Roger Daltrey Leaps From Obscure British TV to ‘Midnight Caller’

Take a close look at the guest star on Midnight Caller Friday, and you’ll see that he bears an almost uncanny resemblance to Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the legendary British rock group the Who.

Take another look: It is Roger Daltrey, who appears as a rock singer (what else?) on the NBC series set at a San Francisco radio station. But lest you think this is solely a case of art imitating life, “I don’t play myself” in the episode, Daltrey says. “I play a rock ‘n’ roller who’s never made it.”

Given that the Who remains one of rock history’s most important bands, the role undoubtedly took some acting. But before and since the group’s last studio album in the early ‘80s, Daltrey has pursued the screen and stage as a full-time career; he’s had, he says, a lot of practice.

“In England I’ve done quite a lot of TV work--usually obscure stuff like Shakespeare,” he says. He’s acted in British films such as “McVicar” and, of course, “Tommy.” But “Midnight Caller” marks his American television debut.

“I’m usually a bit wary of American TV series, but this one is very well regarded as one of your better ones. As it is, you’ll see it before I will. I might watch it in five years time, through my fingers.”

Despite his familiarity with performing in front of an audience, Daltrey admits he finds acting “terrifying. Most people,” he says, “have no perception of what it’s like. You very rarely attain what you’re aiming for.”

Daltrey, who will also perform a song in Friday night’s episode, hasn’t detached himself completely from his rock ‘n’ roll roots. He says he’s planning to do research for a film he wants to make on Keith Moon, the hard-partying Who drummer who died in 1978.

“But it’s not a rock ‘n’ roll film,” he says. “It’s about Keith Moon on his days off.”