"Templeton Peck is a con man, a terrible liar. He has no principles. He'd take candy from kids," says Dirk Benedict of the devilish character he plays on The A-Team. Nevertheless, fans like 'Face Man' as much as Dirk likes playing him. A reluctant hero with a childlike innocence and "sense of fun about things," Face only thinks he's a ladies' man. "He never ends up with the girl," sighs Dirk, but he's not complaining about that or long days on the set (where the camaraderie is "tremendous") even if they do cramp his real-life social style.

The part was written with Dirk in mind, but he was not in the original pilot for the series because NBC didn't want him. The irony of this doesn't escape Dirk, but he doesn't let it bother him. "If you take things personally they'll destroy you," he says. Commenting on another showbiz irony, he observes, "You're an actor waiting tables and you're a bum, you're on a TV series, you're a star. You haven't changed, just the perception has." Having experienced both sides he doesn't put much faith in fame. "l didn't get into the business to become a household word," he says.

Born Dirk Niewoehner in the "tiny cow town" of White Sulphur Springs, MT, he spent a "Hemingway childhood" without TV or movies but enriched by people and the environment. An athlete and student body president, he dismayed his lawyer father when he didn't go into a "secure and upright" career. Dirk discovered drama as a college freshman when dared by footbal buddies to try out for the musical Showboat. Cast in the lead, he was hooked and continued to perform on stage there and in stock and regional theater and later on the New York stage. Films and TV shows followed, including two series, Chopper One and Battlestar Galactica, with a three year period of unemployment between them. Yet Dirk wouldn't change anything in retrospect. "Things work out for the best," he believes.

His current success affords him certain luxuries, like travel, his own plane, and lakefront property in Montana, but Dirk lives a spartan lifestyle by anyone's (certainly Hollywood's) standards. He has few clothes, hand-me-down furniture, and referring to himself as "a bum," the "black sheep" of his family, he goes his own way. Granted time off, he takes wing for Montana, the quiet beauty and seasonal change of which he much prefers to the "sunny blur" of California. Though he had one close call at the controls of his Cessna, he enjoys the risk and freedom of flying. These days he has a co-pilot for jaunts to Vegas, Tahoe, and "very romantic" breakfasts in San Francisco. Actress Toni Hudson also shares his love of sports and is "a happy spontaneous person who understands if we can't get together - and that marriage isn't among his future plans, of which there are many.

"l'd like to retire in a few years, write novels and short stories, play my piano and trombone, l like to travel. l lived in Greece for a while and would like to go back, or go to Austria or Switzerland, and become anonymous." But there are things to do first: he'd like to host a talk show, open a gourmet macrobiotic restaurant in Beverly Hills (a devotee of that dietetic lifestyle, he's co-writing a book on the subject with William Dufty), and play Hamlet. All set for a production of same at his alma mater, Whitman College, this spring. Dirk had to postpone it due to changes in The A Team's schedule. Down the line, he'd like the chance to work with Jessica Lange and direct in the theater, but "writing is where my real interest is," says Dirk.

Though grateful for his series job and to fans who've loyally supported him over the years, Dirk has little allegiance to Hollywood and would rather spend his hiatus in Montana or on stage than bow to pressure to do more TV roles. "You can live your life for other people and then look back and say 'why didn't l do what wanted to do'," says Dirk. When he looks back, there's no doubt he'd be satisfied.

The End