Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 27, 1993 TAG: 9302270347
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
REAL-LIFE DRAMA
WHEN Elliott Gould accepted a role in the NBC miniseries "Bloodlines: Murder in the Family," he thought he would be contributing to a portrait of a breakdown in family values.Instead, he said, he realized it was a story of how greed can lead to depravity.
In the two-part miniseries, airing Monday and Tuesday (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10), Gould plays Stewart Woodman, who was accused with his brother Neil of having their parents killed in 1985 in the upscale Brentwood area of Los Angeles.
"We filmed it out of sequence and in the first scene, the insurance agent hands us a check for $506,000," Gould said. "I said later that I nearly fainted. I think this story says something about human depravity. I believe our system is predicated on the family. When materialism binds us as the purpose of relationships, it brings out the qualities in the human that are medieval, prehistoric and unenlightened."
The crime came to be known as the "ninja murders," since the assailants were described as wearing black-hooded sweatshirts.
"I was living in Brentwood when this happened," Gould said. "It was a shock that something like that would happen in our community. I thought it was the most secure place I'd ever lived without gates."
Stewart Woodman was convicted of the murders in state court in March 1990. His brother currently is being tried on murder charges, along with two other men, Steven and Robert Homick, who allegedly were hired as hitmen.
Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty for Stewart, but agreed to life in prison without parole in exchange for testimony against his brother and the Homicks.
Authorities said the Woodman brothers had been involved in a business dispute with their father and used the insurance money to subsidize their failing plastics company.
The drama is told from the perspective of Stewart's wife, Melody, played by Mimi Rogers. When her husband was jailed, Mrs. Woodman was forced to take charge of her life and became a top automobile saleswoman.
Gould said he talked twice by telephone to Stewart, who is in a witness protection program in federal prison after being convicted of racketeering charges connected to his parents' death.
"He said he hated his father and loved his mother, but the insurance was in her name," Gould said. "It's believed the parents were killed for the insurance."
Gould is noted for playing characters with flamboyant personalities in such movies as "Bugsy," "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice," "M*A*S*H," and "A Bridge Too Far." Most recently, he played the psychiatrist in HBO's "Sessions."
Gould leaves soon for the Netherlands, where he will star in the Dutch television drama "Hoffman's Hunger," along with his son, Sam, who will play him as a young man. His older son, Jason, recently appeared in "Prince of Tides" with his mother, Barbra Streisand.
"Hoffman's Hunger" is based on a fictional account of the Dutch ambassador in Prague at the time the Berlin Wall comes down.
Gould returned to the stage in the past few years to do "Rumours," "Love Letters" and "Breakfast with Les and Bess."
"I did `Breakfast with Les and Bess' in Edmonton, Canada," he said. "Sam was with me, and it was his first time on stage. I'd wanted to get back and work on my stagecraft. I'd started as a chorus boy, then became a song and dance man. Then I discovered the camera and abandoned the stage."
He also starred in two short-lived network series, "Together We Stand" and "E.R."
"I'd love to do another series," he said. "I don't care if it's network or syndicated. I want to work consistently. I don't know if it would be a comedy, but there's always humor in what I do. It'd be a waste not to have humor."