`Invulnerability is a wonderful fuel,” said Markie Post, ”because when you`re feeling invulnerable, you don`t get in your own way.”
Post, who plays Christine Sullivan on NBC`s wacky comedy ”Night Court,” (seen at 8 p.m. Wednesdays this summer before returning to its 8:30 p.m. time period in the fall) said she had a sense of invulnerability when she embarked on her acting career 13 years ago in L.A. little theater, moving on to ABC`s ”The Fall Guy” and to her costarring role on ”Night Court.”
Along the way Post has managed to avoid being typecast as a dumb blond
(”There are too many other people who can do it better,” she says). She has also avoided highly publicized love affairs or divorces. The blond, blue- eyed actress, who was featured on the cover of Los Angeles magazine for having ”one of the best bodies in L.A.,” is both intelligent and happily married
(to actor Michael Ross for five years). The couple are expecting their first child this month. In late July, Post plans to be back at work, baby in tow.
Post says she paid her dues before landing her big break on ”Night Court,” yet her ride to prime-time visibility was a lot smoother than that of many other Hollywood hopefuls. In a town full of beauties trying to make it, she had some lucky breaks. After guest-starring on many TV shows in the late
`70s, she landed a small role on ”The Fall Guy.” She played a bail bondswoman who had a few lines at the beginning of the show; during the rest of the episode Lee Majors chased the criminal who had skipped bail.
But Post found her three seasons on ”The Fall Guy” frustrating. She had to hang around the set all day just to say a few lines. ”Even though I was being very well paid,” she said, ”after a while I really felt, `Hey, I can do more than this.”`
Her opportunity came in 1984 when ”Night Court`s” executive producer and creator Reinhold Weege wrote his show with a part for Post in mind (they had worked together on a short-lived series called ”Semi-Tough”). Because of commitments on ”The Fall Guy,” Post couldn`t join ”Night Court” until 1985. The show relies on ensemble acting, featuring Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone, who presides over a steady stream of oddballs who find their way to late-night sessions in this big-city legal circus. John Larroquette won Emmys in 1985 and 1986 for his performance as the acerbic and lecherous assistant district attorney Dan Fielding. Post`s character is ”a Pollyanna,” said Post, ”a very basic, altruistic and perky woman.”
”On this show, the challenge is that you have to risk looking foolish for big results,” Post said. ”That`s beginning to happen for me: The more chances I take, the more the audience responds. I used to be afraid of it, but now I crave the audience response.” (”Night Court” is taped on stage before a live audience.)
Weege said that Post`s character embodies ”a quality of innocence and naivete that are part of Markie`s personality. Markie is really the earth mother of our show–always enthusiastic, almost like a cheerleader, helping to put people together on projects.” Weege has also seen Post`s instincts become more finely tuned. ”She`s on stage with three very funny, high-powered people: John Larroquette, Harry Anderson and Richard Moll, which can be intimidating,” Weege said. ”I`ve urged her let go, and the audience has loved it.”
Raised in northern California, the 36-year-old actress attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., where she was immediately bitten by the acting bug. She later moved to L.A. and completed her last year of college at Pomona (receiving her degree from Lewis and Clark in 1974). After graduation, she worked in L.A. little theater and as a full-time writer-researcher for television game shows.
When the show she was working on was canceled, Post decided to pursue acting full time. The pieces quickly fell into place. A month and a half after she quit her job, she found an agent, and on her third audition she landed a part in a pilot for Dick Clark Productions (which included a then-unknown comedian named Robin Williams). Though the pilot wasn`t bought by a network, that break enabled Post to land guest spots on series such as ”Barnaby Jones,” ”Eight Is Enough” and ”Hart to Hart,” among others.
She grew up in Walnut Creek, Calif., in a stable, upper-middle class home. Her father, Richard Post, is a nuclear physicist who works at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkeley. Post describes her mother, Marylee, as ”Mary Richards from `The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”` Post has two brothers who have followed their father into scientific careers. (Post`s given name, Marjorie, was mispronounced by her brothers as Markie.)
The family-centered, suburban lifestyle that Post enjoyed as a child is one to which she is drawn now. Not ones for Hollywood parties or the celebrity circuit, Post and husband Michael Ross are absorbed in awaiting their baby`s birth and building an addition to their home in the affluent L.A. suburb of Toluca Lake.
Post met Ross in acting class six years ago. While Ross has worked mainly in theater (”Evita,” ”Cats”) and has done some television guest roles
(”Designing Women,” ”Night Court”), the 31-year-old actor, singer and dancer has yet to achieve the success his wife has. How do they deal with the inevitable competition?
”Michael doesn`t compete with me,” Post said, ”but he looks at what I`m doing and thinks it`s more valid because of the money. In television you`re validated financially. But I tell him, I`m not really earning 17 times more than him a week, I`m being given that because that`s what the market bears.”
In her 13-year rise in show business, Post has learned to trust that serendipity plays a part in an actor`s success. ”It hasn`t been my husband, Michael`s, time yet. But when his time comes, it`s really going to be good for him!” She recalled that when she had her bit part on ”The Fall Guy” it was hard to sit on the sidelines and watch Lee Majors and Heather Thomas get all the attention.
”But I realized, `It isn`t my turn.` Now it is. I`m so glad I didn`t make an idiot of myself when it wasn`t.”
