By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
February 27, 1987
Charles Rocket launched his acting career in a different way than most of his peers. While colleagues were paying their dues in local theater and moonlighting as waiters, Rocket was appearing on the nightly news as a reporter.
“I wasn’t serious when I applied for the position,” said Rocket, the star of “Down Twisted,” an action-comedy which opens today at Chicago area theaters. “I didn’t think I’d get the job because I brought the station a satirical audition cassette I had made in film class in college. The news producer apparently thought I was serious. Anyhow, I think he was more interested in my voice and my look, so I was hired. Before I knew what had happened, I was interviewing the governor in front of the state house.”
Although Rocket admitted his portrayal of a news reporter was just to the right of the late Ted Knight’s version of the narcissistic Ted Baxter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” he was popular enough with viewers to get his face plastered on billboards and buses advertising the nightly newscasts.
From 1975 to 1979, Rocket moved around the country, finding work as a reporter and anchorman. In 1980, he became a cast member of “Saturday Night
Live.” Ironically, he also became the anchorman on the show’s Weekend Update segment. “All these stations that had hired me and thought I was a wise guy probably had a fit when they saw me on `SNL’ and realized that I really was an actor,” Rocket said.
“I didn’t mean to slight any of the real TV reporters because I know that most of them are
trained very well and are intelligent people. But there are just one or two of them out there – the ones who don’t know journalism – who take themselves a little too seriously, and that’s what I was satirizing.”
After spending a year in New York on “Saturday Night Live,” Rocket moved his family to Los Angeles to be closer to his work. Rocket and his wife, Beth, were a little worried about how the move might affect their son. But Zane, now 10, quickly adapted to the West Coast. Zane likes the fact that his Dad can spend time with him and not be tied down to a 9 to 5 job. He also likes the fringe benefits of being an actor’s son – such as going on location to watch a film being shot.
“Zane and Beth came to spend some time with me when I was shooting `Down Twisted’ in Mexico,” Rocket said. “I think it was a good experience for Zane as well as for me because we had never been out of the country before. Zane learned a lot about a country that I don’t think he could’ve understood nearly as well just by reading text books.”
Though Rocket has numerous films and guest appearances on television series to his credit, he is best known for his recurring role as Bruce Willis’ brother on “Moonlighting.” He said that even if his film career takes off, he wants to continue appearing on the series.
“I really like the show a lot,” Rocket said. “I think it’s proof that episodic television doesn’t have to be mundane. With the combination of good actors, writer and directors, a quality product like this can and should be made.” Rocket paused briefly before adding, in a mock-newscaster voice, “And that’s the way it is.”
Rocket, a soft-spoken man with a penchant for one liners, grew up on a farm in Maine as the fifth of eight children. Although he didn’t become serious about acting until he worked as a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” he insisted that his “ham streak” was evident even as a child.
A mischievous boy whose antics often got him sent to his room without supper, Rocket said his earliest ambition was to become a truck driver. He had been interested in art since elementary school, so he applied to several art schools. When he got into the Rhode Island School of Design, he decided to enroll as a visual arts major.
“I’m really glad I made that decision to attend the School of Design because for the first time in my life, there were a thousand other people who were like me,” Rocket said. “It was the late 1960s and everybody was very expressive and exciting. I think my work there helped prepare me to express myself as an actor.
“I hadn’t been into theater in high school and I tended to stereotype drama people as guys who took ballet and singing lessons and aimed for Broadway,” he said, chuckling. “That wasn’t considered too manly for a boy from a farm. So college opened up a lot of facets to me. It’s a cliche, but my education literally changed my life.”
