Will the real Bruce Boxleitner please stand up? Is he the government agent who saved our country from the bad guys on a weekly basis? Is he the cowboy who runs with Kenny Rogers? Or is he that sexy guy who promotes Estee Lauder’s fragrance for men? Turns out he’s all these people and more.
Boxleitner got his first job on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1972. Then, he landed a recurring role on How the West Was Won, where he met his ex-wife, Kitty. After a four-year stint on Scarecrow and Mrs. King with Kate Jackson, Boxleitner has kept himself busy with TV movies and miniseries. Gambler III, Red River and The Town River are just a few of the projects he’s done. Recently, he starred in the NBC miniseries From the Dead of the Night, a psychological thriller. Hopefully, next fall CBS will pick up his Road Raiders movie as a series. “It’s a comedy adventure. Sort of a combination of M*A*S*H and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Sounds fascinating, just like Bruce Boxleitner.
PLAYGIRL: Recently you’ve been playing leading men most of the time. Would you like to play other characters?
BOXLEITNER: Well, right now I’m really centering on leading men, but when I started my career, I always had a pair of glasses on or a mustache or some sort of disguise, and I was always a psychopath, a rapist.
Oh, that was you.
Yeah, it was me. So, if a terrific heavy role of some sort came along it would really be nice. I’m not going to say I only want to do leading men, but it depends on the role. I’ve worked for a long time trying now to get these leading men parts. They didn’t look at me that way when I first started out in the business. And I’ve had to prove myself that way. I don’t want to jeopardize that.
So, you don’t see your looks as a hindrance?
I don’t see what they’re talking about. I just see what scars I’m getting, you know, sagging here and there and those types of things that happen in life. You know, I see life starting to etch itself on me.
But you’re young. You’re only thirty-nine?
Yes, that’s young. Thank God.
When did you first decide that acting was what you wanted to do?
Probably when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old. I said, “I really like this,” because I started doing plays in high school, out of a total fluke type of thing.
Just fell into it?
Yes, I couldn’t get on a few of the teams and baseball wasn’t till spring, it was a very sports-oriented school and very socially oriented. I just didn’t fit into that stuff. And I was always interested in movies and TV, always. I just needed a place to vent all of that and I went to an audition for a fall play as a sophomore, ended up breaking a big rule there because I got the lead in the play—sophomores never got leads. So, I was a young leading man then. Very young.
Did you have to kiss a girl or anything?
Oh, yeah.
Your first hot and heavy scene.
Yeah. She was like a junior maybe—an older woman yet. Oh, God.
Do you feel comfortable doing love scenes?
Usually, it depends on the partner. And the situation. There’ve been some uncomfortable ones, I’ll tell you, and some very comfortable ones. It’s all part of the role, part of the piece. And sometimes it’s a little aggravating. You don’t feel like making love that day — I’m sorry darling, I have a headache. It’s kind of like that.
The show must go on.
Here I’m talking to PLAYGIRL yet. I can’t believe it. You would put a big staple in me if I did the centerfold.
Do you want to do a centerfold?
No, no, really, there’s nothing to see. You can ask some of my leading ladies.
It seems that now you find yourself a single person again.
It’s a drag. I was married for about ten years. It’s a weird situation. My wife and I are still very, very good friends and we have two beautiful little boys, and it’s just kind of like I’ll always have them but we don’t live together anymore under the same roof. But they’re not that far away from me, they’re only a few blocks away. So that my kids could stay in the same school district with their friends and stuff. And really try to keep . . .
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