TELEVISION ‘Three Wise Guys,’ 8 p.m. USA

Actor Judd Nelson confesses he’s incredibly impatient. He can’t stand to read instruction manuals or brood over a decision or suffer in stalled traffic. It’s gotten him into trouble, he admits.

“Because some things just take time. An ancient elder used to go off and ponder a decision. The notion of pondering now is: ‘What are you, a moron?’ We want our food half-eaten almost. I would like to ponder more. I make maybe 75 percent quick choices,” he says.

Some of the Portland native’s choices have been right on. He was the rebel that coalesced the gang in “The Breakfast Club,” the eerie villain in “Cabin by the Lake,” the eccentric boss in the sitcom, “Suddenly Susan.”

In his latest endeavor, “Three Wise Guys,” Nelson plays one of three henchmen charged by their casino boss with eliminating a soon-to-snitch accountant. Nelson – along with Nick Turturro and Eddie McClintock – are the modern-day mob-squad in this humorous takeoff on the Christmas parable.

Unlike most actors, Judd had no childhood ambitions to become an actor. The product of a private boarding school, he attended an audition with a friend because he was assured there would be “a lot of girls” there.

To his surprise he found he liked acting. “There’s something about script interpretation that’s like a class,” says Nelson. “I like the structure and rigor starting with the material. I’m not charged with contempt of court if I act out as an actor.”

The son of two lawyers (his mother was a former legislator), he grew up in Maine doing all the right things until he was caught smoking pot at boarding school in the tenth grade. That taught him a significant life lesson.

“Everybody turned on everyone,” he says. “They turned on everyone. I did not. I didn’t say anything. Like, ‘Who was there with you?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I was so stoned.’ I ended up getting suspended, but the other people getting room-bound for, like, a month. It was a question of honor or character and these were people who were high school friends. So I guess that was an important thing.”

It was also a question of character when Nelson quit the successful “Suddenly Susan” after the suicide of David Strickland, the well-liked co-star who played Todd Stites.

“He was like the glue of our wall,” says Nelson. “If we were the bricks he was the mortar. I felt there really wasn’t a show without him. It’s a sitcom, not a drama. It’s hard to fold into something like that. They’re going to put someone else into his dressing room and you’re going to have to walk by that every day. No way. Parking space gets painted over. Being impatient it’s not like I’m going to give myself some time to healthfully grieve,” he says.

Nelson, who turned 46 on Nov. 28, is not married, though he’s dated several actresses. He trusts he’ll know when the right woman comes along.

Sighing, he says, “What makes up one’s life, I don’t know. Is it being active? Is it creating something? Is it having children? I don’t know – there are a lot of channels on that remote now. You have a lot more options than people had 100 years ago. I haven’t come to any conclusions, there are so many surprises still.” (Luanne Lee, Knight Ridder)