Thursday, April 1, 2010

FLASHBACK: Gerald Anthony 1989

From pimp to priest Marco Dane's acting career has more than one life to live

By Alan Carter
New York Daily News
June 25, 1989

When he first walked on the set of ABC's ONE LIFE TO LIVE in 1977, actor Gerald Anthony was signed to play oily-slick pimp Marco Dane for only about eight episodes.

But Anthony, almost overnight, became one of the most popular men in daytime. Anthony's eight-day job turned into an eight-year run. He played opposite Judith Light (Karen the unhappy hooker, who now stars on WHO'S THE BOSS?) and Brynn Thayer (Jenny, Karen's goody-goody sister). Anthony and Thayer, incidentally, would later marry-and divorce-in real life.

Anthony's Marco was both sexy and funny, and he was one of the first legitimate TV antiheroes.

Anthony was much praised for being able to switch effortlessly between playing a leading man and character actor. He was nominated for a daytime Emmy in 1982.

To longtime fans of the show, the days when he and Light and Thayer and too many others to name romped around Llanview was "One Life's" glory period.

These days, Anthony, just as sexy and just as funny, is back on the hit ABC soap-albeit briefly-reprising the role that made him a daytime legend.

The hairline has receded slightly, but the talent has not.

"I'd say the hair has receded a lot," jokes the actor. "I saw some of the old pictures of myself and, man, I gotta tell you, I look different. I wanna say, `Who is that guy?' I was this hip, happening young guy. Now I'm a man."

Yet whatever "it" is, the man still has it.

"Just yesterday," Anthony relates, laughing, "I was walking in Little Italy. This woman yells out to her husband, `Come here, I want you to meet Marco from the soaps.' He says, `I don't want to meet any damn guy from any damn soap opera. Who cares about that?'

"But he comes over, finally, and he goes, `My God, look, it's Father Pete from WISEGUY.' I found it so gratifying. I had gotten jaded. I used to not appreciate being tugged on. I even resented it. But I now feel a lot better about myself and appreciate my success."

Anthony admits that the turnabout came from sometimes feeling he wasn't being appreciated by the industry.

"It was always so weird to me," he explains. "I'd be mobbed one place and not known in others. I remember this one time, I went up for an interview (for a film role) in the Gulf building. In the elevator, I was accosted by this large number of secretaries. I mean, I'm not complaining. I almost wanted to stay in the elevator. Anyway, there's all this commotion when I get off the elevator. The (casting) woman I'm meeting says, and viciously too, `Who are you?' "

Getting known in Hollywood wasn't easy either. There aren't many actors who can convincingly go from pimp to priest.

But Anthony says he found his daytime past was an enigma to casting people and producers.

"It was hard," he says, "I had this girlfriend who said, `People can see you're angry about (having to prove yourself all over again) so you better mellow out.' So I got into meditation and learned to relax and be kinder to myself." He pauses, and laughs, "God, I hope that doesn't make me sound flaky or Californian."

Post daytime, Anthony eventually got his career in gear. The early results were memorable turns on WISEGUY (as Vinny's now deceased brother, the priest) and on L.A. LAW (as the attorney-baby broker who broke Ann and Stuart's hearts with an adoption that went awry).

"When they killed me on WISEGUY I couldn't believe it," he says, "I found out reading the script. I thought, how could they do this to me? But it turned out for the best. It allowed me the chance to do many different roles." One such role is his first costarring part in an upcoming feature, Secret of the Ice Caves in which he plays the lead bad guy.

So why back to ONE LIFE? Simple, says the Pittsburgh native.

"I love daytime. There are many phenomenal performers. I always wanted to go back for a short stint. (He's leaving in another month.) ... " And, he deadpans, "Of course, I'm also coming back for the money."

Anthony, if he could change anything professionally, probably would like to have people stop typecasting him.

"I went on this movie audition not too long ago to play a real street guy-basically, a Marco type. A role I couldn't be more comfortable in, right? Anyway, I'm waiting to meet the producer and they never called. So I called my agent. `Hey, what's going on with the movie?' He says, `Ger, the producer saw you play the priest on `Wiseguy' and says she can't get it out of her head-she says no way could you ever play a street guy.' I guess I should be flattered, huh?"

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