Denise Crosby Well-Suited to the ‘Key West’ Lifestyle

Denise Crosby feels quite at home in the rebellious, easygoing environment of Key West, Fla., both the place and the new series of that name. “Key West is probably the most liberal place in the country--anything is acceptable,” she says.

What’s fun for the 34-year-old actress is playing one of the comedy-drama’s more mainstream characters. “I’m the pro-growth, heterosexual, alcoholic, Republican mayor (Chaucy Caldwell),” she says with a laugh. (Viacom’s “Key West” premieres Jan. 19 at 9 p.m. on Fox Channel 11.)

This tall, green-eyed blonde is best known for serious roles in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Miracle Mile,” “Desert Hearts” and “Pet Sematary.” “I’ve played really strong women,” she notes.

Crosby is close to her mother, Marilyn Scott. “I have a great mother; it was she and I for the first six years until she married my stepfather.” Both her father, Dennis Crosby (Bing’s son, who abandoned Scott), and her stepfather, Daniel Predovitch, are deceased.

Divorced from writer Geoffrey Edwards (Blake’s son), to whom she was married seven years, she and writer Ken Sylk have been an item the past year and a half.

After graduating from Hollywood High, Crosby dropped out of Cabrillo State College (Santa Cruz) and spent six months exploring the mountains and villages of Guatemala and Mexico. “That was my escaping.” Soon after, her lifestyle took a 180-degree turn when she took modeling jobs in Paris and London. She also posed nude for Playboy. “I wanted to be rebellious.” In 1982 she debuted on film in “48 HRS.”

In June she displayed her comedic side in ABC’s “Jack’s Place” and in August she steamed up an episode of Showtime’s “Red Shoe Diaries.”

Living simply in a rented house in West Hollywood with her English bull terrier, Julius, the transplanted actress says, “I live in boxers and T-shirts. I’ve even taken the laces out of my Keds.”

The best though has been getting away from the requirements of driving around L.A. “I’ve not been in a car here except when being picked up to go to location. I bought a bicycle, put a basket on it and ride it everywhere. That’s my BMW.”