Profile : Code Red-Hot : VONDIE CURTIS HALL JUMPS FROM ‘ER’ GUEST TO RESPECTED REGULAR ON ‘CHICAGO HOPE’

Vondie Curtis Hall has a lot to be happy about these days.

On the personal front, the Detroit native recently married writer-actress Kasi Lemmons. Professionally, his career is on the fast track. Last season, he received an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance on “ER” as a suicidal transsexual. Not only does he have two feature films in the can, he’s preparing to direct a feature that he wrote.

And last, but not least, Curtis Hall has been receiving a lot of attention for his role on CBS’ acclaimed medical series “Chicago Hope.”

Curtis Hall, who joined the David E. Kelley show earlier this year, plays Dr. Darryl Hancock, a compassionate internist who leaves his own inner-city clinic to join the hospital staff at Chicago Hope.

Sipping on cranberry juice at a hotel restaurant, Curtis Hall says he wasn’t looking to do a series when “Chicago Hope” came his way. “I had done the ‘ER’ turn and a couple of weeks later they called and wanted a meeting,” he says.

Curtis Hall, though, was waiting to hear about a feature. So he kept going back and forth with the “Chicago Hope” producers. “Then I went in and met with [executive producer] John Tinker. They told me what they had in mind--the character they wanted. They wanted him to work in the inner city and have this sensibility--my own sensibility in terms of wanting to make a difference.”

The ensemble cast--which includes Adam Arkin, Roxanne Hart and Christine Lahti, who came on staff after Mandy Patinkin announced his departure--was a strong drawing card. “David Kelley and I had spoken a year or so ago about ‘Picket Fences,’ ” he says. “I knew I wanted to work with them. It was an opportunity to have a steady job, increase exposure and to do good work and still have a film career. It is the best of all worlds.”

Says Tinker of Curtis Hall: “He’s one of those actors who gives you a surprise and always does something differently, a little something more than the material. He’s intelligent and it is combined, I think, with sort of an inner peace. He doesn’t need to play the balcony, you know.”

Besides having Dr. Hancock explore alternative medicines on the series this season, Tinker hopes to delve into his home life. “We never ever really referred to it. The series is still so young and there are so many characters. We haven’t really gotten around to it. We have a picture in our minds of who he is. He’s a divorced guy and a divorced father who has got the kids most of the time. We would like to see his children and do some stories about that and see some of his personal life and romance.”

Curtis Hall has some plans of his own also: As soon as “Chicago Hope” wraps next March, he will direct his first feature, “Gridlock.”

“Laurence Fishburne and Tim Roth are going to star in it,” he says with enthusiasm. “When I leave here I am going over to Gramercy Pictures--they are going to distribute it--and talk about our ideas for distribution.

In Hollywood jargon, he says, the film is a cross between “Midnight Cowboy,” “Drugstore Cowboy” and “Pulp Fiction.” “It’s one of those dark, funny comedies,” he adds. “I went to the American Film Institute’s screenwriting program, which is where this script came out of. It’s my first one and people go mad for it.”

Curtis Hall doesn’t know if he’ll give himself a role in his picture. “I may do a tiny, tiny role,” he says, smiling. “But I think I am going to just watch the monitor and say, ‘Cut.’ ”

He doesn’t have any plans, though, on quitting acting if his directing career takes off. “I love acting,” he says. “I think I’m a good actor and getting to be a better actor with each role and each project that I do.”

Curtis Hall does want the “ability to chart my own destiny. I think as a writer and director you have the opportunity to make broader statements as an actor. When you’re being directed by someone else, it’s someone else’s vision. As a director, I put my own vision [on screen], how I see life and the things I want to say.”

Next year, Curtis Hall will be seen on the big screen as a DEA agent in ‘Heaven’s Prisoners” with Alec Baldwin. “It’s a great movie,” Curtis Hall says. “We shot it in New Orleans last summer. It rained every day. It’s a very humid movie. I have my Cajun accent. It was really fun.”

He also got to work this past summer with “grand master” Hong Kong director John Woo in the John Travolta-Christian Slater thriller “Broken Arrow,” which is set to open next March. Curtis Hall plays an Air Force sergeant. “I love John Woo,” he says.

Though best known for his dramatic work, Curtis Hall began as a singer and dancer on Broadway, appearing in the original production of Michael Bennett’s “Dreamgirls” and “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.”

While on Broadway, though, he began to notice “how shows were closing and you would have to start over again,” says Curtis Hall, who studied acting in London and voice at New York’s Juilliard School. “I also started to get rejected as an actor because somehow people felt if you were a singer and a dancer you can’t act.”

So he stopped singing. “When I left ‘Dreamgirls’ I started doing these off-Broadway plays and got a TV show and started doing parts in movies.”

Curtis Hall makes it a point to sing when he’s out of town. “I always sit in with a jazz band. I really like to do that. Sometimes I do it here. But I really don’t miss it.”

“Chicago Hope” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on CBS.