George Peppard isn't wearing any underwear. Honest. In the era that 'Lion in Wintrer' is set, the noblemen and women don't wear undergarments," Peppard commented while talking about his starring role as King Henry II in James Goldman's comedy 'The Lion in Winter.' "That's very telling of the kind of story we tell in this play." Okay, maybe Peppard is wearing some BVDs on stage, but King Henry didn't. And that's okay with Peppard. He describes Henry as a rogue, the kind of character Peppard has played well - and enjoyed portraying - during his 40+ year acting career.

The rogue in Peppard is evident in his theatrical biography listed in the show's program: no TV or movie credits. Where's Hannibal Smith, the grinning renegade soldier from his hit series 'The A-Team'? Where's the disaffected insurance investigator from his first major television show, 'Banacek'? Where are the myriad movie roles that earned him a reputation as a celluloid tough-guy?

"I purposely don't have them listed," he said recently in a telephone interview that cellular technology allowed him to conduct while he was driving through Beverly Hills. "I'm just listing my stage work. From my point of view, there is a lot of joy in stage work. I love to entertain an audience. Sometimes you can feel like you're a 10-year-old boy again, trying to fool somebody. It's not that I'm knocking the movie and television work. I've made a lot of money in the city I'm driving through. It's provided me with enough to live on and the ability to do as I please, and this is what I want to do. If they'll have me and the show does well, I could do this another two or three years."

What makes Peppard so committed? He likes the character, plain and simple. "In his first scene, Henry makes the point that the priests are the ones who record the history of the day, so Henry says, 'I know how they'll remember me. They'll say Henry was a master bastard!' He had a good time doing everything," Peppard said.

He explained that Henry is a 50-year-old king during a time when the average life expectancy was about 30 or 35 years old. He was a robust and rugged man whose physical and mental feats became the stuff of legend. "Travielli, one of that era's most respected historians, called Henry the greatest king ever known," Peppard said. "He once rode his horse 200 miles in 2 days, twice the rate of travel that was the norm in that day. He established the grand jury system that we still use today in judiciary matters. He was a superb warrior and philosopher who loved his people. He was also very amorous, and had innumerable liasons. And he had a keen sense of humor." And that's what originally surprised Peppard about this play and his role. He had seen a film version of "The Lion in Winter," and didn't think they could create a comedy from it. He soon discovered he was wrong. "The fights between Henry and his wife, who is wonderfully portrayed in this play by Susan Clark, are the centerpiece of the play," he said. "The audience really looks forward to them. They're extremely funny and they develop the character further. It's fun playing a king, and the fun of playing this king in particular is the fun he has dominating and manipulating the people around him. It's a little mini-kingdom on stage, and he is the center of it all. He takes great pride and pleasure in his role. He is having a flagrant affair with a girl 30 years his junior and he has fantastic battles with his wife that amuse him no end. He's a rogue, and I have a weakness for rogues."

His theater work began in 1951 with a production of 'Home of the Brave', followed up with the plum role of Proctor in 'The Crucible'. From there, he started gaining steam in movies and television projects, but he returned to the theater in the 1980s with the one-man show 'Papa'. a stirring remembrance of literary rogue Ernest Hemingway. "Hemingway was great fun," Peppard said. "At times, it got to be wrung out and sad, because the man had such a preoccupation with his own death. My research on him was what I read of him and about him, and I did a great deal of that."

With that feather in his cap, Peppard started looking for a role that would provide the fun of playing a good character with the intimacy of playing to the stage. Lion in Winter fit the bill. And it's a bill he said he's very proud to lead.

"I'm very pleased to come to Florida to play this role," he said. "This is a play filled with very wicked wit, scheming and lying and peeks into a real royal family's bedrooms. I mean, there are eight scenes, and five take place in bedrooms. It's a family fight, scathing and hilarious, and it's left all of our audiences bubbling as they left the theater."

The End