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Show TV Page 12 - THE HERALD. Provo. Utah. Monday. November 17. 1986 xGone to Texas' star has right family ties By JERRY BUCK AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sam Elliott has the right family con- if tff ft- nections lor his title role in the CBS movie "Gone to Texas: The Sam Houston Story." His H mother's side was a surgeon at the Battle of San Jacinto in 18.'i6. when Houston's army of Texans defeated and captured (Jen. Antonio de Santa Anna. Elliott believes his antes-tor'- s name was Thomas Kenney. on his Texas won Hi . Ericson as Tiana. his Cherokee wife: James Stephens as Stephen F. Austin, and G.D. Spradlin as Andrew Jackson. "I heard about this film months its independence ago from some wrangler friends." said Elliott. "CBS Sam Elliott mother so excited about anything in my life as my doing this." Elliott was born in Sacramento, Acting mother, son are 'friendly rivals' Bv FRANK SANKI.I.O HOLLYWOOD (NEAl It was not a traditional Mother's Day - outing. Corbin Bernsen, one of the stars of NBC's new hit TV show "L.A. Law" (which airs Thursdays), decided to take his mom. Jeanne Cooper, one of the stars of CBS's "The Young and the Restless." to the beach. Cooper, who has played the scheming Katherine Chancellor on the daytime soap for the last years, recalls the day. "We drove to the beach in his jeep." she says. "My guts arc being rumbled up to my brain, and Corbin says to me. Do you realize I'm making more money per show than you are?' "I said. 'Yes. and I hate vou for it!' " "Happy Mother's Day! is true. the incident Although Cooper's anger was feigned. "We're rivals, but it's fun."' she says. Her solicitous son. however, wanted to be sure she wasn't genuinely upset. So she reassured him by saying. "You've worked for it. and you deserve it." This mother-so- n rivalry isn't the first time the acting dynasty has gone tusk to tusk on the tube. Two years ago. Bernsen. 32. had a stint as a policeman on "Ryan's Hope." The soap aired opposite his mother's dayand time series in many cities Mom's soap consistently beat her son's in the ratings. "I told him," says Cooler. " I play collectively to 70 million people a week.' Take that. Cor13 h bin!" . Although rivals, they once shared the same turf in Canada. Cooper was starring in a production of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite," and she arranged for her son to have a small part as a bellhop: "It was the first time he on stage with me. was It was the strangest thing... when Corbin looked at me on stage, he had this strange look in his eyes. I could tell he was thinking. I'm on your turf, and I like it."' On "L.A. Law," NBC's lavishly praised new scries created by former "Hill Street Blues" head honcho Steven Bochco. Bernsen plays Arnold Becker, a sleazy divorce lawyer who looks like a surfer in a Giorgio Armani suit. In the opening episode, a senior partner died on the job. and Becker's first reaction was. "I've got dibs on his office." But as the show has progressed. Arnold Becker has softened. His mother, however, continues to play a villainess on "The Young and the Restless." "She was Alexis Carrington 10 years ago." says Bernsen. "She really created the character of the beautiful bitch with diamonds." Before she became the Alexis of the daytime soaps, the actress on just about every guest-starrenighttime series, going all the way back to "Gunsmoke." It was on the set of "Daniel Boone" where his mother had a guest spot that the acting bug bit Bernsen. He decided to give up his pre law studies at UCLA and transfer to the theater department, where he eventually-earnea master's degree in somebody fortunately money. I this part." Houston and a few was called a coward, things worse, as he led a in retreat before Santa Anna's trained Mexican army, A small force of Texans had already been wiped out at the Alamo. "But he must have been doing something right," Elliott said. "He cornered Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto, attacked the enemy with the sun in its eyes and won the battle in 18 minutes." The movie was filmed in various parts of Texas, including Brackettville, where John Wayne filmed "The Alamo," and Giddings, whose courthouse stood in for the halls of Congress where Houston pleaded on behalf of the Indians. "It was strange," Elliott said. "I'd never been to Giddings, but I'd heard about it all my life" because of his death there. The "Gone to Texas" crew was He said Tom Selleck. his Elliott's first feature credit was as "Cardplayer No. 2" in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."' which starred Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Ross. His 1976 film "Lifeguard" has become something of a cult film. He also starred in "Mask," "The Legacy," the TV movies "Blue Lightning." "Travis McGee" and "A Death in California" and such miniseries as "Murder in Texas." "Once an Eagle" and "Aspen." Rose." He has also completed work in Arizona on a Western for HBO, RENTAL . v.u $Q & su.r.d 1 CO i co-st- from "The Sacketts" and "Shadow Riders," would make a Western in Australia on his next break from "Magnum. P.I." "The Sacketts" was based on two books by L'Amour. His wife, Katharine Ross, has a small role in "Gone to Texas" as a woman who survives the siege of the Alamo. She also stars in the ABC series "The Colbys." Their daughter, Geo, also has a bit role in the movie. WATER CONDITIONER Lifatim Gu"ontt Tank At low Ai RENTAL jf , .J f 0 AC Choose the shape you've always wanted. It doesn't have to '; MX x4 hurt to have a great figure. It's affordable and it sure doesn't take long. d MedArt Surgical Center Call for free consultation about liposuction and body touring for women. . f Cap-sha- 's full-blow- n His first film role was not an auspicious occasion. He played the part of "naked limbs thrashing in the back seat of a Rolls Royce" in the black exploitation film "Three the Hard Way.'' produced by his father Harry Bernsen. After college and graduate school, during which he had a five-vea- r relationship with Heather nomas ("The Fall Guy"). Bernsen moved to New York. had else they wanted, but he asked for too much really wanted to play the Texas army Quick and the Dead." from a book by Louis L'Amour. It also stars Tom Conti and Kate "The ettville frontiersman and governor to shortly after the Battle of San Jacinto. It also stars Michael Beck as James Bowie; Devon from Mexico and became a republic, with Houston as its first president. Elliott's great grandfather, also on his mother's side, was a Texas Ranger named Sam Sparks, who was killed in Giddings in 1890. "My family history was one of the reasons i wanted to do this."' said Elliott. "I never saw my followed immediately into Brackby the company for "13 Days to Glory." an NBC movie about the Alamo. The films were inspired by the Texas Sesquicen-tennia- l this year. Elliott said "Gone to Texas" was made because it was billed as a biography rather than a Western. "But if you set it in 1836, and you've got a lot of horses, it's a Western as far as I'm concerned," he said. "People say there's no market for Westerns, but I think it's just bad Westerns. You can't make a 'Heaven's Gate' for $40 million and tell a story that doesn't make sense. Or do "The Lone Ranger' or 'Silverado.' 'Silverado' was an glossy Western." Elliott, with the rugged good looks of the quintessential Western hero, has starred in such Westerns as "The Sacketts," "Wild Times," "Shadow Riders." "I Will Fight No More Forever," and the modern series "Yellow Calif., shortly after his father, who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, moved there from Texas. The three-hou- r movie, which CBS will telecast Saturday at 8 p.m., tells the story of Sam Houston from his days as a Tennessee 373-464Wswwwsfc. con- 9 ... 1275 N. University 21 |
