Ron Palillo knows from typecasting. "They wouldn't look at me here in L.A.," he told Back Stage West in a recent interview. "They didn't want to know what awards I won. Nobody wanted to know. Everybody thought I was that guy."
That guy was Arnold Horshack, the na•ve but lovable nerd Palillo played so memorably for four seasons (1975-'79) on ABC's hit high school sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. As the most original and hilarious "Sweathog" on the series, Palillo became a television icon, parlaying his celebrity into roles in television shows (Love Boat) and films (Skatetown, U.S.A., which found him co-starring with fellow '70s stars Maureen McCormick, Scott Baio, Melissa Sue Anderson, and Billy Barty) that capitalized on his famous image.
But unlike his Kotter colleague John Travolta, Palillo's roles after the series were few and far between, leaving the accomplished stage actor trapped in a self-induced purgatory.
"During the '80s," he confessed, "I had a great deal of bitterness. I became rather introverted and didn't leave the house for four years after the show."
Now, Palillo is back in Los Angeles, but this time he's returning with a renewed career and a new reputation as an accomplished New York theatre director. The occasion is the Jerry Colker/Michael Rupert musical 3 Guys Naked From the Waist Down, which opens Oct. 30 at the Tamarind Theatre for an eight-week run.
And this time, Palillo said there's no mistaking him for Horshack. "It took a long time," he said, "but I don't look like him anymore--especially after the nose job and the chin job I got to make me not look like him."
Last Gasp
Although director Palillo does not appear in the production, he is no stranger to its story, which follows three struggling standup comedians as they gain their own sitcom and deal with its success. "It's kind of what I went through in reverse," Palillo said. "I became a huge television star, then went into standup. I have a lot of history with this kind of life."
Indeed, Palillo has been acting almost his whole life. Growing up in Connecticut, he started his own theatre at the tender age of 14. "We were doing plays we had no business doing," Palillo recalled. "I was George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at 17--I sounded like Mickey Mouse."
Palillo graduated from the University of Connecticut and joined the Players' Theatre in Florida before moving to New York, where he landed in the original cast of The Hot l Baltimore. It wasn't long before Hollywood called.
Originally, Palillo was thrilled to score a job on a network series, and was afforded wide latitude in creating his distinctive Kotter character.
"The voice was my aunt's," he said. "The laugh was my father's breathing at the end of his life--he died of lung cancer. I didn't realize until two years later that I was taking my father's death gasp and turning it into a national joke."
Palillo said he soon realized that he would always be associated with a character far less sophisticated than those he had played in his teens. "I sold out doing Welcome Back, Kotter and I didn't know it," Palillo said. "The sixth or seventh show of the first year, I burst into tears. I said, 'I'm going to be playing this character for the rest of my life.' "
But while Hollywood only saw him as Horshack, the theatre world embraced him as an actor and director.
"I always stayed in theatre, because that is my first love," Palillo said. "I was able to segue from Mozart in Amadeus to Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. There was a time I thought that might not be possible."
But it was possible, and Palillo went on to direct everything from Chapter Two to Richard III. His latest directing project, his own adaptation of a venerable musical he won't reveal the name of, is Broadway-bound. In addition, Palillo has illustrated two children's books, appeared on three recent episodes of ABC's Ellen, and will soon be seen in the independent film It's All About You.
Naked Ambition
His recent success has allowed Palillo to return to L.A. "on my own terms." And it's clear from talking with him that 3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down is more than just another assignment for him.
"It's about selling out and finding your identity," he said. "Everyone in this town has had the opportunity or possibility of selling out. The characters are three guys who start out just wanting to be stars, and as the show progresses, they each settle. It's a stinging indictment of Hollywood, but it's also very funny and very sexy. Although there is a lot of cross-dressing and camp, it goes a lot deeper. It has something to say."
Asked if the show's title could therefore be considered metaphorical, Palillo responded, "Absolutely metaphorical--although they are naked from the waist down in some numbers."
Palillo had nothing but praise for his cast, which is headed by Bold and the Beautiful star Jeff Trachta.
"Not since John Travolta have I worked with such an actor," Palillo gushed about Trachta, who also starred in the hit one-man show Agency. "He can do anything, any voice. I find this really exciting, working with these guys." And instructive: "Now I know what the directors went through when I was on Welcome Back, Kotter, because everyone has an opinion. But I am trying to mine for the gold--and sometimes it's a rather heavy pan."
All of this activity has allowed Palillo to come to peace with his Kotter legacy. He even teamed with fellow Sweathogs Robert Hegyes (Epstein) and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Washington) to spoof Travolta's Pulp Fiction on the MTV Movie Awards--work which he said earned the trio a Cable ACE nomination.
"I'm not taking it seriously this time," Palillo said. "In 50 years, what difference is it going to make? If you're going to gamble your life on being an actor, why not gamble all the way and do interesting work?"