MCDOWELL CASTS `PEARL' BEFORE HIS SWINE OF A CHARACTER.Byline: Renee Graham Boston Globe Typecasting The word typecasting (past participle typecast) can mean more than one thing:
Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell is a British-born actor, probably best known for his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange. Biography Acting career McDowell began his professional life serving drinks in his parents' pub and then as a coffee salesman (the latter job has long jousted with the same shadows that consumed Perkins. Despite a 30-year career on stage and screen, McDowell is most associated with ``A Clockwork Orange'' and his portrayal of Alex, the Beethoven-loving, bowler-wearing thug. Twenty-five years since Stanley Kubrick's scathing satire, McDowell is still viewed as the psychotic youth who raped a woman to ``Singin' in the Rain Singin’ in the Rain downpour doesn’t dampen singer’s spirits. [Pop. Music: Fordin, 355] See : Cheerfulness .'' But that has begun to change with McDowell's hilarious turn as a pompous college professor on ``Pearl,'' one of the early hits of the fall TV season. In the CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. comedy, McDowell plays Stephen Pynchon, a humanities professor at the snooty college attended by Rhea rhea, in zoology rhea (rē`ə), common name for a South American bird of the family Rheidae, which is related to the ostrich. Weighing from 44 to 55 lb (20–25 kg) and standing up to 60 in. Perlman's working-class title character. With his acid tongue and mean scream of white hair, Pynchon is both erudite er·u·dite adj. Characterized by erudition; learned. See Synonyms at learned. [Middle English erudit, from Latin and eviscerating, with the cadence of a chainsaw. He threatens his students' ego and self-esteem as well as their grade-point average. The program, which airs at 8:30 p.m. Mondays (and will switch to Wednesdays later this month), has been highly rated since it premiered. And McDowell is such an integral part of ``Pearl's'' success, the show could just as well be called ``Pynchon.'' ``I'm not calling it a hit quite yet. I don't want to curse it or anything,'' said McDowell recently during a break from rehearsals. ``I think the shows are actually getting better - and I'm touching wood as I'm saying this. When you first start a series, nobody knows what direction it's going in. But we were very lucky because the chemistry of all the cast people and the writers seemed to be very good. Now we're really getting into our stride.'' Don Reo Don Reo is an American television writer and producer. He has created such hit shows as Blossom for NBC and My Wife and Kids for ABC. Other shows he has written for have included Everybody Hates Chris, M*A*S*H, Rhoda, and , the show's creator and executive producer, recently said that McDowell ``was the first and only choice'' for Pynchon. Still, not everyone was sure if McDowell could handle comedy, the actor recalled. ``When I read the script I thought, `My goodness, this is a great part. I could really go to town on this,' '' McDowell said. ``They called my agent and asked, `Well, can he play comedy?' I told my agent, `Well, can they write it?' If they can write it, I'm damn sure I can play it.' '' Still, McDowell wasn't sure he wanted to do a television show. McDowell has rarely wanted for work since his breakthrough role in 1968 as a rebellious boarding-school student in ``If ...'' and never considered the small screen. ``It's such hard work. They change the lines all the time, and you're working very hard to do a good show every week in front of a live audience,'' he said. ``It's like jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet with no parachute. It was all a bit new to me, but I'm glad I decided to give it a go.'' McDowell, 52, describes Pynchon as a ``brilliant, brilliant teacher who's a son of a bitch son of a bitch Vulgar n. pl. sons of bitches A person regarded as thoroughly mean or disagreeable. interj. Used to express annoyance, disgust, disappointment, or amazement. Noun 1. ,'' whose teaching philosophy is mainly ``shock tactics and humiliation, whatever he thinks will wake them up and make them think for themselves. ``There is a method to his madness, but of course he's like a demigod (person) demigod - A hacker with years of experience, a national reputation, and a major role in the development of at least one design, tool, or game used by or known to more than half of the hacker community. in that room, striding around like Caesar,'' McDowell said. ``Of course, a lot of great professors do, they're lord and master in that room. Of course, when they get out of that room, well, that's another story.'' Since he never attended college, McDowell was spared a professor like Pynchon. Instead, his inspiration for the prickly academic is the late Lindsay Anderson, who directed McDowell in such films as ``If ...'' and ``O Lucky Man.'' ``He was one of the greatest directors and one of the greatest people I've ever met in my life. I loved him very much, and he was my mentor,'' McDowell said. ``I did many stage plays with him, and I would have done the phone directory with him had he asked me. He was one of those inspiring and great people. ``Of course, if you didn't know something and he thought you should, he would have done a Pynchon on you: `My God, you don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. that? Where have you been? Have you been under a rock all your life? Go buy a book and start learning something.' He would literally talk like that.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Malcolm McDowell plays Stephen Pynchon, a sniping hu manities professor, on CBS' ``Pearl.'' |
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