Lasting Lenz : Actress who got her start in TV films regains her career with ‘Doubts’

Kay Lenz, who is a shade under 5 foot 3, is standing very tall these days.

One reason is that playing Maggie Zombro--a take-no-prisoners defense attorney who this season is a regular on NBC’s “Reasonable Doubts”--makes her feel that way.

“I’m this strong-minded, strong-willed, caustic attorney and I feel very tall when I play her,” Lenz says. “Dustin Hoffman said when he put on that ‘Hook’ costume, he became Hook. Maggie is the same. I come to work in tennis shoes and shorts, but once they do my coif and I put on those suits, it’s as if I gain height. Someone said Maggie was ‘guarded,’ but that’s a very polite way of putting it. She’s really tough.”

Another reason for the Van Nuys-born actress’s elevated mood is that after 20 years of paying her bills through acting, her sometimes bumpy career is back on track again.

“When you get pickier, the pickings get slimmer, and it means you don’t work as much,” Lenz, 39, says. “And when you don’t work as much, people forget about you and you have to start over again.”

Almost 20 years ago, Lenz was Tom Jordache’s loyal wife, Kate, in “Rich Man, Poor Man,” the ‘70s miniseries second only to “Roots” in impact and ratings. She was the teen-age free spirit who changed William Holden’s life in Clint Eastwood’s 1973 drama “Breezy.” She was the put-upon young heroine in a series of popular, if tearful TV movies, from “Lisa Bright and Dark,” in which she had a nervous breakdown, to “Heart in Hiding,” in which she fell in love with a blind man. And she was making movies with Lee Marvin, Anthony Quinn and James Woods.

Then her seven-year marriage to teen idol David Cassidy ended and the Screen Actors Guild went on strike. Lenz found herself broke and out of work.

“Financially, it was horrible for me. It was very, very bad,” she says. “David is a wonderful person and I don’t harbor any ill feelings or resentments, but divorce, no matter what, is a difficult thing to go through. The marriage was great; the divorce was not so great.”

Lenz made “Fast-Walking” (1982), a quirky prison picture with James Woods that did not do well. The actors went on strike and she didn’t work for two-and-a-half years. “That strike really brought everything to a grinding halt for awhile,” she recalls. “It kind of knocked middle-range people like me out of the game.”

Networks started relying on the popularity of their series headliners for TV movies and movie stars who before only made features were accepting TV roles. “That was OK because I’d done it all in terms of victim roles on TV,” Lenz says. “I’d already given birth six times on film, and been raped and died of cancer, gotten pregnant and schizophrenic.

“When you go through that kind of lull, it gives you a chance to re-evaluate things. People say that all the time and it sounds corny, but if you have lost perspective on your priorities in life, gotten fuzzy, it really gives you a chance to dust them all off and make things clear.”

Through it all, Lenz managed to hang on to her little house by the Hollywood sign and her classic Mercedes convertible. She worked her way back onto her feet with roles in “Death Wish IV,” “Stripped to Kill,” and John Mellencamp’s “Falling From Grace.” In the mid-’80s, she made a series pilot titled “Travelling Man” for producer Bob Singer, but it didn’t sell. Singer went on to create “Midnight Caller” and found himself stuck on one episode.

“We had this one-scene part that really needed a good actress, and we knew Kay would be perfect for it,” he recalls. “She did it as a favor.”

Later, the character returned to the show (to die of AIDS) and Lenz won an Emmy for her performance. After “Midnight Caller” was canceled, Singer went on to produce “Reasonable Doubts.” The producer says, “A friend told me, ‘This can’t be your show. Kay Lenz isn’t in it.’ I said we’d probably rectify that.”

Lenz guest-starred as Maggie Zombro in nine episodes last season and signed on full-time this year. “I’m ecstatic about it,” she says. “I’m the happiest person I know right now. I was always scared of doing a series because of all the unknown factors. With this, I know the writers and directors, I know Mark (Harmon) and Marlee (Matlin) and the rest of the cast and crew. They’ve all been wonderful to me.”

She’s also looking forward to exploring why Maggie Zombro is so tough. “Everyone has an opinion about lawyers, but I love my attorney,” Lenz says. “When I got divorced, I was on the verge of losing everything and I didn’t pay him for two years. Maggie Zombro would never do that, and I want to find out why. She’s tough, but there has to be a reason and over the season maybe we can explore that. You may not see Maggie cry until the 22nd episode, and she’ll probably be fighting it, but she’ll cry one day.”

“Reasonable Doubts” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.