By Mark Egan
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - Ron McLarty was so convinced he would never succeed as a novelist that after years of obsessively churning out book after book in his basement, he sought the help of a shrink to make him stop.
McLarty, who made a good living as a television and stage actor, wrote because he was an insomniac. Starting at 5 a.m. each day he wrote for five hours, producing nine novels and 44 stage plays of which not a single word was published.
McLarty feared his friends saw him as a delusional dreamer, a literary Walter Mitty. After all, he wrote his first novel when he was 24 and had nothing to show for it...(read full story)
McLarty is a fine actor who was at one time saddled with the wrongly-conceived role of a sloppy, donut-chomping Frank Belson on TV's Spenser: For Hire. Belson is supposed to be conscientious, more sympathetic to Spenser than his superior, Lt. Martin Quirk.
To be fair, generally-good-guys of this sort probably lack the personality to be good TV characters--just as a more faithful portrayal of Parker's taciturn Hawk would be an unfair role for any strong supporting actor to play.
Too much personality can be a pickle, too. Actor Mackenzie Gray appeared as old-school shooter Vinnie Morris in A&E's adaptation of WALKING SHADOW. Appear was all he did; Gray had a handful of scenes, but no lines. Vinnie's book dialogue is laced with its share of curse words, Parker's idea of tough-guy talk. Did A&E run and hide?
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