Chatsworth Actor Finds Steady Work, Dividends as Film Heavy : But Veteran of 100 Roles Seeks to Change Hat to White

Actor Lee Paul’s career record reads: “Bad guys, 117; good guys, 3, with one of those in question.”

Predominantly “bad guy” Paul is something of a rarity among the 80,000 card-carrying actors and actresses in America today. Indeed, Lee Paul is an even greater rarity among the 2,000 or so who do manage to get performing jobs during the year.

Whereas the bulk of those working--89%--draw mean annual wages of $2,900, well below the poverty level, Paul says proudly that theatrical work has provided the major part of his total family income in the last 10 years.

Paul, whose face is seen regularly in television film reruns during any given week, has been much like others in the entertainment business who acknowledge that, without a “day job,” survival would be much more difficult.

Worked Odd Jobs

In years long gone, day or odd jobs have included working in a classical sheet music store, taking pictures of actors and actresses for their commercial and theatrical composites and selling insurance.

But today the residuals and regular acting assignments have lifted him out of that other cycle--working at the other job and not having time to polish the acting craft.

With roles of various sorts in well over 100 television productions--primarily the heavy--the residuals show up regularly in the Paul mailbox. They range from an occasional hefty sum to a career low of $2.67. Thirty or more television commercials have added to Paul’s credits, and income, including a “good guy” part in an inspirational commercial for the Mormon Church.

Among his many guest star and co-star television appearances are roles in “Falcon Crest,” “Simon & Simon,” “Fall Guy,” “Matlock,” “Herbie the Love Bug” and “Underground Man.”

Paul, a Chatsworth resident, feels that he is at the cusp of a welcome change in his image, from “bad guy to good guy.”

Losing a Part Hurts

At “5 feet, 17 1/2 inches,” and 225 pounds, he is both tall and solidly built. Paul acknowledges that it hurts when he is passed over for a part simply because of his height, as has happened more than once. “When they ask, ‘How tall are you?’ it means you are too tall.”

Two recent film roles have afforded an opportunity for Paul to reflect his changing image. He played an FBI agent in the recently completed “Survival Game” under director Herb Freed, and a “good cop” in another recent release, “Deadly Friend,” under director Wes Craven. Never mind that the FBI agent was unmasked by the plot as a conniving figure and the “good” cop’s motives remained a great big question mark.

Other film appearances from a few years back to the recent past have included “The Sting,” “Ben,” “Island at the Top of the World” and “War Games.”

‘Next George Kennedy’

Realistically, Paul does not see himself as a star. “Everyone can’t be a Robert Redford or Paul Newman.” He does, however, see himself as a recognizable supporting star. “George Kennedy told me that I’m going to be the next George Kennedy,” Paul said. “But he didn’t say when.”

With an IQ of 165 and the initial sponsorship of an attorney, a retired Air Force officer who took an interest in him while he was in the Boy Scouts in Brooklyn, the young Paul Lee Kroll went off on a fully paid scholarship to Marietta College in Ohio.

He was graduated at age 19 with a bachelor of science in petroleum studies, later changed to a fully accredited degree in engineering, and a lifelong bug to be an actor.

“Truthfully--my wife knows about this--I was chasing a senior girl and it turned out she was in the drama department,” Paul recalled.

Performed in Opera

“I was a big guy and straight out of one of the toughest areas of Brooklyn. I went to the music department and told them I was going to be in their production of ‘The Medium,’ ” the strange, brooding opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti.

“What could they say?

“I soaked up the lights, the warmth, the applause! I played the role of Mister Gabineau.”

And the girl?

“She noticed me, all right. I told her to ‘get out of my key light.’ ” And that was the end of that.

The petroleum engineering degree provided about six months of employment when Schlumberger, the worldwide French firm that hired him fresh out of Marietta College, shipped him off to Williston, N.D.

That was much too far from his new love, the theater, and the novice actor headed for New York, opting for a time to take a “gofer” job with the Playhouse in the Park in Cincinnati at $25 a week, a fair wage in 1960. (“You had to play poker, and win, to survive.”) The newborn actor Lee Paul got his Equity card there and his first professional theater experience.

Thereafter it was on to New York and a series of stock companies.

Was An Officer

Paul was drafted into the Army but, because of his engineering degree, he shifted to officer candidate school at Lackland AFB, Tex., where he earned the gold bar of an Air Force second lieutenant and assignment as a “weapons controller.”

“That’s a lot like an air traffic controller, except that our job was to bring planes together so that we could shoot them down.”

After three years, 1st Lt. Paul Lee Kroll left the military and resumed his theatrical career on the West Coast and in Hollywood.

Paul has traveled widely on his own and his acting career has taken him to all parts of the United States as well as to the Philippines. Quite recently he was on the verge of traveling with a film company to Africa, but work on another film at Santa Cruz stood in the way.

“Location work is terrific,” Paul said. “Not only are housing, travel and eating arrangements all attended to, but being on location generally allows for serendipitous explorations in the surrounding territory.”

Not Close to Family

Paul has mixed feelings about his parents, his family in Brooklyn, one sister and two brothers.

“We were never very close,” he says. His mother is dead and his father, at 89, is “still inventing” in New York.

“There was not much room for art or beauty when I was growing up,” he recalls.

“But, once my mother broke out of the dreariness and wrote a poem. I still have it, and every time I read it I cry.”

Paul is married to Kathleen Kroll--she took his family name, king in Polish--a former Las Vegas dancer and front row principal.

Their meeting involved another “girl-chasing” episode at a dance class 14 years ago. He was attracted to another woman of about his age, 33, when the attractive Kathy, at age 19, joined the group.

Paul’s other interests today include “people watching,” photography and every conceivable electronic gadget as a visit to his upstairs den quickly substantiates.

Paul is is genuinely enthusiastic about any of his new acquisitions, a 28-to-200 Vivitar zoom lens for his Pentax, a remarkable telephone dialer capable of a myriad additional chores, laser disks producing “pure sound,” a remote-controlled robotic “go ball” and a host of other such toys.

Although acting is Lee Paul’s life, second only to wife Kathy, and his goal is to become known as a “good guy” actor, he almost means it when he quotes a bumper sticker on his Jeep-style vehicle:

“He who owns the most toys when he dies wins.”