Richard Dysart: Summer Is No Vacation For `L.A. Law' Chief

If Richard Dysart had to write a ``How I Spent My Summer Vacation'' essay next fall, he'd have to report that he never got very far away from the law.

Dysart, the fine actor who plays Leland McKenzie, of the fictional law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney, Kuzak & Becker on NBC's ``L.A. Law,'' was in Seattle yesterday as guest speaker at the Seattle-King County Bar Associaton's annual banquet and awards ceremonies. And he's planning to do public-service TV announcements urging lawyers to do more pro bono work.

``I did one in Maryland and it was so successful that dozens more states requested them, so there goes my summer vacation,'' Dysart, 61, said yesterday.

Meanwhile, real lawyers are in negotiation with NBC and the producers of ``L.A. Law'' because several of the actors' contracts will be up for renewal at the end of this coming season, the fifth for the Emmy-winning series.

``They're talking about a sixth, seventh and eighth season,'' Dysart said, which suits him just fine, although he agrees this coming season will be a crucial one.

``This past season we had such a strong story line, thanks to the character played by Diana Muldaur, who tried to take over the firm, that the writers are still working on how to top that. The only thing we've heard is that there will be two new characters this coming season.

``They never tell us in advance what's going to happen - so everyone eagerly reads the scripts as soon as we get them, to find out where we're going. I was taken to lunch by the producers before last season began so I knew something was up - they wanted to tell me about the character played by Diana and how that was going to affect my character. The producers and writers like to keep their options open, in case something isn't working out, so they can write it out of the script.''

Dysart doesn't need to worry - he and his character are made for each other and have been since he first read Steven Bochco's script. ``I knew I wanted to play McKenzie and I called my agent and said, `You've got to get hold of Steve - I want that part.' And she said, `Well, I just got off the phone with him - and he wants you for the part.' We got together, mapped out the character's past to give us a basis from which to work, and it's all gone smoothly since then. Sometimes I worry - it's all been going too well - a role I love to play in a series that's about as good as you can get. Something's wrong!''

Dysart has gotten over feeling guilty about no longer doing stage work, which was what he trained to do - and did for nearly three decades. ``Once you get used to working days, it's hard to contemplate working nights again - just as when you've gotten used to the five-day week, the six-day week of the theater no longer seems so appealing.

``I remember the precise moment it happened - I was in a revival of `Another Part of the Forest' in L.A. at the Ahmanson Theater. One night, I was getting ready to go on - it was a long play and my entrance didn't come until about 10:30 p.m. I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, `Why are you doing this?' The old excitement wasn't there anymore. That was when I began to actively seek out film parts - but I did feel guilty about it.''

Dysart grew up in Maine and was enamored of radio even before he was a teen-ager. ``When I was in first grade, I had rheumatic fever and had to spend about a year in bed - listening to radio, mostly soaps in the daytime. They all came from places like Chicago and New York and I realized there was a life outside Maine.

``In high school we had a radio club and I'm afraid I shamelessly dominated it - we had a weekly program on the local radio station and I wrote the scripts, acted, directed, did the sound effects. I absolutely loved it!''

After a stint in the Air Force, Dysart went to Emerson College in Boston - still interested in radio, but realizing that TV was where it was at. He opted for the stage and, after graduation, did regional theater, off-Broadway theater, was part of the Lincoln Center company and had the role of the coach in the 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, ``That Championship Season.'' He worked with William Ball, who established a repertory company in Pittsburgh that wandered around the U.S. until it settled in San Francisco to become the American Conservatory Theater.

Then came parts in films like ``Hospital'' and ``Being There,'' and TV films like ``The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman'' and projects as diverse as ``Day One'' and ``War & Remembrance'' (in both of which he played President Harry Truman).

``Now I suppose I'll be playing lawyers the rest of my acting career,'' he said. ``But while in most plays and movies they're just stodgy characters, Leland McKenzie is anything but and I love playing it.''