Port Arthur native Bailey’s star continues to shine

MIKE TOBIAS
The Port Arthur News

HOUSTON July 17, 2008 09:34 pm

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Imagine yourself walking down the halls of Port Arthur’s Thomas Jefferson High School in 1960. Amid the hustle and bustle of the transition period, you could find yourself rubbing shoulders with a young, long-haired and smiling, yet shy senior named Janis Joplin.
Walk a little further and you might find yourself lost in the shadow of junior football star Jimmy Johnson.
And before you turn the corner down yet another hallway, another young man destined for the spotlight might come into view, though neither you nor him, would know it for another few years.
At that time, sophomore G.W. Bailey had aspirations of becoming a lawyer, and changing the world through his arguments in the courtroom. However, the acting bug bit during his junior high years when the T.J. Drama Club brought a performance of “Private Life of the Master Race.”
“It was actually a series of dramatizations of life under the Nazi regime,” Bailey recalls. “It was a story of a young man who turned in his parents. It was a really tough piece, but I was so blown away by it that I said to myself, ‘someday I’d love to be able to do that.’”
A few years later, the youthful Bailey of 2736 14th Street would begin participating in productions for The Port Arthur Little Theatre, and high school as well.
“I loved doing it, but I never thought about doing it professionally.”
After graduation in 1962, Bailey’s began to pursue his law degree at Texas Tech University. It was there he befriended several theatre students who talked him into auditioning for plays.
“And it’s really all I’ve done since,” Bailey said with a smile.
From a young, movie-loving Port Arthur teenager who frequented such establishments as The Sabine, The Strand, The Village, The Port, and the Don Drive-In, Bailey began his professional career working for local theatre companies and ultimately landed himself at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, with such future acting stars as Michael Gross.
After making the move to California, Bailey began appearing in such popular T.V. series as Charlie’s Angels, CHiPs, and Starsky & Hutch. He also began landing parts in sitcoms and feature films before making recurring roles throughout the run of M*A*S*H and St. Elsewhere.
But, it was after Bailey received the role of Lt. Thaddeus Harris in the blockbuster comedy, Police Academy, that he became involved with what he calls the ‘third’ part of his life.
“I have three parts of my life; I have my family life, which consists of my wife, my kids and my grandkids. I have my professional life, which is right now, “The Closer.” And then I have a huge, important part of my life which is the Sunshine Kids Foundation.”
The Sunshine Kids Foundation is a foundation that is dedicated to providing positive group activities and emotional support for young children with cancer throughout North America.
“Twenty-three years ago, my 12-year-old goddaughter was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. She came into contact with this organization, and it totally changed her outlook with how she dealt with her disease. Through her, I met the founder and I’ve been involved with it ever since,” Bailey said.
By 2005, Bailey’s professional work spanned just over 30 years, when he landed the role of Detective Lt. Provenza in a new, prime-time cable T.V. series called The Closer, which was to star Kyra Sedgwick. Bailey chuckles as he begins to speak of his character, whom he describes as ruggedly handsome, slightly-over-middle-aged, charming, loving and caring man.
“Now, others don’t see him that way,” Bailey laughed, “but that’s how I see him, and probably how he sees himself.”
Provenza’s relationship with Sedgwick’s Brenda was one of extreme distaste and disdain in the beginning, describes Bailey.
“She was an outsider, he didn’t like working for a woman, and he particularly didn’t like working for a Southern woman and he didn’t like working for a really pushy woman and she was all of those things,” Bailey said. “But by the end of the first season, when Brenda was in great jeopardy of losing her job, it was Provenza who came up with the plan to help save her job.”
As the show progressed, so too has the relationship of Provenza and Brenda, which according to Bailey now mirrors that of an old uncle and a niece who find that they work better together than apart.
“But it’s real confusing who’s taken who under who’s wing,” Bailey says.
The Closer is the first time the two actors have worked with each other.
“And she’s one of the most favorite actors I’ve ever worked with,” Bailey confessed. “Both professionally and as a person, we’ve become very fond of each other and I think it shows on screen as well. She, and actually the entire cast, have been enormous contributors of spirit, time, and care to the Sunshine Kids.”
After three seasons of unprecedented success, The Closer has emerged as one of the highest rated cable T.V. series of all-time, setting records for viewers with 10-million tuning in for last season’s finale.
The series, dubbed “groundbreaking” by industry professionals, is set to return for its fourth season at 8 p.m. Monday, July 14 on TNT.
Of the show, Bailey says fans will see more of their characters’ real lives as extended family, friends and crisis’ are introduced, and the on-the-job troubles for Provenza are far from over.
“Oh, the fifth episode of the upcoming season is like the story of Job for Provenza,” Bailey laughs. “Every time he turns around he’s got new problems.”
Bailey, who will be 64 in August, credits the cast for their appeal to the large viewing audience they’ve attained, and says though success was envisioned for the show, he never expected it to be as broad as it has become.
“In a million years did I think at this point in my life I would be on a show that would be the biggest hit in the history of basic cable, no,” he said. “We were hoping for success, always, we thought it had good possibilities, but to get the numbers we’re getting, which by the way are numbers that some network shows only hope to get, is phenomenal.”
The cast as a whole has twice been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for ensemble cast, which Bailey states is a credit to the actors work on the show as a whole. Of his experience with them, Bailey uses a sports analogy to describe working on the show.
“It’s more fun to play tennis with a good tennis player, it’s more fun to play golf with a good golfer. I’m a terrible golfer, I wouldn’t play with me, but it’s more fun to play with someone that can really push me to be better.
“It’s a lot more fun to work with a good cast than with a bad one. You really got to be on your toes with these guys. They’re all pretty good. It’s challenging, but it’s fun.”

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