Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 1, 1994 TAG: 9401010210
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Raines, played by Lorenzo Lamas, is the leading character of "Renegade," a syndicated action series (Wednesdays at 11:30 p.m. on WGN). Lamas's willowy wife, Kathleen Kinmont, plays computer whiz Cheyenne Phillips, half-sister to bounty hunter Bobby Six Killer (Branscombe Richmond).
Lamas, 35, and Kinmont, 28, said that although "Renegade's" first season did well with audiences, they and producer Stephen J. Cannell were not entirely happy with the story lines. Indeed, Entertainment Weekly graded the series a D-.
"Last year, some of the shows were driven by the guest cast," Lamas said. "In some of the plots, Reno, Bobby and Cheyenne were just going along for the ride. And I don't think that's the show Stephen Cannell had in mind. We want to know more about the three regular characters, and I think that's happening this year. The first seven shows have really brought it all together in terms of getting information about what makes us tick."
Cannell added a character named Hound Adams (Geoffrey Blake), a man who holds the key to Reno's freedom. Adams turns up frequently, although not in every episode, as Raines tries to find him and the information he needs to clear his name, much like "The Fugitive's" quest for the one-armed man.
"I think Stephen Cannell wanted to reintroduce the audience to the plot," Lamas said, "and he thought it was necessary to introduce a character that the audience can anticipate showing up now and then to give my character a chance for existing."
Last season Reno Raines' brother showed up; this year the viewers meet their father. And Cannell, 52 and the father of 18 series from "The A-Team" to "Wiseguy," chose this one for his own debut. He plays Dutch Dixon, the cop who framed Raines.
One thing Lamas enjoys in the series is using his martial-arts skills. Another is riding Harley-Davidsons. Lamas owns two, a classic from 1963, and one newer. The show uses a sturdy number for action scenes, and another kept polished "for the glamour shots," he said. Even when Lamas was getting his acting career off the ground, he was a motorcycling kind of guy. When he was playing surfer Rick on "California Fever" (September to December 1979), he would ride to the beach.
As Lance Cumson on CBS's long-running "Falcon Crest," he sometimes cycled off the set with the teen-age daughter of actress Abby Dalton, who played Lance's mother, Julia Cumson. That was what Dalton's daughter, Kathleen Kinmont Smith, had in mind all along: She'd had a crush on Lorenzo Lamas since she was in the ninth grade.
Friends for 11 years, through his marriage to publicist Michelle Smith (a son, 9, and a daughter, 7) and a liaison with actress Daphne Ashbrook (one daughter, 4), they have been married for four years.
They still motorcycle to the beach and to movies and do charity motorcycle rides for the Children's Transplant Fund, an organization for youngsters whose parents can't afford their kidney, liver and heart transplant operations.
Lamas and Kinmont appeared together in "Night of the Warrior," "Final Impact" and "CIA: Code Name Alexa." Their most recent theatrical film is "Human Target." Lamas has just finished directing "Smoke on the Water."
Lamas and Kinmont are second-generation actors, both born when their parents were appearing in television series.
Kinmont's mother, Abby Dalton, was appearing on "The New Joey Bishop Show" as Joey's wife when she gave birth to her first child, Matthew Smith, and later her daughter. "They had to write us into the script," Kinmont said.
Lamas' parents, Arlene Dahl and Fernando Lamas, were big-screen stars who did some television. Fernando Lamas, a star in Argentina, followed his dream to Hollywood in 1951.
by CNB