On the Rebound : After Cancer Treatment, Robert Urich Bounces Back to Host ‘Vital Signs’

Robert Urich, the never-ruffled tough-guy star of “Vega$” and “Spenser: For Hire,” has long played characters who are up to the task no matter how daunting. In his personal life, too, he’s demonstrated resilience, bouncing back no matter how many times his TV shows have been canceled, shouldering responsibilities and creating a luxurious life for his family.

Then, last summer, a growth in his groin, initially thought to be nothing more than an annoyance, turned out to be cancer.

“When that call came, it was terrifying. You want to fall apart,” Urich said. “But I have always played these guys who are capable, and now I thought, ‘Maybe it’s time to prove that you are capable.’ But those first few days--even though I always had a great prognosis--no doubt about it: It’s scary.”

He quickly realized that while he couldn’t control what had happened to him, he could control how he reacted to it. “So my response was to go at it in a very business-like, professional manner,” the actor explained. “I needed a weekend to compose myself and put on my game face, my fighting face. But when the doctor said to me, ‘When would you like to come in and start treatment?’ I said, ‘What time do you open?’ He said, ‘6 a.m.’ I said, ‘I’ll be there at 10 to six. I want to be the first one to be cured every day.’ ”

And now, only a week after completing the last of his three courses of chemotherapy to combat synovial sarcoma, a rare form of soft-tissue cancer, Urich turns up tonight as host of ABC’s “Vital Signs,” a reality series that uses re-creations and interviews to tell “once-in-a-lifetime” medical success stories.

It’s a subject with which he is familiar. Besides the chemotherapy, he underwent a month of radiation treatment and two surgeries: the first to remove the tumor and a second operation that cleaned out surrounding tissue. It has been a grueling, debilitating six months. But now, Urich’s doctors say, he’s in the clear.

“Every three months I have to go back for a scan,” said Urich, still a bit queasy from the chemo, during an interview last week. “I say that it’s all over, but then you get reminded every once in a while, ‘Oops, is it really all gone?’ But every day I’m feeling better and better.”

The chemotherapy treatment “is tough,” he said. “Most are nine days long and after about the sixth day it’s a matter of gritting your teeth and trying to distract yourself. You’re battling nausea all the time. I mean, it’s pool chemicals they’re pumping through your body!”

Urich’s many fans--he says that he has received 50,000 letters of support over the past six months--will get a very clear look in “Vital Signs” at one of the effects of chemotherapy: His hair is gone.

Urich serves as host and narrator of the series, offering introductions and short commentaries on the incredible feats of dedicated doctors and the power of will, love and the desire to survive.

“You would think that I might want to steer clear of such things after what I just went through, but I have a lot of respect for physicians,” said Urich, who’ll be 50 this year and has been married to his wife, Heather, for 21 years. They have two college-age children.

Besides, he adds, “I didn’t think I had the energy to launch a new dramatic show right now, and so this gives me a chance to work, to pay some bills and recuperate at the same time.”

And the chance to think about where he wants to go from here. He isn’t leaving acting but is ready “to do other things that bring other sensibilities to bear.” He’ll be hosting a PBS series called “Boatworks,” he’s had offers to write a book and he also likes the notion of helming a talk show.

“There is a power in broadcasting versus doing a television series that is quite appealing to me because of the way it affects people and makes them consider things in their daily life,” he says. “So I’m thinking maybe I could bring some of my life experience and education and my intellect and my humor to bear in a different way than I have before.”

After starring in 11 television series (among them “American Dreamer,” “Tabitha,” “Gavilan” and “It Had to Be You”), the cancer took away the role he loved most--playing the lead character in TNT’s “The Lazarus Man.” Urich was poised to begin shooting a second season of the western, about a heroic but flawed character searching for his real identity, when he received his bad news. He pleaded to continue the show, hoping to work between treatment sessions, but the Turner-owned network opted not to gamble.

“I don’t regret not having to get on a horse 14 hours a day, but I think we could still be on the air, even with the treatment,” Urich said. “But maybe that is my destiny, to do something else. I’m still trying to find the full answer to what this has meant.

“I don’t think people get struck by lightning--even with something this dramatic--and say, ‘Oh, that’s the secret.’ But it certainly has been a reality check. It’s very easy to say, ‘Well, I appreciate my family more and I’d like to spend more time for myself,’ but all those things are true. And I do know that I don’t want to spend another 10,000 hours in motor homes, in dressing rooms on location, during the second half of my career.”

For now, he’s looking forward to his hair growing back.

“The thing about the hair is, everyone tries to be nice and they say, ‘Yul Brynner’ and ‘Kojak,’ and ‘You can play “The King and I,” ’ and ‘You have a nice shaped head.’ But when I look in the mirror, it reminds me that I have cancer. It’s not Bruce Willis shaving his head for $20 million to do ‘Breakneck 9’ or whatever it’s called. For me it’s not something I relish.

“When I hosted one of the ‘National Geographic’ specials for TBS recently, they said they prefer I wear a hairpiece. So I did. It cost $8,000 [and came from] this famous Hollywood wig maker, and it still feels like you’re wearing your grandmother’s hat that she wears to church. It’s awful. But on ‘Vital Signs’ they said, ‘No, we want you as you are.’ And I said, ‘During the course of the show, my hair will start growing back,’ and my producer said, ‘Then maybe we’ll have to comment on it then.’ And I like that. It’s a very honest approach.”

* “Vital Signs” premieres at 9 tonight on ABC (Channels 7 and 3).