By Jane Sumner
Published 04-14-1987

Actor James Naughton's affable face looks familiar. Like an old friend's whose name has slipped your mind. And that name, hmmm, it almost rings a bell.

When Naughton, 41, arrived in Dallas in March to play the lead in the CBS pilot The Traveling Man, his good looks and attitude drew kind words from cast and crew: "What a doll! A nice, nice guy! Not a stiff!"

But nobody, not even Los Angeles-based casting director Shari Rhodes, could tick off a single acting credit for Naughton. Rhodes, a tiny, determined Texan, tried to find out what he'd done. "Well," she said finally. "We'll just have to ask him.'

If the Traveling Man pilot, now in post-production in Los Angeles, gets a nod from the network in May, the show will join its fall schedule (20th Century-Fox may come back to Dallas for more episodes). And if the Route 66-type series does well, Naughton won't have to recite his own credits.

But as of now the actor, who talked recently after a long day on the set, may be best known as the older brother of David Naughton, the bubbly, rubber-legged pied piper of Dr Pepper commercials from 1978 to 1982.

But before the younger Naughton started singing, "I'm a pepper, you're a pepper!" and growing fangs for An American Werewolf in London, James was busy on stage and screen.

Faraday and Comp any, in which he played detective Dan Dailey's illegitimate son and new partner, ran for almost a year in 1973-74. But several of his other series, such as The Planet of the Apes and Making the Grade were short-circuited. The current Bronx Zoo with Ed Asner is an updated reworking (sans Naughton) of the latter.

On TV, Naughton said, he is probably best known for his role as Angela's ex-husband in Who's the Boss? And even if movie fans don' t know his name, those who saw the film version of The Paper Chase may remember his strong turn as the suicidal law student with the photographic memory.

In the Traveling Man pilot, shot in Dallas and Ellis counties, the actor plays a burned-out Boston trauma surgeon who hits the road. It's not the first time Naughton has wielded a scalpel. In the short- lived Trauma Center series in 1983, he played a surgeon nicknamed "Cutter."

The actor said he almost didn't play The Traveling Man. The first time he was offered the role, Naughton turned it down. "I wasn't looking to do a series," he said. "My base is in Connecticut. I have a son who's a freshman in college in Vermont and a daughter in high school. I wasn't anxious to go to Los Angeles."

The actor, who holds a master's degree from the Yale Drama School, wasn't eager to do the kind of material being offered. "In the four weeks before reading The Traveling Man, I'd read about a dozen pilot scripts. All undistinguished. You look at the dialogue and you think, 'I can't make this stuff come out of my mouth.' "

"Then I read The Traveling Man. It was different and very well- written. 'Doc' Dockery (the lead role) has a wonderful sense of humor. I turned it down, but it haunted me. I felt a kinship to the character."

 After passing up the pilot, Naughton fretted. "I thought if I didn't go for it, I might regret it." His wife Pamela, a psychiatric social worker who works in special education, urged him to accept.

Producer Robert Singer, who also wrote the script, made it difficult for Naughton to refuse. In 1981 Singer co-produced the feature Independence Day, with Dianne Wiest and Richard Farnsworth, in Anson, Texas.

"Bob said all the right things," Naughton said. "He told me we' re not wedded to a crime-of-the-week or an accident-of-the-week or an illness-of-the-week. The emphasis will be on characterizations, relationships, and possibly some issues."

Best of all, Naughton said, Singer offered to send him home to Connecticut on weekends. "He told me 'We'll get you home Friday night from wherever you are.' "

The pilot takes John "Doc" Dockery from the trauma room at Boston General Hospital (in reality, Baylor Medical Center) to a bar where he meets a hitch-hiking pool hustler played by Kay Lenz (White Line Fever). She's thumbing across the country to see her jailed dad, played by Richard Farnsworth (The Grey Fox). Farnsworth plays an erudite farmer whose refusal to sell his land for development has turned the townspeople against him.

"Doc's a reluctant hero," Naughton said. "But when the situation demands, he's not afraid to stand up for himself. The script and the character are capable of something very rare in today's society -- subtlety."

One of the reasons more people aren't familiar with Naughton is that he has done much of his acting on the stage. Between stints in films and TV, he performs with some of the country's top talent. His 1971 off-Broadway debut in Long Day's Journey into Night earned him a Theatre World Award.

"The stage really is where I come from," Naughton said without sounding elitist. "Anybody who comes from there always wants to go back. I don't think I ever left."

Two years ago, he played the gentleman caller in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie at the Williamstown (Mass.) Theater Festival. Joanne Woodward was Amanda Wingfield, and Karen Allen was Laura. The production drew such raves that a film version was made.

"It was so good," Naughton said of the Williamstown staging, " we had offers to do it at the Old Vic (London), Boston, Los Angeles and Washington (D.C). Then people got the money together to immortalize it. Paul Newman directed, and John Malkovich is Tom. We filmed at New York's Astoria Studios. Woody Allen was on the next stage shooting a movie with Mia Farrow and Dianne Wiest."

In May, Naughton goes to Cannes for the film's premiere. In October, The Glass Menagerie will be released in this country. If CBS opts to air The Traveling Man this fall, the series could begin in September.

Next time James Naughton hits Dallas, he could be a household word.