The Morning Call Newspaper Company
Thursday, May 25, 1989
Daniel Roebuck, a Bethlehem Catholic High School graduate who has made it big on the television screen as well as the silver screen, said life in California is not all it's cracked up to be.
''I dream of living back here. It's so nice and normal. What you hope for ultimately is to do the work. But I want to live here and work there,'' said the 25-year-old actor who resides in Glendale, a Los Angeles suburb.
Roebuck was in Easton recently, visiting the State Theatre where his mother, Elaine, works as a bookkeeper. She was proudly showing off her son just as much as she was showing off the ornate, historical landmark.
He said he has a special appreciation for the architecture of days gone by. ''Living in California, you get an appreciation for anything that has two floors,'' he joked, ''There's nothing like this in California.''
Roebuck has appeared in several films and was seen in a recent episode of ''Matlock,'' playing an attorney, Alex Winthrop, a part that has been inserted periodically into the show.
In the movie ''River's Edge,'' based on a true story that took place a few years back in California, Roebuck plays a troubled teen-ager who murders a female friend, and then brings his friends to a wooded area to view her body.
He played an Indian chief in the film ''Dudes'' and was in the recently released movie ''Disorganized Crime,'' playing the partner of Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy of Fox network's ''Married With Children''). He has bumped shoulders with the likes of such actors as Fred Gwynne, Richard Gere, Corbin Bernsen and Dennis Hopper.
''I'll do anything for a buck. That's what I have on the back of my resume,'' laughed Roebuck.
His mother recalled his first attempt at acting. ''He did his first impression when he was seven. He did James Cagney. 'You dirty rat. You stinkin copper,' '' she mimicked.
He went on to play a clown in the Lions All-Star Circus and then became involved in local stage productions - and so did his mother. After graduating from high school, he took acting classes at Bucknell University and completed the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, a summer program.
Roebuck, whose father, John, works for the city of Bethlehem, just finished a pilot for a television series called ''Capital News,'' in which he plays a ''young, vulnerable reporter'' at a Washington, D.C., newspaper. When he returns to California, he will find out whether the show will be picked up for ABC's new season in the fall.
All the brouhaha over celebrities, Hollywood parties and the like does not faze Roebuck.
''I don't go to parties. I've got agents and managers and I pay them large amounts of money to do my schmoozing for me.''