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   'CSI' star, an amputee, looks for truth

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Topic: 'CSI' star, an amputee, looks for truth (Read 208 times)

Rhune
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'CSI' star, an amputee, looks for truth
« on: Nov 13^th, 2003, 11:48am »

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'CSI' star, an amputee, looks for truth
Robert David Hall wants 'wider palette' on TV
Thursday, November 13, 2003 Posted: 10:09 AM EST (1509 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- It's the corpses and not the medical examiner's crutch that get attention on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

That's just the way Robert David Hall, who plays Dr. Al Robbins, likes it.

Hall, a double amputee fitted with prosthetic legs, wants to see more disabled characters on-screen as a matter-of-fact part of life.

He compares casting the disabled in television and movies to using a 64-crayon box instead of one with a fraction of the choices.

"To me, it's always much better to paint with a wider palette. And it's more truthful, too," he said. The actor, 55, joined TV's top-rated series early in its first season in 2000 and has been a regular since.

"I told them (the producers) right from the get-go, 'I'm not going to play your ghoulish guy.' I want to be a guy who has respect for and sees death as part of life, and that's what they were looking for."

Hall knows how closely life and death shadow each other. Twenty-five years ago, he was cruising down the San Diego Freeway south of Los Angeles in a carefully washed, detailed car he was about to sell.

He was juggling jobs and enjoying it, working as a disc jockey at an Orange County radio station, writing ad copy and playing in a band.

Then, on that day in July 1978, an 18-wheel rig smashed through a chain-link fence dividing north and southbound lanes that were under construction and into Hall's path. His small auto was crushed underneath the truck and at first invisible to rescuers.

"I heard yelling and screaming," Hall recalled. "One of the policemen outside was concerned the truck's gas tank might explode. I had started screaming by this time. Somebody yelled, 'Forget about him' -- and I started screaming louder."

'If I kept talking I would stay alive'
The situation grew desperate when the tank on Hall's car burst into flames. A just-retired welder and two paramedic-firefighters, described by Hall as "very brave guys," put out the fire after several minutes and cut him out of the wreck.

With burns over 65 percent of his body, Hall was rushed to the University of California Irvine Medical Center. He decided to take his survival into his own hands -- or mouth.

"I was convinced if I kept talking I would stay alive. The paramedics told me I was one of the funnier guys they ever had. I told them the name of every girl I'd ever dated, every movie I'd ever seen, every song I loved."

In two surgeries, Hall lost his right leg above the knee and his left leg below it. He had countless skin grafts on his face and body and was hospitalized off and on for more than seven months.

A parade of family and friends comforted him as he lay wrapped, mummylike, and helped satisfy "the actor in me who likes to observe things," Hall said.

"You can read how people feel about mortality in their face. Some people had great faith, 'God's going to help David get through this.' Other people, you could see the despair, 'How could the universe allow this to happen to our friend?' "

Hall's own spirit was unsinkable. With the radio station where he'd worked right across the street from the hospital, the then-wheelchair bound Hall called on his brother-in-law to ferry him and later rolled himself over.

He went on to work at the CBS radio station in Los Angeles and, after playing a Korean war veteran in "AfterMASH," the short-lived "M*A*S*H" sequel, decided to build on the acting lessons he'd taken while attending the University of California, Los Angeles.

Overcoming 'bitter cripple roles'
He caught the edge of Hollywood's new but often questionable interest in disabled characters that emerged in the 1970s.

"A disabled person in a TV show was somebody who had a problem that the hero of the show had to help solve," Hall said. "I don't say this with any bitterness, but within our group we refer to them as 'bitter cripple roles.' "

The characters became less stereotypical, especially after the 1980 groundbreaking performances of Phyllis Frelich in the stage production of "Children of a Lesser God" and Marlee Matlin in the 1986 film version.

Hall, married and with a 20-year-old son, has appeared in TV shows including "L.A. Law," "Highway to Heaven," "Touched by An Angel" and "Life Goes On" and in films including "The Negotiator," "Starship Troopers" and "Class Action."

His steady job on "CSI," the Las Vegas-set crime drama about forensic investigators (9 p.m. EST Thursday, CBS), delights and satisfies him.

"Dr. Robbins is so damn much fun. I get to play with the fake hearts and I get to say 15-syllable medical words. I always wondered what those three years of Latin in high school were going to be about. ... It's saying it like I know what I'm talking about."

And Hall, who works with the Mutual Amputee Aid Foundation, the World Burn Congress and other groups, has the chance to make a weekly point to millions of viewers.

"On 'CSI,' Dr. Robbins is an equal to the other people on the team. I'm passionate about doing my work well, just as the characters out in the field are."

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