Billy Campbell: 'In the Beginning'

BYLINE: Eirik Knutzen --
"God knows how I got involved with 'In The Beginning,' because if I were producing the movie, I honestly can't say that I would have been my first thought for Moses," says Billy Campbell, "but they are smarter and better people that I am in NBC's casting department."

Not one to second-guess the powers-that-be, Campbell took the money and reported for work last spring in Morocco and Hungary.

"I have no idea of what I was doing, but it was a heck of a lot of fun," he laughs. "Every day, they pasted a fat beard on my face that felt like a raccoon, gave me a couple of heavy tablets to carry in one hand and made me hold a long staff in the other.

"There I was on the edge of the Sahara Desert, standing on a huge rock with a sheer 60-foot drop in flowing robes with a huge wind-machine blowing behind me," Campbell continues. "I kept thinking, 'I'm either on top of the world or just about to leave it.' Below, a squad of assistant directors were trying to wrangle about 2000 extras and hundreds of animals going in all directions. It's not all that hard for an actor you just sit in your chair until somebody tell you what to do."

For the fun-loving Campbell who also stars as single father Rick Sammler in the hit drama series "Once And Again", "In The Beginning ..." was a wonderful lark on a huge scale executive produced by Robert Halmi, Jr. ("Lonesome Dove") and David V. Picker ("The Crucible") for NPG Holdings, Inc. Primarily based on the books of Genesis and Exodus, it combines the best-loved stories from the Bible including Adam and Eve, Abraham (Martin Landau), Isaac (Luke Mably), Jacob (Frederick Willer), Joseph (Eddie Cibrian) and Moses (Campbell). The international cast also includes Jacqueline Bisset (Sarah), Geraldine Chaplin (Yocheved), Diana Rigg (Rebeccah), Alan Bates (Jethro) and David Warner (Eliezer).

As he parted the Red Sea in front of a blank green screen, it occurred to Campbell that he had something in common with Charlton Heston the current president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), who portrayed Moses in the feature film version of "The Ten Commandments" (1956).

"Chuck Heston graduated from New Trier High School in Wilmette, Ill., where I spent one disastrous year about 25 years ago," he says.

"I was a little intimidated at first by playing Moses, as I had seen Charlton do in 'The Ten Commandments,' then wiped it out of my mind," Campbell continues. "Which wasn't hard to do because that movie was very slow and dated. I may not even have filled one of (Heston's) sandals, but I think our version will move faster and be a lot more fun to watch. And I'm not a complicated actor. When I played Moses, I just tried not to fall off the rock."

Before reporting back on the "Once And Again" set in Hollywood, the dark, spare, 6-foot-4, 41-year-old actor also managed to crank out the Showtime cable TV miniseries "Further Tales Of The City" (2001), his third installment as Dr. Jon Fielding, a San Francisco-based gay gynecologist. The man who once and again exposes his buttocks on "Once And Again" also has a nude homosexual love scene in "Tales."

"I do all my own nude scenes," he quips, "and the key is to keep slim."

Born in Charlottesville, Va., Campbell got his first taste of religion while serving five years in a Baptist military school, the Fort Union Military Academy in Fort Union, Va. It was his cattle farmer mother's idea, as she had her hands full in the wake of divorcing his father, a Chicago-area real estate broker.

"I wasn't particularly rebellious, but needed some guidance after my parents broke up," he explains.

"I was a little difficult as I shuttled back and forth between them, especially since my dad remarried a couple of times and my mom remarried a few times," he continues, knocking back another bottle of mineral water in the bar of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Pasadena. "She didn't remarry quite as successfully as he did, leading to a couple of questionable step-dads. All my step-moms I adore. And I get along fine with my two half-brothers and four half-sisters. One of my brothers wants to be an actor and I think he'll make it."

A fine artist, Campbell eventually enrolled at Chicago's American Academy Of Art in the hope of becoming a comic book illustrator when he grew up. But he was sidetracked after a year, when he accompanied a friend to an acting class populated by a large number of "great looking women." Already bored with art school, he simply stopped attending classes and sought local acting training at the Ted Liss Acting Studio and Second City's Players Workshop. Campbell made his professional acting debut in a Chicago children's theatre production of "Dungeons And Dragons," soon followed by his first screen experience in a telefilm called "First Steps."

Petrified by the camera, he "turned into a block of wood" and was cut out of the movie. Undaunted, he made his way to Los Angeles in 1984 to nail his first on-screen role as a bit player in an episode of "Family Ties." His first major break was a half-season (1984-85) gig on "Dynasty" as Luke Fuller, Steve Carrington's second love interest. His engagement to Virginia Madsen was over by the time of his big leap in Touchstone's cult favorite (and box office dud) "The Rocketeer" (1991) opposite Jennifer Connolly who became his girlfriend for the next five years.

"By the way, the weirdest thing that happened to me while shooting 'In The Beginning ...' in Morocco was literally running into Jennifer and her boyfriend in the lobby of my hotel," he says.

Neither had any idea the other was there. They were just looking for some fun after attending the Cannes Film Festival.

Although low-key and low-profile, Campbell has done it all from New York stage productions of "Fortinbras" and "Backbone Of America" to the feature films "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "Gettysburg" to a regular on the television series "Crime Story" and "Moon Over Miami." Still, the vagaries of the business has left the L.A.-based confirmed bachelor plenty of time to indulge in his one true passion: playing rugby.

"I love playing rugby my favorite thing to do in the world when I'm finished reading a good book," says Campbell, who keeps fit running and working out on a regular basis. "I play for the Santa Monica Rugby Club right now. After 24 years at loose forward, I was recently moved to center and fullback. There are so many things to do; so many things to learn ..."__Copley News Service (November 9, 2000)