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This article which appeared in Soap Opera Weekly
was graciously sent in by MLC Fan Erin Kelly. My
thanks to Erin for allowing me to share this with fans.
Due to the small fine print in the article I have reproduced
it below.

Mark Lindsay Chapman: Swamped

I've changed my name so many times it makes my head dizzy," says the English-born actor Mark Lindsay Chapman (ex - Trevor Lodge, Days of our Lives; ex - Charley, Falcon Crest). Born Mark Chapman, he changed his last name to Lindsay because there was already an actor named Mark Chapman in British Equity. When he came to the United States, he learned that there was already a Mark Lindsay in the Screen Actors' Guild.

"I got a little note from his lawyer," Chapman says. "I couldn't be Mark Chapman in England and I couldn't be Mark Lindsay in the United States. So I decided I'm going to be Mark Lindsay Chapman."

It was under the name Mark Lindsay that Chapman won the role of John Lennon in the TV movie Imagine: The Story of John and Yoko. Although Yoko Ono was impressed with him as an actor, he says she didn't feel comfortable having him in the movie when she discovered that his real name bore a haunting resemblance to that of Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman. "Some clever reporter had called up and (told) her," Chapman says. The actor subsequently lost the part. Although disappointed at first, he says now, "It was an incredible joy not to be part of (the movie) when I saw the finished product."

Since then, his name has given him no trouble getting roles, among them Trevor, the secret agent on Days, Trevor was a friend of Shane's (Charles Shaughnessy) and became Calliope's (Arleen Sorkin) boy friend. "I was on there till it drove me nuts," he says. "I couldn't handle the bad dialogue and the way the scripts were coming at me. I was used to theater and preparation and good dialogue. I wasn't used to working under such pressure."

Chapman moved on to prime time soaps, first playing photographer Brett Lomax, a man who tried to frame Clayton Farlow (Howard Keel) for a murder he himself committed on Dallas. "It ended up with J.R. (Larry Hagman) putting me on a plane back to England," he says.

Chapman landed roles on a few short-lived series - Baby Boom, Nightingales, Max Headroom - before joining the cast of FC. "Charley," he says of the character he played, "was basically a psychopathic, sociopathic scumbag. He was very much a child. I think the reason he was so evil was (because of) the way he was treated as a child."

Chapman has been talking to his former FC co-star, Lorenzo Lamas (Lance Cumson), about doing an episode of Swamp Thing, Chapman's current series. The program, which airs on the USA network, is based on the movie and comic book of the same name about a man transformed into a swamp creature (played by Dick Durock). At first, Chapman wasn't interested in the series. "I said, 'Come on guys - Swamp Thing?'" When he finally agreed to come in and read for it, the character of Dr. Anton Arcane appealed to him. "He's not your typical bad guy. He's very multifaceted," Chapman says. Chapman also can change his dialogue.

"I have freedom within this character to do all the fantasies I've had in my mind for years," he says. "I don't mean mutilating people. Just being able to be a very strange person and get away with it."

Chapman has found that playing the villainous Arcane is "a great way to let off some steam. He's murdered congressmen, doctors, construction workers. He's sent kids off to South American work camps."

Despite that, Chapman gets a lot of positive fan mail, including "some interesting letters from young ladies. It's sort of a J.R. thing," he explains. "Arcane's the guy they love to hate. People like to see what he's going to do next. You know he's going to do something dreadful."

The role, though, has taken its toll on Chapman physically. During a recent exorcism scene, he was strapped to a 4x6 board to give the illusion that he was levitating. The scene called for Arcane to be writhing in agony. "I managed to get bruises all around my spine because I'm one of these damned actors who feels like he's really got to get into a role," he says. "Of course, I paid for it. The week after that I spent in a chiropractor's office."

While filming another episode, one of the squibs (packets of fake blood used to simulate gun wounds) fell into Chapman's shoe. "My foot damned near caught fire. I was hopping around for the rest of the scene. Another time," he adds, "they detonated a bomb next to my ear by mistake. It deafened me for two days."

"We work under such pressure that sometimes things go wrong," he says. He says he is superstitious enough not to entirely rule out any connection between the various accidents on the set and the show's treatment of voodoo and the occult. "I just pray to the good Lord I'm not stepping on anybody's feet," he says. * - GJW (Swamp Thing airs Friday nights 10-10:30 p.m. on the USA Network. Repeats air Sundays 6-6:30 p.m.)

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