In a familiar role

Serpico of 'Army Wives' grew up military brat

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Actor Terry Serpico chats about his role on 'Army Wives,' his family and film work, including an upcoming role in the Robert De Niro-Al Pacino film 'Righteous Kill.'

Lifetime Television

On 'Army Wives,' Serpico plays Maj. Frank Sherwood, husband of the character portrayed by Catherine Bell. Serpico says the character has much in common with his father, also a career military man.

The scab on the inner crook of his left elbow is the color of strawberry jam and the size of a half-dollar piece.

He got it skateboarding the other weekend. Which suggests another question: What's a 44-year-old doing skateboarding?

"I love riding with my son," he says. "At the time he started, I took him to a skate park. I couldn't sit there and watch. That's just crazy."

Introducing Terry Serpico: skateboarder, family man, bartender, stuntman and actor, a hands-on guy certainly, a breakout performer possibly.

He plays a craggy military officer married to the lovely Catherine Bell on "Army Wives," the Lifetime drama filmed in Charleston. Next month, he'll appear as an acquitted rapist alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, who star as detectives in a crime film called "Righteous Kill."

He sounds like a kid. "Just to have those two giving it to me in the scene," Serpico remembers. "I think we had to take it a couple of times because I was just giggling."

His closely cropped blond hair looks nearly gray in the morning light. The standard haircut for his television doppelganger, Maj. Frank Sherwood, doesn't suit Serpico.

He's wearing casual clothes: a blue-striped Penguin dress shirt with sleeves rolled up, cream-colored cargo shorts and flip-flops.

Seated outside at Brent's on Broad, Serpico is eating a sausage patty, egg and cheese on an English muffin. His straw Quiksilver trilby rests on top of the morning paper, and his shirt is about halfway unbuttoned, just enough to show his dog tag.

It's not his or his character's. There's no name, only a commemorative engraving from the pilot.

"It's a talisman at this point," Serpico says. "It's brought me some good luck, and I kind of continue to wear it. It keeps me engaged in what I'm doing."

Namely, that means playing Sherwood. A featured character on the show, Serpico appeared in nine of 13 episodes the first season. It's a role he knows well, having grown up as a military brat. His family lived on five Army bases, his father retiring as a colonel and as dean of the Army ROTC program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Like Sherwood, Serpico's father's name is also Frank. Only, he isn't that Frank Serpico, the iconic New York City cop played by Pacino in the 1973 film. Though Serpico gets asked: "Is that your real name?"

"My take on that is," he says, "if I were going to use a stage name, why would I use that one?"

Even so, Serpico sees little irony in playing a stubborn officer named Frank. Sherwood and his father have much in common. They're both hardliners averse to change, Serpico says, relying on outdated notions of gender and society.

"Certainly, Frank Sherwood doesn't handle gray," Serpico says. "His world is very black and white. I've said the same thing about my father."

Serpico's dad gained his identity as a soldier. He used to brag that he never changed a diaper. Not once, and he had three kids.

He struggled to adapt. He wasn't home much, and after 26 years, he and his wife divorced.

"The world just changed under their feet," Serpico says. "I think ultimately that's one of the things that drove their marriage asunder."

Serpico's character grapples with similar issues: deployment to Iraq, an unsettled home life, marital discord and his wife's emerging independence. He's also deeply in love with her.

"You see the vulnerability in the man," Serpico says. "You see what he does is out of a sense of honor and integrity and purpose. By the same token, he very much cares that his wife is attended to and taken care of."

The show cuts a wide swath, crafting story lines around prickly topics such as abuse, adultery, a secret surrogate and a deadly bombing. It's a soap.

"It is televised entertainment," Serpico says. "Make no mistake about that."

The depiction upset many military families early on, Serpico knows. The program has since gained military approval, improving protocol and detail.

A woman recently approached the actor in town. "You're on 'Army Wives,' " she told him. "You're doing a great job. We lost our son in Iraq two years ago."

His name was Maj. Greg Fester.

She continued: "I want to thank you guys for supporting military families, for telling these stories."

"That's just one of the examples how clear it is to me that this show really does matter to people," Serpico says, "and that's why it matters so much to us."

Serpico, himself, has the build of a veteran, sturdy, broad chest and shoulders. He's had to stay fit, beginning his career as a stunt player. His scenes expanded as directors realized he also could act.

Take "Donnie Brasco," Serpico's first major acting gig. Playing a strip club owner, he got beat up by Pacino and Johnny Depp.

"The stunt coordinator said, 'You get your (tail) kicked pretty well. Send me your resume and I'll get you some work,' " Serpico recalls.

Since then, Serpico's credits have included appearances in ambitious vehicles such as "The Peacemaker," "Bringing Out the Dead," "Hannibal" and "The Interpreter." He enjoys a recurring role in the FX series "Rescue Me," and he played a hitman after George Clooney in "Michael Clayton." In "Righteous Kill," the murder of his character helps establish the film's arc.

"I've had the opportunity to pay my dues in the industry in big movies," he says. "To play in the sandboxes I've played in has been great."

Not to say each act is glamorous. Serpico has another gig opposite urban-tinged cowboys and Southern rockers at the Rodeo Bar, New York's longest-running honky tonk.

He keeps a standing Wednesday night shift as bartender. Has for almost 20 years. Helps pay the bills. He met his wife, Erin, there; she was an assistant manager at the time.

Today, his family — kids 11-year-old Calvin (the skateboarder) and 4-year-old Stella — live in Beacon, a town of 16,000 about 60 miles north of New York. The city, it's not.

Somewhat like Sherwood, Serpico considers himself deployed in Charleston and elsewhere. His wife takes care of the home fires, sacrificing much for the family.

"I've wanted this career for myself to a great degree, but mostly for her and my family," Serpico says. "I want them to be able to travel and enjoy the things that they've been supportive of me doing."

Reach Rob Young at 937-5518 or ryoung@postandcourier.com.