In the new fall series "Lone Star," the heroes and villains may seem a little tough to sort out.
Make it easy on yourself. Root for the local guy, Pittsburgh actor Mark Deklin.
The Fox drama, which premieres at 9 p.m. Monday, features Deklin as Trammell Thatcher, the eldest son of a Houston oil tycoon played by Jon Voight.
"The show is shooting in Dallas," says Deklin, a 1986 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Pleasant Hills. "We've been invited to sit in Jerry Jones' box to watch a Cowboys game. I feel really conflicted about it."
Deklin's character on "Lone Star" is a bit conflicted, as well. He becomes suspicious of Rob, a young man who marries into the family. He's right to smell a rat: His new brother-in-law, played by James Wolk, is a bigamist and con man who plans to bilk the Thatchers. Deklin's character has no proof, however.
"When we first meet me, I'm sort of the jerk of the show," Deklin says. "I'm the guy who's going to spoil Rob's fun. I'm the one who suspects him. But if you step back, you see I'm in the right."
Fans of "Desperate Housewives" may recall Deklin as the hunk who romanced Eva Longoria after she separated from her husband. Broadway audiences hissed him as the evil Scar in "The Lion King." In "Sex and the City," he played a Navy officer who romanced Kristin Davis.
When he's not acting, Deklin is paid to incite violence. A certified member of the American Society of Fight Directors, he choreographed the sword fights for a production of "Romeo and Juliet" directed by Terrence Mann. He also staged sword skirmishes for a television production of "Cyrano de Bergerac," which starred Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner.
As a student at Thomas Jefferson, Deklin says he was more interested in football and track than Shakespeare. He also sang and played guitar in the rock bands Rampage and Paradox.
"I always loved acting, and I always had a certain facility for it," he says. "I didn't think I wanted to do it professionally. It didn't seem like a real job to me. Not where we're from. My dad had a building supply company. I grew up lifting bricks and blocks and cement and mortar. To me, that was a real job."
Karen Suszynski, who taught Deklin in a 10th-grade honors English class, saw the boy's creative potential. But convincing him to audition for the school play was a hard sell.
"He had a very mature look for a 10th-grade student," she says. "I encouraged him to try out for the play, but he kind of dismissed it. He said he didn't have enough time."
But in his senior year, Deklin finally took his teacher's advice and auditioned for the part of Buffalo Bill in the school's very first musical, "Annie Get Your Gun."
"He was great," Suszynski says. "He entered from the audience. He was a dynamic presence on stage. Of course, he had to be larger than life, and Mark handled that perfectly."
After getting a degree at Penn State University, Deklin pursued his masters in English at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. But Amy Mercalde, another of his teachers from Thomas Jefferson, says theater seemed to be consuming more of his time.
"I remember, in Bloomington, he was actually in two performances at the same time," she says. "He was (rehearsing for) the Cary Grant role in 'Arsenic and Old Lace.' At the very same time, he was in the lead role of 'Our Town.' He did those both at the same time."
It was at Bloomington that Deklin says he finally admitted to himself that he wanted to make a career as an actor.
He went to Seattle, where he was accepted into the master of fine arts program at the University of Washington.
"Seattle was just booming in the early '90s," he says. "People were saying that Seattle in the '90s was what Chicago was like in the '80s, this great theater scene. You could see bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam in local bars."
"Lone Star" also features Rosa Blasi, Bryce Johnson and Eloise Mumford.
"I still get a kick out of seeing him on TV," says former classmate David Kerns, who has played with Deklin in rock bands since elementary school. "I DVR all his shows and sit down with my wife and watch them. I send him e-mails giving him a bad time over his hair, clothes or love interests on the shows. He always replies with a laugh."
Born: Dec. 3, 1967, in Pleasant Hills
First acting role: George Washington in bicentennial play in the second grade.
Interests: Horseback riding, sword-fighting, rugby, jazz.
Broadway and off-Broadway: "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Lion King," "Arms and the Man."
Television: "Desperate Housewives," "Two and Half Men," "The Mentalist," "Sex and the City," "The Ex List"
Films: "Never Say Macbeth," "Herbie: Fully Loaded."
Fight director/choreographer: Films, "Cyrano De Bergerac," "Forced Alliance," "Never Say Macbeth," stage production of "Romeo and Juliet"
Education: Bachelor of arts in English and history, Penn State University; master of fine arts, University of Washington.
Worst experience: Doing a guest role on "Sex and the City" and playing Scar in "The Lion King" on the same day. "It was a pretty horrible situation," he says. "It kind of all worked out in the long run.The day was something of a blur for me. I was literally running from our theater on 42nd Street to this nightclub where we were shooting the scene from 'Sex and the City.' I was washing off this crazy makeup from 'The Lion King.' It was one of those things that was awful to live through, but I knew would make a good story someday."
On Eva Longoria Parker: "She's really cool. I dug Eva. She's like one of the guys. She's like that cool chick who talks sports. She said 'Where are you from?' I said 'Pittsburgh.' 'She said 'Aha! Steelers fan!' And she dove right in."
On Jon Voight: "One of the things I love about Jon is he's all from he heart. He's one of the sweetest guys I've ever met. We've established early on that we can butt heads about things but do it in a respectful and loving and cool way. People keep teasing us that we're having a bromance."
