And It’s All Mickey Mouse’s Fault

It has been 29 years since I created the role of Starbuck, 25 since breathing life into dear old Templeton Peck, aka Faceman. During the past decade I have, on occasion, attended conventions where one has the opportunity to meet, in person, those dear people, who watched both characters as they gambled and flirted and huffed and puffed and fought the bad guys and seduced the good girls. This experience has been enlightening. To wit:

At my very first convention, I was coming out of an elevator as a fan was entering. She glanced at me, gasped and said, “My God, what happened to you?” It took me a couple minutes to understand her statement. What she was gasping about and referring to was the all too visual fact that I no longer looked the same. I had changed! AGED! She found this fact surprising. Stunning, perhaps, from the size of her gasp. This gave me pause. (more…)