Chad Everett

Covered only by a goat placenta and a sock, which wasn`t on his foot, Chad Everett shot the very first nude scene in his lengthy career in the "Manhattan, AZ" episode titled "Jake`s Daughter."

"I`m totally nude - that sock doesn`t even cover my ..." laughs Everett, sporting a deep tan and carefully sculpted gray hair. "I`m 63 years old, for crying out loud. Why didn`t they ask me to do this when I was 30? Anyway, covered or naked, I`m having the time of my life on a truly weird show."

In the half-hour comedy series, Everett is practicing tai chi and doing deep breathing exercises as Jake Manhattan, a faded TV Western actor who bought 200,000 acres of worthless desert land with a 13-building town that he named after himself. After proclaiming himself mayor of the dusty flyspeck he hopes will become a lush, thriving resort town someday, he hires naive, burned-out LAPD undercover cop Daniel Henderson (Brian McNamara) as the new sheriff.

Farcical comedy is a radical departure for Everett, a handsome man with steely blue eyes who made a very good living wearing white hats and being quick on the draw in such series as "The Dakotas" (1963), "Centennial" (1978-79) and "The Rousters" (1983-84), and a hypersensitive heroic doctor in "Medical Center" (1969-76). For good measure, he played an accomplished tracker in "Hagen" (1980) and an environmentally attuned outfitter in "McKenna" (1994).

"I did `Airplane II: The Sequel` and a couple of `Cybill` episodes along the way, but nothing like this," chuckles Everett, sipping spring water in the deserted bar of a Los Angeles luxury hotel. "Jake`s a totally absurd individual - a shameless self-promoter and eternal narcissist who can`t pass a mirror or a plate-glass window without looking at himself. He wants to be the next governor of Arizona."

All fired up, Everett is a far cry from the rather bland leading-man roles that came his way early on.

"I`ve played bastards occasionally, but the character parts were far and few between," he says. "I`ve waited 40 years for a chance to screw my face up and be part of ridiculous sight gags. One of my favorite `Manhattan` scenes so far is when Jake goes through his collection of old movie costumes, ruined by bullet holes.

"I could barely contain myself when Jake whips out a Greek tunic and says, `Barbara Stanwyck wore this when she played my mother in `Oedipus, Portrait of a Troubled Young Son,`" he continues, standing up and acting out the scene. "Wrapping the tunic around him, Jake recites his lines: `Oh, what sweet fragrance heaven sent be this? What soft petal skin ... mama!`"

Everett stumbled into "Manhattan, AZ" via his good friend and next-door neighbor at a golf course in Westlake Village on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Lyle Waggoner - the perennial glamour boy/stud on "The Carol Burnett Show" (1967-79).

"Lyle loves to do a TV guest shot once in a while, but doesn`t want to do series because he`s too busy with his very successful Star Waggons business (renting trailers to production companies). "But he read the script, then called `Brown Parcels of Land,` found it really funny and called me," he continues. "Lyle said he had an appointment with the producers the following Friday and that I should take his spot. I thought it had something to do with portable toilets, but decided to read it anyway. But when I called the production office, I was told there was no appointment on Friday. Around and around we went; persistence finally paid off."

Between meaningful acting gigs, Everett devotes most of his spare time to charities - including Gift of Life, an international organization dedicated to helping youngsters with congenital heart diseases.

"We deal with kids in Third World countries with no medical hope. For $5,000, the best buy on the planet, we are able to bring them to the U.S. for the best treatment possible. Once their hearts are repaired, they are free to be educated, fall in love, marry, have children, become grandparents ... do the whole nine yards. There is nothing more gratifying."

Not one to sit around waiting for the phone to ring, Everett and his actress/writer wife of 43 years, Shelby Grant, have a number of creative projects in the works. They recently obtained the screen rights to a novel titled "The Promise," with Grant writing the cable-movie script geared to her husband`s talent.

"Shelby also happens to have the most creative entrepreneurial mind I`ve ever encountered," he says. "Whatever I bring home, she takes and makes more out of it."

It is a talent apparently inherited by their daughters, Katherine, who is the founder and CEO of the hot Internet advertising agency Lot 21, and Shannon, who recently opened the Coffee Cabana Cafe & Bakery in the exclusive Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles.

"Hard-working, clever girls, their businesses are already in the black," crows Everett, ever the proud father. "Not many can make that claim after only one year."

A star quarterback at Fordson High School in South Bend, Ind., Everett somehow escaped the fervent clutches of Notre Dame University and 15 football scholarships offered by rival colleges in order to study acting at Dearborn Junior College. His father, a tough and successful auto parts distributor, was less than pleased when his son subsequently was tossed out after a year at Michigan State University for enthusiastically participating in a panty raid. He mended fences by graduating from Detroit`s Wayne State University in 1960, then immediately drove to New York with a back seat full of clothes and $140 in his pocket.

Four TV commercials in the short space of three months led to a three-year contract with Warner Bros. Television and a permanent move to Southern California. Everett first got dirt on his boots with a guest shot on "Bronco" (1958-62), an epic horse opera starring the inimitable Ty Hardin.

"All things considered, I enjoyed the old studio contract days," says Everett, with a shrug. "There wasn`t a whole lot of money involved, but it gave young actors like me invaluable experience before the camera - even in stuff I didn`t want to do, including `The Impossible Years` with David Niven and Lola Albright. I was told what to do, but never felt walked on. Jack Warner, reputed to be the toughest studio head, couldn`t be nicer or more charming. He also changed my name from Ray Crampton, deemed too close to Ray Danton, to Chad Everett. I had been holding out for Chad York. It didn`t matter. I was just happy to be there."

(c) Copley News Service.

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Author: Eirik Knutzen