Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 7, 1990                   TAG: 9007070469
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KENNETH BEST THE STAMFORD ADVOCATE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHOW'S STAR IS ITS FAMILY

Smitrovich plays the father of a child with Down's syndrome, a congenital condition characterized by mental retardation, on the ABC series, "Life Goes On."

Christopher Burke, a 23-year-old actor, is the afflicted child both in the series and in real life.

"Chris, God bless him, is fortunate in that he's functionally literate and he is not severly retarded," said Smitrovich.

"Most other Down's syndrome children are not as lucky," Smitrovich said, recalling his own experience of working with Down's syndrome children. "Chris has wonderful work habits. He comes to the set prepared. I've worked with actors who have all their faculties that you need more patience with. Chris does deliver the goods."

Smitrovich said that while there is a tutor on the set for Burke, a situation common for school-age actors, everything else is typical of a television production.

"We have a wonderful on-screen relationship that I wouldn't change for the world," he said. "I'm extremely proud to be the father of a family like this. The program is genuinely heartfelt. It's sensitive of people's perceptions of Down's syndrome. But the star of the show is the family. It's really just about a family."

Smitrovich may be best known to television viewers for his previous roles as Don Johnson's corrupt partner, Scotty Wheeler, in the pilot movie for the "Miami Vice" series and as Sgt. Danny Krychek on the NBC series, "Crime Story."

Smitrovich said that his work on "Crime Story," which ran from September 1986 to May of last year was "creatively frustrating."

"They were focusing in on Torello (Dennis Farina) and Luca (Anthony Denison). When I first signed on, that wasn't what I was told would happen," he recalled. "It turned out to be a bittersweet experience. We had a really good ensemble of actors. I'm still in touch with some of those guys from the show."

Smitrovich began his acting by chance when he was in college. A friend who was in the theater department suggested that he try out for the character of Lennie in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."

"I thought the character was Lenny Bruce. I had never read the play before," he said. "I read it and fell in love with the part."

Smitrovich's work was so good he won the theater department's Best Actor award for that year, even though he was not a member of the department.

Smitrovich went on to earn a master's degree in theater arts from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., where he became a founding member of the No Theater Company, which also included Willem DaFoe, the co-star, with Gene Hackman, of "Mississippi Burning" and of "The Last Temptation of Christ."

Smitrovich made his Broadway debut as part of the ensemble cast in Arthur Miller's "The American Clock," after impressing the playwright and the show's producers when he filled in for the lead actor, who became too ill to perform at the play's premiere at the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina.

"I was hired as an understudy for all the male roles - 28 of them - because every actor played multiple roles," he recalled. "It got me my Equity Card and it also gave me a lot of confidence."

Just before winning the role for "Life Goes On," he was in the off-Broadway hit, "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune."

Smitrovich has also had small roles in several films including "Without a Trace," "Splash" and "Maria's Lovers," and has progressed to featured roles in more recent films such as "Silver Bullet, "Manhunter," "Her Alibi," "Renegades" and "Crazy People."