ERIK HEINILA
Timothy Hutton in TNT's "Leverage." He's concerned for the film industry. "The really good material is much more abundant on television," he says.
A strong work ethic, whether in film, TV
Forget Kevin Bacon. You want to play Six Degrees of Separation, use Timothy Hutton as your hub.
In nearly 50 films, he has costarred with everyone from Tom Cruise to Nick Nolte, from Rosie O'Donnell to Maureen Stapleton.
What makes Hutton unique (and expands his Degrees range significantly) is the ease with which he has moved from movies to TV throughout his career.
Big screen or small, his exacting standards don't change.
Desperate Housewives' Dana Delany, who has played Hutton's wife in both media - in NBC's Kidnapped and in the coming indie film Multiple Sarcasms - says in an e-mail, "I love working with him because you know he is going to be always truthful and present. He will whittle away at a scene until every line and moment is true.
"A great example of that is his scene with Natalie Portman in Beautiful Girls. I was almost embarrassed to be watching such intimacy."
Having recently completed a Roman Polanski film in Germany, Hutton has returned to Portland, Ore., to work on the second season of his TNT series, Leverage, which debuts this week.
Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a man who lost his beloved son because of an unscrupulous insurance company. Ravaged by grief, Nate eventually assembles a Mission: Impossible-like team to take down rapacious fat cats.
It's a caperish mix of comedy and crime, in the vein of Ocean's Eleven.
Last season, Nate struggled with a weakness for booze, usually losing the battle. He's about to face new hurdles.
"We've eliminated drinking as a vice," Hutton says, "and replaced it with other things that are just as damaging. Control freak, for one."
It's those craggy dimensions that attracted Hutton to the role.
"I looked at it and thought, 'This is a really interesting character. I could see playing him for multiple years,' " says the actor, who, at 48, still has that anguished altar-boy face.
"That's one of the things you end up considering: Can I take it in different directions? Is there enough conflict in this series?"
Hutton began dabbling in television while still a teen.
His father, actor Jim Hutton (TV's Ellery Queen), questioned the boy's commitment.
"I don't think that he was convinced for himself that I was on the road to becoming an actor," says Hutton. "I had done a couple of TV movies, but I was young and I had other interests. Unfortunately, he passed away before I kind of got going."
Boy, did he get going. His father died just before Hutton made an enormous splash in his film debut, winning an Oscar at age 20 for best supporting actor as troubled teen Conrad Jarrett in 1980's Ordinary People.
A year later, he came to the Philadelphia suburbs to star in Taps.
"We filmed at the Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne," he recalls. "It was a really fun movie to work on with all those young actors and George C. Scott. George kicked my ass in chess every day.
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