Gorgeous, soft-spoken Travis Fine plays Ike McSwain, the gentle-natured Young Rider on ABC'S popular Western series. 16 caught up with Travis on location in Arizona, where all of The Young Riders episodes are filmed, and here's what we found out about the terrific Travis:

Is it hard for Travis, who used to wear his hair on the longish side, to portray a bald character on The Young Riders? The answer is: absolutely not! Travis doesn't mind having to shave his head every day, because it's an important part of Ike's character.

"Ike lost his hair from scarlet fever and his speech from witnessing the horrid, brutal deaths of his parents." Because he's so different from the other Young Riders, it was hard for Ike to feel accepted at first. "But," Travis told 16, "once everyone got to know him, they began to realize that he was, in many ways, the strongest one in the group."

Travis Lane Fine is 5'10" tall and weighs 150 pounds. He was born on June 26, 1968 in Atlanta, Georgia and he lived there until he was 14. After he saw the play, Treasure Island, when he was in kindergarten, he set his huge hazel eyes on the dream of becoming an actor, and he's never wanted to be anything else since. After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting as his career.

Life wasn't always so easy when he was just starting out -- he waited tables in a restaurant for almost a year before eventually landing roles in TV 101 and Cagney and Lacey. When Travis' agent showed him The Young Riders script, he fell in love with the role of Ike, and he auditioned hard to get it.

When he's not on location in Arizona, Travis lives in a "cute little house" in Los Angeles, with his calico hat named Jesse. Apart from being a Fine actor, Travis is also an enthusiastic and talented writer. In fact, he's even in the process of co-writing an episode for The Young Riders. Travis drives a silver Volkswagen Scirroco, and his favorite food is sushi (being the single guy that he is, he goes out to eat a lot). Though there is no true love for Travis at the moment, he likes girls who have a lot of confidence and who are friendly.

Source: 16 Magazine