Mr. Activity. Getting physical, as the song says, is one way he has of proclaiming his masculinity. Above all, that is what he wants to project - masculinity. "Too much in this town is based upon, I guess you could say, ambivalent sexuality," he continued. "I don't want there to be any doubt what I am and where I'm at."

Bruce has strong views in general. "I don't see any rationale for beating around the bush. Stating what you honestly believe is a matter of personal integrity, as far as I am concerned. Take the Hollywood party route. That's not my scene nor my wife's. That's why we live 30 miles away from Hollywood, in a guard-gate community - to keep away from the chaos. When you attend too many parties, go to a lot of the functions, well, you might as well become one of the lamps or other fixtures.

"The same goes for publicity. I realize the importance of it. Still my people have to kick me hard, get me off my butt to do certain things."

One concept Bruce feels compelled to promote is that of the right kind of folk hero. Sylvester Stallone, through his Rocky films, has become a modern folk hero. So has Harrison Ford, especially as Indiana Jones. Could it be only a coincidence that these two are among the most successful of the newer actors on the scene? Is there perhaps a connection with the preceding onslaught of nihilistic anti-heroes? In short, the public is fed up with the latter, embracing, instead, men who are indeed macho, who have no doubt at all about their sexuality. In an era of gay lib, this might be considered a message sent right to the heart of the Gay Caucus and other such groups.

"Probably I feel the way I do today, savoring a sense of adventure in my life," he went on, "because I didn"t have a very adventurous childhood. That didn't stop my imagination, though. I was into everything on the printed page that was exciting and imaginative. I mean, I read a lot of science fiction. I loved westerns, especially those by Louis L'Amour. And those old films - the serials, the jungle pictures - what a blast!

"Maybe this society of ours needs a whole slew of strong heroes again. Look at the heroes during the 30's and 40's - the Flynns, the Coopers, the Gables. They got things done. Their values were solid, at least on screen. And it seems interesting to me that, today, so many books are coming out which attempt to tear them down - the one on Errol Flynn, the other on Tyrone Power, and so on."

Bruce's outlook is corroborated by the unprecedented emergence of Tom Sellack as The Giant among The New Male Idols. His MAGNUM P. I. series is an incredible blockbuster, demolishing its competition, even though - as Tom admits - the scripts, to put it mildly, frequently leave something to be desired.

In some respects Bruce is a little like The Old Warrior in a more vibrant guise - on screen as well as off. His comments about modern computer technology are especially illuminating.

"My son's only two years old now, but I know for sure he'll grow up understanding technology so completely that it'll be like falling out of bed for him to operate even highly sophisticated computers. Whereas I'm never going to understand any of it. My concern is humanity - by going so far over to computers and machines and so on, aren't we giving up a bit of our humanity in the process? As TRON postulated, the tools can become the masters eventually."

Bruce is no less direct on the matter of gun control. "It really scares me," he said. "Gun control legislation is aimed primarily at the ordinary citizen, not the criminal, though claims are made to the contrary. I mean, they stopped Dean Martin and took his gun away from him. Why did they do that to that man? He's an old man. He should have the right to defend himself. He's not just Joe Schmoe. I think it's a bad rap they've giving him on this; they're harassing him instead of the bums who prey on the elderly!

"A friend of mine was mugged a few months ago. He's only 47 years old but three guys got to him in a parking lot. So there he was on the cement and they're kicking the hell out of hiirn. He found out later that they had killed three persons that night. If he had had a gun, it might have turned out differently; the same might have held true for the murder victims. You can't climb under a rock and hide in fear."

Toward the end of the interview, Bruce related another incident or, rather, series of incidents highlighting his growing concern over the direction of society today: "I was doing a TV movie with Marie Osmond. Now you can't imagine anybody thinking bad thoughts about any of the Osmonds, but especially Marie, can you? Well, I learned differently while we all were in Tucson. It was ironically the day President Reagan was shot. We were on a soundstage surrounded by armed guards - the reason was that a creep was trying to get in and at Marie. I mean, as innocent and wonderful as this family is, they've been the object of death threats like you wouldn't believe. Who would want to hurt them?

"Anyway, this guy had been mailing crazy letters to her. He was seen near wherever she was. Marie was totally blase because it's been all of her life like that. She told me about one time when she was a lot younger, she and Donny and her father and mother were coming off stage. They saw this guy aiming a rifle at the parents - everybody started screaming and he took off. I mean, can you imagine living under such conditions?

"Finally, the guy in Tucson was caught by the police and they couldn't do anything to him. They couldn't find a charge. He hadn't as yet done anything. They could get him for vagrancy but that was it. So certain members of the cast who shall go unnamed found him and took care of him."

Some readers may well find such sentiments appalling - is it ever justified to take such extra-legal action? - but others will applaud the idea that self defense isn't reprehensible. Marie was being victimized and, later, this psychological warfare may have turned into physical abuse. Then it would have been too late to do anything to protect her.

"The men I intend to portray are, by-and-large, men of action, rather in the John Wayne style. They yell; they fight; they vent honest emotions. You know the kind - two-fisted, barrel-chested, able to drink anybody under the table if they have a mind to do so.

"What we're desperately needing in this country are men of action. We've had a lot of guys who are words, words, words. But words can be twisted. The people we've always admired throughout history are the ones who've been decisive, who acted straightforwardly. We're at a point now where we can no longer just sit back and talk."

Thanks, Jim!