Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 3, 1994 TAG: 9412050015
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
But our hero has matters under control. The broad-shouldered star of ABC's ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' (Sundays at 8 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13) played college football. He knows how to throw a pass.
And, it turns out, how to handle a typewriter. Cain is the author of Sunday's holiday-themed episode, ``Season's Greedings,'' about a vengeful toymaker imperiling fictional Metropolis.
``I started in this business as a writer,'' says Cain, 28. ``Last year, we didn't have a Christmas episode for the show, and I thought that Christmas in Metropolis would be such a wonderful, fantasy-like thing.''
``So I decided to write one. I fleshed it out, pitched it to my producers, who were in the midst of hearing three or four other pitches for a Christmas episode, and I had the right one.''
Writing, not acting, was how Cain intended to make his mark in Hollywood. His plan was to play football professionally and work on screenplays in the off-season.
The Buffalo Bills drafted him, but the then-22-year-old was cut from the team's training roster after injuring his knee.
While recuperating, Cain worked on his writing with the help of his filmmaker father, Christopher Cain (whose credits include ``Young Guns'' and ``Pure Country'').
``Dad gave me an idea to turn into a script,'' Cain recalls. ``He was very disappointed at first. I wasn't getting it. He wouldn't tell me that, though. I could just tell.
``One day it just clicked for me, and I wrote 50 pages in a couple days. My dad was very excited and very happy. He was on my bandwagon now.''
But his father wasn't as enthusiastic when Cain, with a football career now denied him, decided to substitute acting.
``He warned me about the drawbacks: You don't have any power,'' Cain says. ``There's tons of rejection. If you do make it, there's a chance to make a lot of money, but people are going to pry into your private life ... you lose your anonymity.''
Was he right? ``Father knows best,'' Cain says. ``I wouldn't trade what I'm doing, but I was aware of the risk.''
He's approached often by fans who want to meet the legendary Man of Steel. Or get an autograph. Or ask the single actor for a date.
``The fan letters I get are very interesting,'' Cain says. A make-up artist strategically applying a scar to Cain's forehead gives an eloquent shrug; with his looks and athlete's build, what's the surprise?
Christopher Cain stops by the makeup trailer unexpectedly, and his son's affection is clear. The elder Cain is on the Warner lot completing a film.
``There's my father right there! Hey, dad,'' Cain says, then politely introduces him around. Dean was 3 when Christopher Cain became his stepfather; his mother and biological father divorced before his birth.
Part of the pleasure of success, Cain says, is being able to indulge his parents, who put him through Princeton University at a time they were stretched thin financially.
Cain, who turned down football scholarships at other schools to attend Princeton, was an Ivy League star at defensive back and majored in history. He graduated in 1988.
``There's so much I feel that I owe them,'' he says of his parents.
He has found ways to pay them back. Cain wrote a part into ``Season Greedings'' for his mom, actress Sharon Thomas. Cain has also worked behind the scenes on his dad's film projects as a writer.
``He'll get a ton of work uncredited. I'm the cheapest labor the man can get,'' Cain says with a smile.
And probably among the busiest. Besides his ``Superman'' duties and a guest appearance on the syndicated show ``American Gladiators,'' Cain is writing movie scripts and has formed a production company, Off Camera, with two partners.
The company is making an ABC special on what celebrities do away from the job, including basketball player Chris Webber's work with the Boys and Girls Clubs. In another segment, Cain and ``Melrose Place's'' Andrew Shue compete at soccer.
Cain's own leisure time is limited. He plays ``any sport I can,'' and gives the rest of his time to ``girlfriend, movie, dinner, then home. I watch sports on the weekend. It's the football season, so I'm in bliss.''
A full schedule isn't keeping Cain from looking to his post-Man of Steel future.
He's enjoying ``Lois & Clark'' even more in its second, more action-oriented year. ``It's fantasy, fun. It's tongue-in-cheek,'' Cain says. But he doesn't intend to become locked in as a TV superhero. Movies are his goal.
The series, he says, ``has been a wonderful avenue for me. I think this is what I'll be known for to begin with, but I don't think in five years they'll be calling me Superman.''
by CNB