`SIGN ME UP'; MORROW EAGER TO STRETCH FROM GOOD GUY TO `LINCOLN' ASSASSIN.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

Rob Morrow bursts through a door while re-creating one of America's most horrific scenes.

He points a derringer at the skull of President Abraham Lincoln and pulls the trigger. He then jumps from a balcony, fights back assailants and, with a broken leg, rides off on a horse.

Rob Morrow, a man of action? You've got to be kidding.

Until now, our exposure to Morrow has been mainly roles as a snobby, big-city type. He was Dr. Joel Fleischman, a New York doctor stuck in Alaska in the quirky television drama, ``Northern Exposure,'' a congressional investigator in ``Quiz Show'' and Albert Brooks' mama's-boy brother in ``Mother.''

Now, in ``The Day Lincoln Was Shot,'' Morrow plays assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Writer-director John Gray properly sets the tone of the country and the time surrounding the assassination of Lincoln (Lance Henriksen) in the script. He paints Booth as a staunch Southern patriot who thought he would become a hero after his murderous act, and Lincoln is portrayed as a strong individual who senses that his end is near.

Gray said that Julie Weitz, executive vice president of TNT Originals, first suggested Morrow. And as a fan of the actor from ``Quiz Show,'' Gray was immediately interested.

``My first reaction was `Why would they think of me as John Wilkes Booth?' '' said Morrow, 35. ``Then I read the script, and it read so cinematically. It was such a rich character, and I saw I got to ride horses and shoot guns, and I was like, `Sign me up.' ''

Total preparation

To illustrate the range Morrow gets to show as Booth, he not only had to learn to ride horses (``I'm just addicted now'') but also took ballroom dancing lessons.

``He is an actor with tremendous discipline,'' Gray said. ``He is like a chameleon. Rob is very, very discerning. He will only do something if he loves it. When Rob did not have time to go back to his trailer in between scenes, you never saw him flirting with the girls on the set as is often the case with other actors.

``He was either reading books on Booth, or his script. He wants to do good work. He was a total professional under very difficult circumstances in the heat with a lot of physical stuff in wool costumes and makeup. If anyone would be allowed a snit, it would be in those circumstances.''

Armed with just a ``perfunctory knowledge'' of the infamous day, Morrow read anything he could get his hands on to put his part in perspective. He picked up a lot of knowledge, including the fact that Booth and his posse originally intended to kidnap Lincoln during the Civil War, and that the day that Booth's brother died, Ford's Theatre collapsed.

``What Rob brought to the part was not making the guy a raving lunatic,'' Gray said. ``(Booth) was a well-liked, popular guy with a full social circle. It was an act of madness motivated by real things and a very misguided sense of loyalty.''

Which brings us to April 14, 1865. Booth sneaked up a narrow set of stairs at Ford's Theatre, opened the door and shot the president. One hundred and thirty-three years later, Morrow walked in his shoes.

``It was just like we have seen it in all the history books,'' Morrow said. ``It was so well re-created, the theater and the period. I was standing there with that little derringer. It was an odd, surreal scene. It was like a dream, and I was dreaming I was John Wilkes Booth.''

Real roles

It's this type of part that is attractive to Morrow. He said that for a while all he was being offered were Joel Fleischman-esque roles or superficial parts in blockbusters. Morrow said that he has had enough financial success in his career to date that he can afford to be selective.

``I'm trying to find things that excite me on some level,'' Morrow said. ``I feel really lucky, I have to say. It's great. I make a nice living doing what I want to do.''

Morrow will continue to be selective in the parts he chooses. He will appear in a TV movie called ``Only Love,'' which was filmed on location in Africa.

But he would like to be involved in other facets of production, such as writing and directing.

Morrow has directed a short film, called ``The Silent Alarm,'' and is set to direct an adaptation of Evan Handler's autobiography ``Time on Fire.''

``I have a friend who says he's wanted to direct ever since he's been directed,'' Morrow said. ``For me, that's not so. I like to be directed as long as the director has a vision.''

He is seeking funding for three projects he has in the works.

``That is the most humbling experience of my life,'' Morrow said. ``You go in and you ask for two, three or five million (dollars), and it seems like you have a child and you are nurturing him. You feel like everyone hates you and hates your script when they say, `No. No thanks. It's not for us.' Or they'll say, `Oh my God' I can't wait to read it' and they never call you back.

``I have so much respect for anyone who makes a movie that I will never say anything negative.''

THE FACTS

The show: ``The Day Lincoln Was Shot.''

What: The film traces the days leading up the shooting at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and looks at the crime from the perspective of assassin John Wilkes Booth and President Lincoln. Booth's escape from the theater and the showdown that led to his death also are chronicled.

The stars: Rob Morrow and Lance Henriksen.

Where: TNT.

When: 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: `I read the script, and it read so cinematically. It was such a rich character ...'

Rob Morrow

plays John Wilkes Booth in ``The Day Lincoln Was Shot''