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Michael Ontkean, like many young Canadians, grew
up wanting to be a hockey player.
“Many Kids in Canada learn to walk and skate at
the same time,” the young actor told me during
an interview.
We were sitting in a California restaurant,
looking out at swimmers in the Pacific Ocean;
ice-skating seemed far, far away.
“I started skating when I was about seven,”
Michael said. “Hockey is very important to the
Canadian people. It’s the number one thing, in
fact. When you’re a young kid in Canada, the
single most important thing you could possible
do with your life is to be a hockey player.
“Things have changed somewhat since I was a kid,
tough. Nothing has replaced hockey, but life in
general has become busier and more complicated.
I can remember the whole county would be tuned
in to the hockey game on Saturday night, either
on radio or TV. It was one interest everybody
had in common.”
Michael came from an acting family, however, and
eventually he decided to become an actor rather
than a hockey player. This year, he’s one of The
Rookies on ABC.
“I lived in Canada until I was 18,” he told me.
“My father was an actor and a director, and my
mother was an actress. We spent two summers at
the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival.
“My father worked for the National Film Board of
Canada and he did a lot of work for the CBC
[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] in Toronto.
He did live TV and film work, also a number of
TV series that our whole family worked in. He
did commercials, live theatre – everything. In
Canada an actor has to be able to play many
different parts. It’s tough to make a living.
Salaries aren’t that high.
“I have one sister who is five years older. She
still lives in Vancouver. My father died in
1960. My mother lives in Hollywood.”
I asked Michael what his home life was like when
he was growing up. “Crazy!” he laughed. “We were
a working family. I’ve been acting
professionally since I was six. The same with my
sister. We were always busy. When four members
of a family are working, you can’t really have a
‘typical’ kind of home. The first role I ever
had was singing on The Hit Parade.
“Starting in fourth grade, I went to a choir
school for four years – Saint Michael’s
Cathedral Choir School in Toronto, where a lot
of professional children go. It has the best
boy’s choir in Canada. I had extensive training
in piano, voice, organ and music theory – plus
all the academic things.
“I enjoyed it – I really did! I loved sports.
Mainly I spent my time going to school, acting,
and playing hockey. I didn’t play any other
sport as much as hockey, but I did play
football, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse.
“I went to four high schools – in Vancouver,
Toronto, and Quebec. High school was great.
Because we had always moved around a lot I
didn’t have trouble adapting to new people and
new situations. Moving didn’t bother me. It was
great to have a variety of experiences. For
instance, in Quebec I went to a school that was
entirely French.”
Michael smiled when I asked him if he had been a
good hockey player. “I was pretty good,” he
admitted. ”I loved it and worked hard at it. The
way the hockey teams are structured in Canada –
or were – you didn’t play on a team. The pro
team had a farm system. All the kids down the
line played for teams that had nothing to do
with their schools. They’ve done away that
system now. The pros would have 11-, 12-,
13-year-old kids training and playing games.
They’d encourage the kids to drop out of school.
On the last team I played for, only two of us
were still in school. You had to make a choice –
stay in school or be a hockey player.”
But Michael continued to do both after he won a
hockey scholarship to the University of New
Hampshire. “I played on their hockey team for
four years,” he said. “We practiced about two
and a half hours every day. Sometimes we’d go on
road trips for five days or so, to Detroit,
Minneapolis, and so on.”
Somehow he managed to find time for some acting
too. “I had a Canadian accent and sometimes
people would rub me about that,” Michael
admitted. “Even so, during college I did a lot
of theatrical arts department.
“I loved many things about school. I was never
any good at science, but I managed to get
through. I loved literature and languages. I
liked being able to pick my own courses in
college. I took liberal arts and graduated in
theatre arts.
“Because of my busy schedule it took me four and
a half years to finish college. If I’d graduated
on time, I would have gone to the New York
Rangers training camp. They’re one of the good
professional hockey teams. As it turned out, I
had to support myself during that extra half
year by playing hockey for a semipro team. One
night a guy I knew who played for another team
was killed on the ice. He was a young man with
two small children. That really shook me up. I
took a second look at what I was doing – and
decided, ‘that’s it.’
Michael is now 23 and happy he decided to become
an actor rather than a hockey player. “I moved
to California two years ago, and I live in Santa
Monica Canyon.”
He smiled. “I’ve been very lucky in the past two
years. I’ve kept busy. I’ve been working
steadily since I arrived. I’ve done four feature
films, and about a dozen TV shows. I’ve also
taken some dancing at UCLA – modern interpretive
stuff – and have been involved in a number of
professional workshops for actors. I sing,
dance, play guitar and piano. I write a little
music, and do a little sculpturing, though I’m
not very accomplished. I don’t show it to
anybody.”
Michael is enthusiastic about The Rookies. “Our
intention is to focus on the people who are
policemen,” he said. “We’re not just showing men
riding around in squad cars, making arrests.
We’re trying to show the doubts and the joys of
being a policeman.”
The Rookies focuses on three young men who are
recent graduates of the Police Academy, Michael
explained. “We’re supposed to be a new breed of
policemen. We’re the ones who sat in college
classes and said everything was wrong with the
system. We were recruited so we would with the
system. We were recruited so we would stop
talking and do something about it.
“We filmed the pilot of the series at the Police
Academy in Los Angeles. We spent a lot of time
there, poking around and asking questions. Many
of the policemen I talked to had definite ideas
on relating to people and being helpful to the
community. They weren’t there just to collect
their paychecks and bust a few heads.
“My own ideas have changed since I’ve been doing
this series. It’s true that the more you learn
the more understanding you develop. I’m
certainly more sympathetic to the police.
“I’m sure if we took time to understand other
people we’d have more sympathy for them. This
show is saying, ‘Hey – cops are guys with
problems too. Cops do fumble and make mistakes.’
In one show, the cop I’m playing was so shaken
up that he fell down and dropped his gun. On
most TV shows they’d say you can’t do that,
you’ve got to be cool. But we’re rookies. We
make a lot of mistakes.
“There is some conflict with the older
generation. We’re fresh out of college, but have
enough experiences on the human level to think,
‘Yes, we’re doing something good, and we’re
doing it for solid reasons.”
Michael may sometimes miss whizzing around on
the ice but, in his case, hockey’s loss in TV’s
gain – and Michael seems satisfied to wear the
uniform of a TV cop.
By
Peggy Hudson
Transcribed by Christos Spirou for use on The
Rookies Online:
http://www.therookies.gr
For entertainment purpose only. No profit or
copyright infringement intended.
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