He may own TV's most All-American image, pure apple pie and vanilla ice cream, but Bruce Boxleitner is totally fed up with saying and doing just the right thing, and acting just the right role too.

"I want," says brown-eyed Bruce, "to be a killer."

Boxleitner, the costar with Kate Jackson, in the hit CBS series Scarecrow and Mrs. King, is, of course, talking reel life, not real life.

"We all have murder in our hearts at some point," he says. "To actually go through with it, though, takes a person to a whole different level. I'd love to have some roles that allow me to make that leap. I don't want to get trapped in comedy. I'd like to be Dirty Harry."

Boxleitner sounds almost apologetic as he makes his remarks, as if he doesn't want to be branded a complainer. He is, he says, grateful to be starring in a successful series. And a nice-guy image is better than what some are saddled with. But, he goes on, he's long been at odds with the way things are done in Hollywood, and he's had it with keeping a lid on his feelings.

"When I arrived, I had a prestigious drama school and a Broadway show to my credit, but all anybody wanted to know was if I had any film on myself," he explains. "A thirty-second 7-Up commercial would have meant more than what I'd done.

"Nobody in Hollywood gives a damn about theater work. Theater isn't taken seriously. It's not box office. Theater has nothing to do with our world here."

For the moment, at least, the 36-year-old actor's world is made up primarily of the work he does on Scarecrow and Mrs. King, a lighthearted drama which features him as a CIA-type spy working opposite Jackson, who plays a homemaker turned sleuth. And while the ratings are fine, Boxleitner feels that quality wise there's a significant change needed: A romance between the two leads—and that's Romance with a capital R—is definitely in order.

"I think we're stringing the public along," he says. "These characters are both single and attractive. Kate and I agree it would make sense for the two of them to get together."

CBS, he says, disagrees and intends to keep the relationship platonic.

For Boxleitner, that most definitely hasn't been the case in his TV projects outside the show. He's made onscreen love to some of the most beautiful and sensuous actresses around today, including Jane Seymour in East of Eden, Linda Evans in Bare Essence and Barbara Hershey in Passion Flower. Even this apparent good fortune is something Boxleitner wants to change.

"I don't want to get stereotyped as a bedroom actor," he says. "I've already proven that I can convincingly kiss girls on screen. But there's a lot more to me than that."

For one thing, he stresses, there's his family. A native of Illinois, the six-foot-two Boxleitner comes from a close-knit, nontheatrical family. He broke ranks by first appearing in school plays, and then on stage in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and finally New York. After moving to Los Angeles in 1972, his first TV appearances was on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Starring roles followed in the series How the West Was Won and Bring 'Em Back Alive.

Besides helping to launch his professional career, How the West Was Won was also pivotal in his personal life. His wife of nine years, Kitty, played his sister in the show.

"Before I met Kitty, I was burning the candle at far too many ends," he admits. "She definitely changed me as a man, and that changed me as a man, and that changed my career. Without her, my career wouldn't be anything like what it is. She's also the best friend I have."

The Boxleitners and their two young children live on a ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, about an hour from the studio. Bruce stays fit—as if anyone had to tell you—by playing tennis, riding horses and working out with a rowing machine.
 

Thanks, Claudia!