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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994                   TAG: 9409070016
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

RICARDO MONTALBAN JOINS CAST OF `HEAVEN HELP US'

The pain is etched on his handsome, leathery face. He moves slowly, hands gripping a walker, then grimaces as he lowers himself into a lounging chair. "I feel as if my legs were wrapped in lead," he sighs.

Meet Ricardo Montalban, survivor.

The 73-year-old actor is not only beating a life-threatening illness, he has embarked on a new television series, "Heaven Help Us," playing an angel, no less.

The one-hour syndicated show, produced by Aaron Spelling, stars John Schneider and Melinda Clarke as newlyweds killed in a plane crash. The couple are required to perform good deeds to earn their angel wings, and Montalban is their guardian angel.

The actor is no stranger to pain. In 1949, when he was a young actor at MGM, a horse threw him on a rocky location for the Clark Gable western "Across the Wide Missouri."

A spinal injury left him in constant pain, which he refused to relieve with sedatives. He walked with difficulty, but managed to move fluidly in roles from "Sayonara" to his long-running series "Fantasy Island."

But one night in June 1993, he suddenly lost feeling in his leg and spent 4 1/2 hours in a magnetic resonance imaging machine "with its infernal noise and claustrophobia." The examination worked up to his neck, where a small hemorrhage was discovered.

"Apparently, it is the same thing that happened when I fell from the horse in `Across the Wide Missouri,' " he said. "It was not the accident itself, but the shock that followed. The doctors tell me it is a congenital condition that causes too much blood in the spine."

In July 1993, Montalban underwent 91/2 hours of spinal surgery at UCLA Medical Center. He said that he emerged so battered and bruised that his wife, Georgiana, and daughter didn't recognize him.

Never during the entire ordeal did Montalban despair - "I consider despair a sin," he said. But he added:

"I did have moments in the hospital when I prayed. I thanked God for a good life and said, `Why don't you take me now?' But then I realized how hard it would be on Georgiana. She is so dedicated to me, and I am so grateful to her for that."

Recovery has been slow. He swims in the lap pool outside his hillside home, a Mayan-like monolith with a view to Catalina. He undergoes therapy three times a week. Perhaps his best therapy is the TV show.

"Georgiana and I went to the Aaron Spellings' house for dinner one night, and he suggested that I play the voice of an angel in his new show," he recalled. "It would be like what John Forsythe did in `Charlie's Angels.' Aaron said, `We'll come to your house and record your lines; it'll keep your mind alive.' I said, `Wonderful.'

"Then some of the sponsors said, `We want to see him again.' I asked my doctor, and he said, `Absolutely. It will keep you busy, you'll forget about your legs, it will force you to get up and do things. Absolutely.' "

Complication: "Heaven Help Us" is shooting in San Antonio, Texas. Twice a month, a limousine takes the actor to the Los Angeles airport, where he is wheeled to a plane. The procedure is repeated in San Antonio, where he films for two or three days, then returns home. A nurse accompanies him.

As Mr. Shepherd, Montalban is not required to walk. "Since he is incorporeal, he can simply appear, sitting in a chair," he explained.

But Montalban is not content to sit, and is understandably impatient about his recovery.

"The legs seem so slow in coming back," he said. "Sometimes, I think I'm making no progress. But then Georgie reminds me, `Do you remember when you couldn't move your legs at all?'

"I was talking to Julio Iglesias, who was in a terrible accident years ago. He told me he was in bed for a whole year, and he still has a small limp. When I told him at three months I was taking tiny steps, he said, `You're way ahead of it.'

"The doctor feels that my legs will get stronger and I'll be more agile. I'm beginning to work with two canes now; eventually, I'll be able to get along with one. But with the spinal cord, you never know.

"I've never given up hope. But I have to be realistic. I gave my tennis rackets to my son, figuring I'd never play tennis again. But my doctor said, `Don't say that. Strange things happen. You never know.' "

"Heaven Help Us" airs on WSLS-Channel 10's late night schedule Sundays at 12:30 a.m.

by CNB