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Just call him Ron Palillo, working actor.
The 40ish Palillo is in Bangor, starring in the touring production of Jan de Hartog’s “The Fourposter,” which runs through June 21 at the Bangor Opera House. For much of the past 20 years, he has been a touring theater actor, performing in 42 states.
But two decades ago, he was one of the stars of the ABC comedy “Welcome Back, Kotter,” playing the lovable nerd Arnold Horshack. And the ghost of Horshack still hovers over his shoulder in 1998.
And yet, removed from his former stardom, Palillo is a happy man today.
“The most exciting time of my life is right now,” said Palillo, taking a break from rehearsals of “The Fourposter.” “I’m getting to do everything I wanted to do.”
That includes performing the role of Michael in “The Fourposter,” a play in which Palillo has wanted to act since age 8, when he saw a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” TV production featuring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.
“The Fourposter” is a period comedy that follows a couple through their 35-year relationship and shows how love changes, Palillo said. He feared that the show might be dated, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case.
“Everything that these two are going through, people are going through now,” he explained. “[Audience members] are heartened to see that they weren’t the only ones these things are happening to. The play is a real nudger, as people keep nudging each other when they recognize familiar situations.”
Palillo described Michael, whom he plays from ages 24 to 59, as “a self-obsessed, weaker-sex man. He has every neurosis in the world. Jan de Hartog was making a statement in the way he portrays men as having a Peter Pan complex and women as being the anchor which steadies the bobbing ship.”
“The Fourposter” is the first touring production that the Penobscot Theatre has presented at the Opera House. Mark Torres, the company’s producing artistic director, hopes to present other traveling plays in the future.
“We’re not getting out of doing our own productions,” Torres explained. “But this does afford our audience the opportunity to come in contact with productions they normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to enjoy.”
Directed by Christopher Owens, this play, co-starring Becky Moran, originated at the Virginia-based Wayside Theatre last month, and will continue on to theaters in upstate New York and Wisconsin. Palillo added that other theaters have expressed interest as well.
Michael in “The Fourposter” marks a milestone for Palillo, as it’s the fourth of five roles that he has always wanted to play and gotten to undertake. Previously, he played George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Mozart in “Amadeus” and the title character in “Richard III.” His last dream role is to play The Fool in “King Lear.”
The actor has done his best to distance himself from Horshack. Palillo (whose name means toothpick in Spanish) had a nose job, changing his most prominent feature, and has bulked up, working out religiously. Still some of his mannerisms remind the casual observer that this is the man who played the endearing geek.
It was his grounding in theater which helped him to survive the Horshack phenomenon.
Palillo was in the original off-Broadway cast of “The Hot’l Baltimore” when the call came from the producer of “Welcome Back, Kotter” to act in the pilot, or tryout, episode. He figured that the pilot would earn him enough money to put down a deposit on an apartment.
“Welcome Back, Kotter” ran for five years. The sitcom told the story of a teacher, Gabe Kotter (played by former standup comic Gabe Kaplan), who returned to his high school in Brooklyn to teach the “sweathogs,” a remedial academic class.
John Travolta, as Vinnie Barbarino, was the show’s sex symbol and breakout star, who soon segued into feature films, starring as Tony Manero in 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever” and Danny Zuko in 1978’s “Grease.”
But Palillo’s Horshack shone nearly as bright. With his wheezy laugh and catch phrases “Ooh, ooh” and “Very impressive,” he provided the sure laughs for the show.
It was a crazy period of adjustment for Palillo.
“It was culture shock to go to L.A.,” he recalled. “It was also money shock, to go from $147 a week in theater to the kind of money you make on a series. I wasn’t prepared for that. I was such a trusting soul that I believed everybody who told me my future was guaranteed.”
The cast would do each show twice in front of live audiences of 350 people. So, for all Palillo knew, 700 was how many people that were watching the show.
That was before the day that he got asked to leave Disneyland because a throng of thousands was following him around the park. He and his fellow “sweathogs” had their clothes torn off by fans, and once had their limo overturned. If it wasn’t for work, he rarely went out.
“Those years doing it weren’t a bed of roses,” he said. “Of course, there were wonderful things that happened. I got to meet legends such as Johnny Carson and Neil Simon.”
In those days of only three networks and no cable, “Welcome Back, Kotter” got canceled with a rating higher than “Roseanne” had at its peak. After his “Horshack” spinoff didn’t get picked up in 1978, Palillo found himself in Typecasting Hell, alongside Don Knotts and Jim Nabors. For a decade, he got offered variations of Horshack, who has been both a blessing and a curse for him.
“I’ve become sort of an icon on the ’70s,” he said, bemused. “We were all pet rocks. Still there’s a cloud over my head. `If he played Horshack, how good can he be?”‘
So Palillo went back to the stage.
“Thank God I was brought up in theater,” he said. “It was theater that kept me alive when the phone didn’t ring. When I traveled out into the country, people would come to see Horshack, but would discover someone they liked better, the character I was playing that night.”
He also appeared in a string of highly forgettable movies, including “Hellgate,” “Snake Eater,” “Committed” and “Friday the 13th — Part Six.” He’s grown to hate working in feature films.
“It’s astoundingly dull to do,” he said. “It’s not about acting, it’s not about stories. It’s about moving the lights.”
Palillo’s unusual cadence also lent itself to another media — providing voices for cartoon series. His voice has been featured on the animated shows “Rubik the Amazing Cube,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Pound Puppies’ and “The Little Clowns of Happytown,” among others.
“It’s an astoundingly easy way to make money,” he said. “You do three shows in an hour. You get paid then, then get paid again every time it runs.”
“Welcome Back, Kotter” was a show about a man going back to his roots. Ironically, Palillo’s redemption began when he returned back to New York in 1990, at the urging of his friend, actress Tyne Daly.
“I became a working actor again,” he said. “During the first rehearsal for `Amadeus,’ this lightness, this peace came over me, which let me know I’d made the right move.”
Since then, Palillo has been busy in theater, although he did do a year as a sleazy gambler on the daytime drama “One Life to Live.”
“I’ve learned that I don’t care where I’m working, as long as I’m working,” he said. “I love trouping, coming into a community to do a play, and getting to know the people.”
Palillo is a believer in giving back to the theater as well. A children’s book illustrator, he hopes to set up a time to autograph copies of his book “A Gift for the Contessa” bought at the show and to donate a portion of the proceeds to the Penobscot Theatre. Also, he has set up a scholarship fund at the University of Connecticut, in the name of his former professor Dr. Nafe Katter, and puts two students through school each year.
Palillo has long since come to terms with Horshack.
“When I was doing it, I loved him,” he said. “I was like a big brother to him, protecting him from the producers. I resented him in the ’80s a lot, to the point that I went to a shrink about it. I made my peace with him in the ’90s. A lot of wonderful actors don’t get the chance to create a lasting character. So all I want to do now is to be good at what I do, and to be able to keep on on doing it.”
“The Fourposter” will be presented on the following times and days: 8 p.m. June 12; 8:30 p.m. June 13; 2 p.m. June 14; 7 p.m. June 17-18; 8 p.m. June 19; 5 and 8:30 p.m. June 20; 2 p.m. June 21. For tickets or information, call 942-3333.
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