Hollywood Outsider

His face may not ring a bell, but Daniel Stern’s voice is as familiar as an old friend’s.

Although Stern boasts a resume of films such as “Breaking Away,” “Diner” and “The Milagro Beanfield War,” he is probably best known to audiences as the grown-up voice of Kevin Arnold on ABC’s “The Wonder Years.”

But don’t look for Stern’s name in the show’s credits, because it’s not there, and Stern wants it that way.

“It’s better for the show, in a way,” he says, in his distinctive accent. “I tried it a couple of times, and it looked weird. So I guess if anybody cared, they’d know.”

Stern’s name does appear in “The Wonder Years’ ” credits as a director (“I’ve done maybe seven or eight episodes”). His face, too, is about to get more familiar--Stern stars with Arye Gross and Patrick Dempsey in “Coupe de Ville,” a new Universal comedy about three estranged brothers who have to bring a car from Michigan to their dad in Florida.

Stern plays the “oldest, meanest, toughest” brother, an Air-Force sergeant in charge of delivering the car--and his brothers--in one piece.

“It’s a really good part for me,” he says. “I got to be a different character than I’ve been in other films.”

Stern takes Hollywood just about as seriously as he takes himself. “It’s a tricky business,” he explains. “It’s just kind of all built on nothing, egos, people bluffing their way through. When you’re dealing in creativity there’s no right answers, either. The fun of it is making decisions out of the air. But there’s more to life than fun, isn’t there?

“My feeling is that I should move away and teach at a day-care center,” says Stern, who is the father of three young children. “My wife thinks I should continue directing and use films to influence people.”