Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507310120
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Yes, it sounds like a TV star's ultimate ego trip, but Cain seems too modest to have that in mind. He's more the Clark Kent type than Superman.
The show called ``Off Camera With Dean Cain'' is broadcast on ABC on Monday (at 8 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13). The idea is to catch celebrities at fun and games in their leisure time.
The celebrities are mostly of the TV variety: Andrew Shue (``Melrose Place'') playing soccer; Debbe Dunning (``Home Improvement'') on the ski slopes; Matthew Fox (``Party of Five'') fly fishing; and volleyball with model Gabrielle Reece. Plus Daphne Zuniga (``Melrose Place''), Holly Robinson (``Hangin' with Mr. Cooper'') and more.
Cain explained that he conceived the show a year and a half before he landed ``Lois & Clark'' in 1993. He had been doing some commercials and guest roles in television series, nothing very big. He and a buddy shot a 15-minute presentation ``on a nothing budget,'' the premise being how celebrities find recreation off-camera.
HBO accepted the project, but the company wanted bigger names than Cain could produce. So he left after a year. Meanwhile ``Lois & Clark'' broke big. ABC was only too pleased to accept a special by a star of a hit series. He reshot and refurbished ``Off Camera'' with the required star-quality.
Cain grew up in Malibu, son of Christopher Cain, director of ``Young Guns,'' ``Pure Country,'' ``The Principal'' and other films.
``I was a beach kid, but I wasn't involved in the [movie] business,'' he says. ``I knew what my dad did, but I didn't know what that entailed.''
Cain went east for college, enrolling at Princeton. He starred on the football team at defensive back, and the network biography declares he holds the NCAA record for the most interceptions in a single season.
Moving into pro football, he signed with the Buffalo Bills. Three days before the first pre-season game, he underwent knee surgery after an injury. End of football career.
``There were two things in life I was always good at: going to school and playing football,'' he recalled. ``Within a few months, I had graduated from college and I had to retire from football. I found myself sitting on my butt and saying, `Now you really have to get a job.'
``I found something to do: I started writing. My father pushed my writing, telling me I was good at it. So I was writing and making very little money. I started doing some commercials, and I began making money. Out of that came some guest roles in series.''
Cain was the first actor to audition for ``Lois & Clark.'' Nothing happened for a month, then he received a callback. And another. Finally he told the producers he needed an answer because he had other offers for series. He was hired the next day.
How does his father feel about Dean's newfound fame?
``He's proud to a degree,'' the actor replied, ``but he's disturbed by all the attention I get. He's happy, but I think he's concerned that my life is out there so much. He'd like me to have more time to sleep and rest.
``He had warned me never to be an actor. He told me all the ups and the downs. He told me the press was going to get into my personal life. If I broke up with a girlfriend, the press would be all over it. You get caught with a hooker on Sunset Boulevard, you could get in trouble,'' Cain said, adding a laugh.
``I've been all over the tabloids, but for nothing of substance. I don't give them much to write about. I work a lot, I gotta work out to stay in shape. I'm pretty boring, so the tabloids stay away from me.''
by CNB