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JOHN BOLGER
Is Not Just Another Pretty Face!
by Lynn Davey
Soap Opera Digest
December 31, 1985

"There's a pretty face; there's an ex-model who's trying to act," says John Bolger, mimicking casting directors he's seen. "I've never modeled in my life," he continues, laughing, "but people immediately assume that you did and you're trying to break into acting."

John is not a former model, but neither is he someone who has dreamed of a career in the arts since childhood. In fact, for many years Bolger's all-consuming passion was athletics, football in particular. Though he admits that during his Bucknell University years he was "primarily owned by the athletic department," John became intrigued by the stage design work of his friends in the theater department. After college, he spent some time working backstage on a Tennessee Williams play and had the privilege of watching the famed playwright at work. This experience led to his decision to pursue a career on-stage instead of behind the scenes. "I think it was just being in the theater and watching actors and directors," he explains. "All of a sudden it became reachable to me."

Eventually, John started the soap auditions route, and landed at GUIDING LIGHT when the show was trying desperately to fill the shoes of the immensely popular Grant Aleksander, who had left the role of Phillip Spaulding in the middle of a hot storyline. "The call was for a 22-year-old Robert Redford," recalls 30-year-old, brown haired Bolger. Not surprisingly, although the audition went well, the actor was told that physically he wasn't right for the part. Nevertheless, a couple of weeks later the GL folks asked him back for a screen test. "I guess they just decided to take a risk and go with a different looking actor than Grant," John shrugs. "I think they wanted to make him a little more sophisticated, someone capable of being a fledgling corporate head."

No one was more surprised than Bolger when he won the role. He was awakened from sleep by a call from a friend he had made at the GL office who said, "Since I told you I'd let you know as soon as possible, I thought I'd tell you the name of the actor who got the role...his name is John Bolger." John was incredulous. "I said, 'C'mon, please, it's too early to joke,' " he remembers, "and she said, 'I'm not joking.' " Still, John remained skeptical. "I went down the halls of the studio thinking that someone was going to come out and say, 'We made a mistake!' "

It was no mistake. Bolger has been playing Phillip for almost a year now opposite Mary Kay Adams (India). "She is an unusually confident lady at the ripe old age of 23," reflects John about his co-star. "She takes her time, she doesn't wait for anybody; if there's something in the script she doesn't like, she'll look into the camera in the control room and say, 'Excuse me, can we talk about this line, please?' She has presence."

Bolger's off-camera leading lady is his opera singer wife, Christine, to whom he has been married for six years. "I was struggling in design and she was struggling in music," he says, recalling their decision to get married, "and we thought, 'Why don't we struggle together instead of apart?' " Christine grew up in Brooklyn and John in Queens but unlike his wife, John discarded the heavy accent of his youth. "All of a sudden I started hearing what I sounded like," he laughs. "Chris speaks like five different languages and sings in eight and when she's working she's impeccable, but when she's home you can cut the Brooklyn accent with a knife. It's hysterical."

Joking aside, John takes his craft seriously, and credits his football days with fortifying him against the bumps and bruises to the ego that are an inevitable part of his profession. "People left and right are going to knock you down -- 'you're too tall, you talk funny, your nose is too big.' Football taught me how to get up off my rear end, because you get knocked down constantly in this business." Acting classes have also helped. "In acting classes, you can't hide in the back," says Bolger, appreciative of the opportunity to try new things without fear of failure. "That was me in modern dance: 'John, move to the front.' I dance like the B train--in one direction!"

Bolger is philosophic about his turn in the acting business. "It's a long shot," he concedes. "A game of odds. I don't think the most talented people are always the most successful. Hopefully, there's a nice combination. You've really got to be able to wait it out--keep working, keep getting better." #