Don Mitchell 1974 IRONSIDE interview]

Let's see. It says on the NBC biography sheet that Mark Sanger on the Ironside series is a hostile high school dropout turned legitimate. I've been talking to Don Mitchell for 5 minutes and he doesn't seem very hostile or dropoutish to me. >> Must be a character role, right? the carriage is. >> Yep. >> When when you're going around knocking on doors looking for a job like you wound up with in Ironside, do you try to um make yourself a character that you think they're looking for or or how does this happen? Don >> for Ironside. As a matter of fact, for all the plays that I've done before, the whole career is based on the fact of the character. uh I would lose jobs and conversation because I come in one way and start talking in the beginning and I changed and I concentrated on character and came in already you know for that particular pod >> and so it worked for me. I don't know when it happened to other people. >> So then uh you become an actor when you walk into the audition. >> Yes. I say um I would say let me read first and we'll talk after >> and it worked. >> It's actually >> it happened. I'm here for 7 years, you know. >> But did it take a little while to catch on to this kid? >> Yes. Yes. Because I kept, you know, being frustrated like most actors wondering why you didn't get jobs, you know. And I guess it was because of that thing of communication. so many people around you that you have to talk to for a particular job and I wasn't good at it and I'm still not good at it but uh it worked. >> Well, how far is the character of Mark Sanger from Don Mitchell? 180° >> I can say that because whatever you have after all this time, no matter what you play, it's it's got to be most of you in it really. It'll be kind of hard not for it to be yourself, you know? So it's kind of easy now in a sense. Easy in the sense that I don't have to work as hard as I did in the beginning. >> That is in finding new work and developing characters and that sort of thing. Uh does Don Mitchell ever see himself as say the star of a series? >> See myself as the star. >> Would you like to be a star of a series? >> Most definitely. >> Yeah. What kind of series? >> Star of any kind of series. A star in the sense of as long as you're working everything is fine. is uh a job, you know, and um I'm an actor and I want to work, you know. So, if another show comes along, fine. If it doesn't, I'll make one come along so I can keep working. >> That's what I was going to ask. If maybe you have found a character that you would like to see as heading a series or often times there be a spin-off of a series, you know. >> Well, probability the lawyer thing exists. It could happen. Again, I say if it does, fine. And if it doesn't, that'll be something else. >> Yeah. Becomes a bug. I don't want to restrict myself, limit myself to anything, any, you know, any character. Well, >> well, here's a fellow that's not only hostile, high school dropout, legitimate, but he's also optimistic. Don Mitchell. Thanks, Don. >> Thank you. >> That's stripped. What are you doing?