PATRICK DUFFY'S MIND IS ON DOING A WESTERN

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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993                   TAG: 9302200366
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PATRICK DUFFY'S MIND IS ON DOING A WESTERN
Patrick Duffy is an actor who has his eye firmly focused on the past.
Duffy, best known for his role as Bobby Ewing on "Dallas," stars in the ABC comedy series "Step By Step."
But Duffy says his dream role is to play in a western, particularly in a film biography of colorful cowboy star Tom Mix.
"That's a dream I've always had," he says. "No one's ever done a good Tom Mix. Bruce Willis played him in `Sunset' and James Garner was Wyatt Earp."
"I'd like to do a film version of Darryl Ponicsan's book `Tom Mix Died For Your Sins,' " he says. "It's fiction, but it tells the history of his life fairly accurately. William S. Hart established the film tradition of the dusty, authentic western. Tom Mix's westerns were more mythical and he created the flashy westerns. He was the first to wear satin shirts, piping and fringed gloves."
Tom Mix starred in scores of western movies between 1910 and his death in 1940. Mix created a colorful background for himself. He reputedly was a rodeo rider, served in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine insurrection, broke horses for the British in the Boer War, was a deputy U.S. marshal and had his own Wild West show.
But before Duffy rides off into the sunset . . .
He's playing a divorced contractor who marries a widowed beautician played by Suzanne Somers in "Step By Step," now in its second season.
"When I left `Dallas' the first time in 1985, the first people who called me were Tom Miller and Bob Boyett," Duffy says. "They wanted to develop a show for me called `Mixed Company,' which would be about a fire company that had just gotten women members. While we were still negotiating, Lorimar asked me to come back to `Dallas.'
"When `Dallas' finally went off in 1991, Miller and Boyett called me immediately. The new show they wanted to talk about was `Step By Step.' I was ready to do a half-hour. Suzanne's name came up. I'd never worked with her, but my attitude was I could work with anybody. I met her for the first time at the table reading, and she became my best friend that day. After the first episode my wife said, `You've finally found the perfect woman to work with.' She's become my new Larry Hagman."
Duffy's first series, "The Man From Atlantis," sank without a trace in 1978. He immediately went into "Dallas."
"It's wonderful to be in a show that has legs, that the network wants to take care of," he says. "That's a gift. I never felt it was a mistake to leave `Dallas,' although everyone tried to convince me to stay. The only person for it was my wife. My agent didn't think it was a good career move. I just wanted to see if I could parlay `Dallas' into something better for me than being in an ensemble.
"When I came back they fulfilled every goal I had when I left. I became a co-lead. Before that it had been Larry Hagman and the rest of us. I got more money and five years of a wonderful working situation."
Few people remember, but David Jacobs created "Dallas" as a modern "Romeo and Juliet" starring Duffy and Victoria Principal. Their marriage would unite the warring Ewing and Barnes families. The original idea was for Bobby Ewing to die and Principal to stay and fight with the Ewings. But it soon became apparent she needed a reason to stay and take the abuse. Thus, Bobby wasn't killed off.
"But once Larry Hagman sank his teeth into it, it became his show," Duffy says. "There wasn't a person on the show who would deny Larry his place."
Although he was born in Montana and raised there and in Washington state, Duffy hasn't really played in a western. The closest was a western story in one episode of "The Man From Atlantis."
"Like every actor in town I want to do a western," he says. "Every actor says he can ride. But I was brought up on a horse. I rode a little on `Dallas,' but it was basically a boardroom and bedroom show. Both of my sons, Padraic and Connor, show horses."
Duffy studied acting at the University of Washington, where he got his master's degree, and it was during this time he met his wife, Carlyn, a ballerina with the First Chamber Dance Co. of New York.
"I had to go to New York to see if I really could act," he says. "I was unemployed for two years, but I got an agent who convinced me I had to move to LA. After two months, I got a play, got fired and didn't work for more than two years. I got my first real job in 1976, a role in the PBS special `The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.' " He auditioned for the Shakespeare Festival in San Diego and spent four months there. Six months later he got "The Man From Atlantis," "and I haven't been out of work since."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB