NAMES IN THE NEWS : Naughton Having a Ball Acting

Actor James Naughton, whose life has taken that familiar theatrical tour of hard work for years only to be declared an overnight success, says acting is as much fun as baseball.

The 44-year-old performer’s characterization of a tough-talking private eye turned him into a star when the Broadway musical “City of Angels” opened last week. Naughton, who has a long list of stage and film credits, landed a plum off-Broadway role as early as 1971 in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” with Geraldine Fitzgerald and Stacy Keach.

He acts, he says, because “It’s a lot of fun. It’s the same kind of fun as when I was a kid. And to be able to continue to do that, it’s sort of like playing baseball. You see these guys who are 40 years old and they’re still playing ball and they say, ‘I’m the luckiest man in the world to be able to play this kids’ game for so long and so successfully.’ And it’s the same with acting.”