Bruce Tid-Bit

by TVSecretAgent ~ May 19, 2008

In our efforts to continue with some spring cleaning we’ve found another little tidbit to share. This articule unfortunately has no known source or author (if you know it - contact me!) but appears to be from the SMK era.

“I had a very vivid imagination. I always wanted to be in the movies though I didn’t know how to go about it,” says Bruce Boxleitner, who idolized Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne and Cary Grant as a kid growing up in Illinois. A C.P.A.’s son with “a nice combination of a rural and urban upbringing.” Bruce used to build hay-bale forts on his grandfathers farm and pretend he was Errol Flynn. Now he’s living out his childhood fantasies as secret agent Lee Stetson on Scarecrow and Mrs. King, but before his second year in high school he was unsure of his future.

Born on May 12, 1950 in Elgin, IL and raised in nearby Mt. Prospect, Bruce was a below average student and mediocre athlete. “I was nerdy and pimply with two left feet. I was never good enough for the team,” he confides. But in his sophomore year he tried out for a play, won the lead, and starring in roles from then on. Despite the fact that his grades dropped further, necessitating summer school, Bruce was happy: “I’d found my niche.”

He was admittedly a late bloomer socially, but the attention he got from his theater activities helped in that area. So did having three sisters. “I’ve always been comfortable around women,” Bruce says. With professional theater experience in Chicago and New York under his belt, Bruce headed for Hollywood, where he debuted on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and later met his wife Kitty on How the West Was Won. Now one of Hollywood’s most popular leading men, he’s living proof that childhood fantasies can come true!