By: debbie lynn elias
When he’s not fighting Captains of the USS Enterprise or going toe-to-toe with a computer named Hal or playing legal eagle with those brash young attorneys, Franklin & Bash or, as he is doing this holiday season, hunting down a serial killing, flame-throwing Santa Claus in SILENT NIGHT, Malcolm McDowell is a devoted father and grandfather. With two elder children from his second marriage, he also has three young boys ages 8, 6 and 3, with his present wife Kelley Kuhr. During our recent exclusive one-on-one interview, the depth of his love for this children was more than evident.
Already animated and excited to talk about SILENT NIGHT, when talk turned to the kids, McDowell’s excitement was as ebullient as a kid on Christmas morning. “I want to be around and drive ’em to school and pick ’em up occasionally and take ’em on the golf course and have a bit of fun”. And part of that fun at the McDowell house is celebrating the holidays. So just what does the McDowell clan do for Christmas?
“There’s going to be lots of things going in our house. We don’t have a tree. We have a HUGE huge cowboy sculpture and I always go, “This is the GREATEST tree in California, if not the world. Nobody has a tree like this!” And I wrap these lights around this cowboy and they’re like, “Dad, um, that’s a cowboy, that’s not a tree” and I go, “Yea! Anybody can have a tree! Any idiot has got a tree. But who has a cowboy? No one!” I don’t want to go out and be buying a tree. I don’t want to be bothered, going out, getting a tree, have the darn thing drop its needles and then become a fire hazard. So I’m talking them into the cowboy and now they’re really getting behind me. Now we’re all on the same page with the cowboy – just like I talked them into going for Halloween as Darth Vader . The whole family went as Darth. We had discussions and I told them, “Darth is a good guy.” And they went, “No, he’s evil.” And I said, “You know what, he’s a really misunderstood man who had a very unhappy childhood and he’s doing his best. Let’s go as Darth and show our solidarity.” [laughing] By the end of it, we all had costumes as Darth.
“So, that’s what we’re doing in our house. Hanging around. But, I don’t think I’ll be showing them [SILENT NIGHT] though.”
Cowboy Christmas Trees, flame-throwing Santas and Darth Vader. Makes perfect sense when it’s Malcolm McDowell.
#
