THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409270124
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LINDA MCNATT
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
In one soap opera, he's on his way to prison. In another, he just escaped from prison.
And still another soap opera has Frank Runyeon incarcerated in a foreign country - Greece, of all places. The American penal system, I guess, got a little boring for this actor who always seems to be committing make-believe felonies.
But felonious seems to be everything that Runyeon is not in real life. In fact, he may be one of the most normal folks around.
Or maybe not.
Judge for yourself if you can catch Runyeon in one of several more performances he's scheduled for this week at Episcopal churches throughout the area.
Runyeon landed in Smithfield on Sept. 20 and began presenting a series of an original play that retells the Gospel of Mark.
Tonight, he'll be at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Charlottesville. Granted, that might be a little far away. But he'll be closer to home Friday at Eastern Shore Chapel in Virginia Beach.
On Saturday, Runyeon will present the play, entitled ``Afraid,'' at St. Aidan's, also in Virginia Beach. And on Sunday, he'll be at Grace Episcopal Church in Yorktown.
If you didn't catch his performance last week, there's still time. I understand it's worth the effort.
``It's unlike anything else I've ever seen,'' said Molly Lundie, who is Runyeon's hostess while he stays in Isle of Wight County, using this rural world as his base while he travels the circuit of eastern Virginia Episcopal churches.
``It made me feel like I was a part of it,'' Lundie said. ``It made me want to go out and spread the good news.''
This actor with the David Copperfield eyes is apparently quite a complex man, and his life is unlike most ``star'' types you hear about.
Runyeon grew up in Pennsylvania, where he was the second of four children of Dr. William Runyeon, a surgeon and a Lutheran, and the former Jane Williams, a homemaker and an Episcopalian. Runyeon was confirmed an Episcopalian.
His acting life started when he attended Princeton, he told me. He got involved with ``The Triangle,'' an acting group there that has been a part of the lives of many major stars, from Jimmy Stewart to Brook Shields.
After he graduated from Princeton, he went to Los Angeles, where ``I began doing temporary work and meeting folks.''
While still working in California, Runyeon attended Fuller Theological Seminary to take courses and especially to learn Greek so that he could write from the original text of Mark.
Later, he returned to New York to attend acting school. That was in 1977. He apparently had the idea that he would try working in television commercials, but instead landed in the soaps. His first soap opera was ``As The World Turns,'' beginning in 1980.
There, he played Steve Andropolous, a ``bad guy who eventually turned into a good guy.''
Also in 1980, Runyeon married. Amazingly, by most actors' standards, he's still married to the same woman. The couple now has three children and lives in Westport, Conn., where they are members of Christ and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.
Since settling in Westport, Runyeon has continued to delve more deeply into religious studies, first at Yale, then at the General Theological Seminary, where he recently received his master's degree.
It was at General Seminary that Runyeon found a Smithfield connection. That's where he met Mantelle Bradley, a graduate student who has stayed with the Lundies while working at Christ Episcopal.
Bradley apparently convinced Runyeon to bring his traveling show to her home state, and the Lundies offered to provide him a ``safe haven,'' Molly Lundie said.
Runyeon apparently is considering going on to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.
``As I've gotten older, I've had to sort out beliefs and practice more,'' Runyeon said. ``I've become more and more interested in the normal world. That's what it's all about, after all.''
Runyeon developed his one-man play and started performing it in theaters while working in Los Angeles. He was cast as Father Donnelly on the NBC soap ``Santa Barbara.'' While he was attending General Seminary, he polished his performance of the tormented saint and took the show on the road to churches and little theaters.
Spending so much time in prison, I guess, allows him time to follow both passions - acting and religion - until he makes the decision about which he will follow.
Probably, he said, it will always be both. He already has completed a new, religious piece, ``Sermon on the Mount,'' in which he plays the apostle Matthew.
``I love soap operas,'' he was quoted as saying, in a recent magazine article. ``but what I'm saying is, `It's not enough.' I need to explore deeper questions and live out stories of faith.''
An unusual man.
If you've been unable so far to catch Runyeon in action, and you'd like to see a real, but unusual, soap star, there's still time. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Frank Runyeon acts in an original play that retells the Gospel of
Mark.
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