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I spied a sweet-faced young man chain-smoking on the sidelines. I knew that face. Who was it?
A fair number of actors -- Rick Shroeder among them -- have successfully made the transition from child to adult roles. Still, it's shocking to think of somone you remember as an angel-faced munchkin playing a cold-hearted criminal. Imagine, say, if Shirley Temple had suddenly turned into an ax-weilding murderer, or "ET" cutie Drew Barrymore ... well, maybe that's a bad example.
In March, when I visited the Manhattan set of "Oz," -- HBO's graphic and gruesome prison drama -- I spied a sweet-faced young man wearing a blue bathrobe and chain-smoking on the sidelines.
I knew that face. Who was it?
Finally it dawned on me. It's the actor who played Chip, Jane Curtin's impish son on "Kate and Allie." Fred Koehler.
On "Oz" (10 p.m. Wednesdays, [webmaster's note: Oz has since moved to 11 p.m.]) Koehler plays Andrew Schillinger, son of chillingly evil neo-Nazi inmate Vern Schillinger (J.K. Simmons.) In his three-episode story arc, which began last week, Koehler's terrific -- a racist killer and totally wasted drug addict who somehow manages to inspire sympathy.
"My character is about 18 years old and did a copycat crime of dragging a black guy from the back of his pickup," Koehler explained during a break. "He comes to prison for second-degree murder, and also is addicted to drugs, and kind of gets pulled into this weird scheme by ... those who are not friends of [the elder] Schillinger to get back at him."
Koehler had previously worked with "Oz" creator Tom Fontana on a (never-aired) pilot, in which he also played a white supremacist. "I did alot of research then, in terms of watching documentaries on neo-Nazis and skinheads," Koehler says. "For this, alot of the research had more to do with my watching a couple of episodes of 'Oz,' because I had never seen it. It has such a unique style."
Fontana concedes that the casting choice may surprise people.
"I didn't watch 'Kate & Allie' alot, but my impression was that he was this darling little kid. Then he comes in, and I said, "Oh, my God, he's perfect. He's a wonderful actor. Just wonderful."
After "Kate & Allie" (1984-89), Koehler spent four years studying theater at Carnegie Mellon University, where he widened his acting range. "College broadened me in a variety of ways," says Koehler, who graduated in 1997 and recently did a pilot for an upcoming AMC series, "Paramour."
Before he was called back to the set, Koehler said, "Pardon my outfit, by the way, I'm about to go into solitary. That's going to be my nakedness on the show."
Now that I've previewed all three of his episodes, I realize that he was about to do his grand finale scene -- in the nude.
that episode, the fifth of the season, was directed by Steve Buscemi, whom Koehler praises as "wonderful, extraordinarily welcome and generous -- and calm." The actor also calls the final scene of Andrew Schillinger a strange twist.
Indeed it is. And so is the Chip-to-Schillinger segue.
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