LAURENCE LAU IS NOT WHO YOU EXPECTED! - Part 2

By Meredith Brown

"Life on a construction crew didn't last long. Laurence had told the foreman that he wouldn't join the union. "I thought they were corrupt scavengers," he says indignantly. The foreman didn't care - he didn't much like the union either. However, when the union man came around and asked Laurence for his card, he was told to either get one or take off. Laurence hitched back to Oregon. "I had some crazy rides that trip," he muses. "The last person to take me into Portland was a drug pusher. I sat in the back seat of this really long Lincoln Continental. He was driving with ear phones on and his girlfriend was driving shotgun. I sat with the dog."

Laurence Lau  (Photo taken outside the OLTL studio, April 2002)

After a few weeks in Oregon, Laurence went to Montreal to train for a job in Iran. That fell through because he didn't have a college degree. He decided if this degree was so important, he ought to get one. He also got married. Laurence met Karen at a party. She became his favorite pen pal in Montreal, writing long literary letters that kept Laurence stalking off to the dictionary for word meanings. When he moved back to Oregon, they fell madly in love and married - just like in the movies. Needing a job, Laurence worked for Karen's father selling used cars. Not exactly the type of job an adventurer would take to. "Oh boy, that was the worst," Laurence sighs. "I had to wear a suit and tie every day. I was so unhappy, I didn't know what I was doing." What he did was pack up Karen and moved to Utah, where he attended Brigham Young University's business school. In between calculus and straight A's, Laurence watched his marriage unravel. "A certain something happened and I fell out of love," he says. The couple stayed together for over two years, remaining in a loveless marriage out of mutual respect. "We're still good friends," Laurence insists. "She has a lot of integrity and good will but it just wasn't right. I just picked a different lifestyle."

The different lifestyle began to materialize when Lawrence took a fun course called Film Appreciation. In between accounting and finance, it seemed a welcome break to just sit in a big room twice a week and watch movies. During the class, a fellow student asked Laurence to try out for a one-act play he was directing. "I said, 'Forget it, pal. No way! You're not going to get me up on a stage!" The next thing he knew, Laurence was rehearsing. "There I was, memorizing lines for this silly, one-act play. Going from calculus to the theater department with all these funny actors and actresses. At nights, I'd come home, memorize lines and just knew I was going to forget them. I would just die in front of all those people." Instead, the play went smoothly and when the curtain came down and the applause came up, Laurence felt elation he hadn't felt in years. Finally, he'd found a place where he fit in. "I knew that if I followed the course I'd been on, I'd be a very successful businessman and I would die inside, bit by bit. By the time I was 60, I'd be very unhappy." A few weeks after he got his degree - from the theater department - Laurence was struck by a brilliant thought: "I decided, you know what, there's probably more opportunity in Hollywood than here in Utah. So, I said, 'Karen, we're going to Los Angeles." In July of '78, Karen and Laurence were living in a tiny apartment in Hollywood. When Karen realized what kind of life she would be living with her husband, she cut her losses and left. "The divorce was no problem, there was no animosity," Laurence says. "I just figured out who I was and what I wanted to be."

"Bloom believed in his new client so much, he even gave him the money for acting lessons."

Four nights a week, Laurence was working at a newsstand on Sunset Boulevard. To pass the time, he would entertain himself and the customers, "kibbitzing." One night, a distinguished gray-haired man with an ascot, sunglasses and Mercedes convertible pulled up. Laurence started his rap. "Just look at the front page of the L.A. Times and compare it to The New York Times," he said in his ultimate car salesman voice. The man cut him off. "Are you an actor by chance?" he asked. "As a matter of fact, I am," Laurence answered. "Why, are you an agent?" "Yes," And he handed him a card - J. Michael Bloom. "I'd like you to give me a call and come down to see me." Four weeks later, after having Bloom checked out, Laurence called. "I thought you forgot about us," Bloom said. Then he signed him. Bloom believed in his new client so much, he even gave him the money for acting lessons. Five months later, Laurence starred on a small TV series called PARIS, with James Earl Jones. There were roles on EIGHT IS ENOUGH, HAPPY DAYS and THE WALTONS. Then he played a high school jock in a television movie about anorexia called THE BEST LITTLE GIRL IN THE WORLD.

Meanwhile, in New York, ABC was having trouble casting the role of Greg Nelson on ALL MY CHILDREN. "The story I heard was Jackie Smith's (head ABC daytime) daughter has seen BEST LITTLE GIRL, and believed instinctively that I'd be 'really neat' for the part of Greg. Jackie saw the film, agreed and I was flown into town to audition. 'Congratulations, Laurence,' they said. 'Don't leave town, you're working on Monday.' It blew me away. My life - whoosh - just totally changed."

Laurence is loving the soap. He's been able to accomplish something rather unique in daytime drama - keeping the wimpiness out of a nice-guy character. ALL MY CHILDREN is particularly guilty of making their moral men milquetoasts. Laurence has succeeded in making Greg forceful, strong and determined. Laurence's life has changed dramatically from the days in Denver when he was broke. He has not changed much, though. Take his ideas for his character. Who but Laurence would imagine Greg and Jenny running off with Jesse to New York where could be a new version of MOD SQUAD.? "Our producer didn't go for it," Laurence says sheepishly. Still, he doesn't plan on staying in television forever. Already there are noises being made for Laurence to star in a film, a western to be exact.

"I had a real hard time convincing Linda that I couldn't handle a serious relationship..."

And then there is Linda. Linda McCullough (she was the first Hillary Bauer on GUIDING LIGHT) met Laurence while they were filming Our Place. She fell in love instantly - Laurence was far more reluctant to get into a relationship. "I didn't want a relationship for what I thought were pretty solid reasons, but Linda just kept after me, she wouldn't give up." Recalls Linda McCullough: "After one conversation with Laurence, fireworks went off. I just knew he was right for me. I saw that he was attracted to me, but he was resistant. So I just kept on telling him how much I loved him." "I had a real hard time convincing Linda that I couldn't handle a serious relationship," says Laurence. "She just refused to believe me." On the first anniversary of the day they met, Laurence says, "bells" went off and he finally realized he loved Linda. "She's wonderful, direct, full of love." After living together for several months, Laurence was forced to move to New York, while Linda, because of her acting career, remained in Los Angeles. The two decided to use this bi-coastal relationship as a test for their true feelings. Their feelings passed with flying colors and on February 25 of this year, the two were married. Laurence is seeing his wife, on the average, every other weekend. "In my mind, if you take away somebody's career, just to have a relationship, you're not going to be happy with yourself," he says somberly. "And if you're not happy with yourself,  you're not going to be happy in the relationship. Being separated doesn't diminish our love. I have no desire to see anybody else and neither does she. We don't take each other for granted." To compensate for bouts of loneliness, Laurence gets together with friends once a week and plays old Beatle songs on his drums. He reads, goes tot he movies and, whenever he sees Linda, it's an exciting, passionate renewal of their love."

Laurence has found his niche. But one senses that if another adventure becomes tantalizing, he won't resist it. "One of these days, I'm going to get in a car and do it," he sighs. "I'd love to just kick off and just go. Live by a river for a while. I think it's healthy hedonism. Don't you?"

More Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly Articles

© Article copyrighted by Soap Opera Digest, 1982, 2002.
Photo copyrighted by Katherine Thurston. All Rights Reserved.