Life with Foxy Bruce
Title: Life with Foxy Bruce
Source: Teen Heart Throb
Author: Leah Pack
Date: October 1978
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Kitty tells it like it is… the laughter, the occasional tear and always the loving heart as big as all outdoors!
She’s actually got three names. Her professional name, Kathryn Holcomb; married name, Kathryn Boxleitner; nickname, Kitty. Her foxy husband, Bruce affectionately christened her Kitty, a takeoff on the feminine lead of Gunsmoke for its 20-year run.
Nevertheless, Kitty is particularly proud of being married to the handsome, six-foot actor, and there’s a special gleam in her attractive blue eyes when she settles back and eagerly spins a never-before-told yarn about Bruce.
“Recently, he’s been learning to rope,” she says. “He’s had to learn for the show and he’s got a rope in his hands all the time, walking around roping things, and I’ve got the rope burns on my ankles to prove it!”
Kitty laughs before she adds, “Our dog is getting neurotic. Seriously, I’ll be reading somewhere in the house and I’ll hear this crash and he’d gone and roped the chair and yanked a little too hard and it’s fallen.”
She continues, “Really, Bruce has got a lot of built-up energy. When we’re not working on the show he’s constantly restless. He’s done a lot of stage work and he’s used to being kept busy, so having time off almost drives him nuts. That’s when he gets into learning how to rope and anything that moves is his target.”
However, as intense as Bruce may be about his job, there is the other, private side of him that Kitty knows better then anyone.
“He wakes up early and paces the floor waiting for me to get up,” she says. “He loves getting up just as the sun rises. We go horse back riding on weekends sometimes and he’s up and dressed in his jeans and boots ready to go before I can even focus. On those days it’s all I can do to have something to eat because he’ll be pacing so much he’ll just as soon pass on breakfast.”
However, Bruce enjoys eating, so long as he doesn’t have to cook it.
“He’s a good eater, for the most part. Growing up in the Midwest he enjoys meat and potatoes, but he also likes eggs and salads and chicken. Just about anything I prepare he’ll eat. The only problem is if he’s involved in something he’ll eat only a little or eat in too big of a hurry.
“I’m the one who likes to kind of get dressed up and go out for dinner at some place nice, but Bruce is just as happy eating at a coffee shop.”
Home for the couple is a small “woodsy” residence nestled amongst some trees in Studio City, Calif., where Kitty says a radio is turned on constantly.
“Bruce likes soft rock, pretty much as I do. Linda Ronstadt is one of his favorites, and he also enjoys some country-western like Willie Nelson. But his real all-time favorite kind of music is early rock n’ roll. He really enjoyed the movie, American Hot Wax.
“We watch TV a lot in rainy weather,” she explains. “Otherwise, Bruce gets restless if it’s a nice day or evening. We watch our own show and we offer each other criticism. Bruce has got a very quick eye in seeing how I might have done something different in a scene, or how he might have changed something. But the thing of it is, he’s very good about taking criticism.”
Yet, Kitty admits that Bruce does have a quick temper.
“He gets things out right away.” she says. “He doesn’t let things build up inside himself. He gets it out and it’s over, particularly with things he has no control over. The frustration of that angers him.”
Still, for the most part Kitty describes her husband as “an easy going, mellow kind of guy who is quite protective and sensitive.
” Bruce can cry at a sad movie and never be embarrassed by it, which is terrific because I’m that way too. He’d also live in blue clothes if I didn’t insist he change colors once in a while. Blue jeans are his favorite, and a pair of boots a lot of the time, and a T-Shirt or in the winter he likes long-sleeved, western-styled shirts.”
Kitty also reveals that her husband isn’t a big drinker of Cokes or other soft drinks, preferring tea and coffee. Bruce is also an avid reader, particularly of Western history, not surprisingly, and enjoys a quiet late evening of reading before retiring at night.
“He’s mainly an outdoorsman,” Kitty says. “He enjoys having a vegetable garden and horses and pets. He also collects Western memorabilia and antique guns and the only time he sits still for any length of time is when he goes fishing. He used to fish with his dad back in Illinois a lot when he was a kid and he still likes that, and jogging. He’s got me into jogging now, but he jogs three miles a day and I’m building up to that. He got me to quit smoking because he doesn’t.”
She also reveals that Bruce has got an “ornery” side about him occasionally, especially in trying to get the couple’s Boston Bull dog, named Mike, and their black Persian cat, Schintz, to play together.
“It’s usually Bruce who ends up playing like a kid with them all through the house!” Kitty reveals.