Soap Report BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS, Sunday, February 24, 1980
It's Tough to be a Man By JON-MICHAEL REED United Features
NEW YORK- It's not easy being opera heartthrob idol when the story odds are against you. ''The main problem for an actor on a soap", says Peter Bergman, who appears on "All My Children" as Dr. Cliff Warner "is to remain strong. Usually, men on soaps are merely appendages of women and their stories. It's tough to surmount some of the plot situations, but I try to make Cliff energetic and forceful. It's often a struggle to make the character something other than weak and indecisive."
Bergman's Cliff is a man who at least attempts to take charge of situations that revolve around the character's romantic partner. And Bergman's appealing sensitivity and lively, goodnatured manner have hurtled him to the top of current list of reigning afternoon golden boys. It doesn't hurt that he's involved in a story that is classically endearing to serial audiences. "Cliff and his sweetheart Nina are involved in a story that's based on a fragile, honest, simple, pure relationship. It's an old-fashioned romance that also has a tinge of something Gothically threatening in her background," says Bergman. "I'm lucky to be playing opposite someone like Taylor Miller (who plays Nina). There's a chemical reaction between us that is exciting and sensual but not blatantly sexual."
PETER CLAIMS that he and Cliff share an idealistic, optimistic, hopelessly romantic nature. Their backgrounds, are decidedly different. Bergman was born in a naval hospital in Cuba where his father, a career navy man, was based. Peter grew up in Camp Springs, Md., and had no acting ambitions as a youngster. In high school he sang in a rock-and-roll band and was on the football and boxing teams. His strict Southeren Baptist parents encouraged him to be a teacher. But he got interested in theater by chasing a girl.
"I was something of a rabble rouser type and thought actors were néurotic, pain-in-the-butt people,"" remembers Peter. "But I liked one special girl who convinced me to try out for a school production of 'Peter Pan."' And he won the role of Captain Hook. At Prince George's College he majored in English but was hooked on the applause of school productions. He moved to New York City to study at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. To pay for tuition he worked in construction and was a building janitor. He met actress-singer Christine Ebersole at the Academy and they were married in June of 1976. "I was the typical struggling actor," says Peter, "who was working as a waiter while she toured: in productions of 'I Love My Wife' and 'On the 20th Century.' We weren't growing at the same rate. We were moving in two worlds I was confused, jealous and angry at her success while mine was non existent. I got my own place for awhile and went into therapy. Then things started happening to my career.
An agent spotted his Academy work and got him roles on "Kojak," a few other nighttime series, and many commercials. He played bit roles on other soaps, then auditioned for "All My Children" in the role of Jeff. But Agnes Nixon, the show's creator, had a new story in mind, and last May Peter joined the show as Cliff whose story with Nina has been moving fast and heavy ever since. Since Peter has job security and Christine has settled into a Broadway run as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma! ' the couple recently moved into a new apartment and "solidified what we once had and lost because of my insecurities," according to Peter, who finds his new found acclaim rewarding but scary. "The audience reaction and adulation is sometimes bizarre and unnerving but always gratifying. There's a temptation to be sucked in by it, to believe that I just may be the greatest thing on earth. But I think I'm secure enough now that I'll keep my head and not become Mr. Big TV Star."
By
Paul Raven ·
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