Morton Downey Jr. (Actor) Is Back : Personality: His notoriety seems to have bolstered his new career and given him confidence with which to go at it.

Morton Downey Jr. is on his best behavior. There are no in-your-face spritzing verbal tirades, no demeaning personal assaults, no intimidating scowls. He barks at his dog (“Chill, Sagittarius!”) once when it threatens to scratch the closet door, but throughout this interview, Mr. Jerk is Mr. Nice Guy.

It should come as no surprise. The man whom many critics accused of being an actor when he was claiming to be a passionate talk show host is now . . . an actor. Downey gleefully parodied Geraldo Rivera in a recent episode for HBO’s “Tales From the Crypt” and appeared in NBC’s TV movie “Thanksgiving Day,” which aired Monday. He can also be seen in the feature film “Predator 2,” as well as the upcoming “Down and Dirty.”

None of these roles is anything (even for him) to shout about, but you have to start somewhere and appreciate what comes your way. Downey, showing flashes of the old brilliance, says of his role in “Thanksgiving Day”: “It’s a great little part, I got to throw up on Mary Tyler Moore.”

Downey’s notoriety seems to have bolstered his new career and given him confidence with which to go at it. He says his past has made him as qualified as anyone else in the acting game.

“It comes from having been a vice president for a large American corporation,” he says, beginning a rundown of his credentials. “It comes from having been a lobbyist . . . an activist . . . a demonstrator in the civil rights days . . . on the Democratic national party . . . an entertainer . . . broke . . . married . . . having to raise my own kids. I realized, I’ve lived every character that’s out there.”

One of five children of Irish tenor Morton Downey and dancer/actress Barbara Bennet, young Morton Downey Jr. possessed the genes--and the means--to forge a successful future. But obstacles made their way into his upward path: an occasionally abusive father, an alcoholic mother who was dead by the time he was 19, long family separations. Downey figured a career in show business would be a stroll through the park compared to adolescence.

So off he went--singing, disc-jockeying and lobbying for political aspirants. Then came “The Morton Downey Jr. Show,” and with it, relative infamy.

“When you have to bring up that kind of intensity for 48 minutes, for the hourlong show, it really starts to take its toll,” he says. “I found myself taking the Downey persona with me after taping, and it really began to get in the way.”

When ratings dipped and top markets began to drop his nightly screamfest, the producers yanked the plug midway during the second season. Downey claims the cancellation was due more to politics than to declining Nielsens.

“Some of the top markets went through executive changes, and the new guys in charge said, ‘Pull Downey, I don’t want him on our schedule.’ ”

But the kinder, gentler Downey will press on. Scripts lay on his kitchen counter for his perusal, he says. Cable station CNBC’s “Downey,” a lighter version of the old show that he claims is intended to improve female demographics, rolls along. Recently, the loudmouth appeared as a panelist on NBC’s revived “To Tell the Truth” but quickly tired of that format. Downey says he was offered the host’s job on the revival but declined because being a game show host might undermine his movie career.

The film role that broke the ice for Downey was the one he landed on “Predator 2.” When Spotlight, Downey’s agency, submitted his name for the role of a reporter covering a smattering of grisly L.A. slayings, they pretty much got what they expected. Downey, using the anatomical obscenity that is often associated with his name (but cleaned up here to “jerk”), says who people think he is is his greatest strength.

“(The agency) people came back with ‘Downey Jr.? That jerk?’ But the beauty of that is they all want to meet the jerk of all jerks. And when they meet him,” whispers Downey conspiratorially, “it’s kind of disquieting because I’m not the jerk I am on television.”