Harry Groener says: Don't underestimate Ralph the distressed nebbish he plays on NBC's "Dear John."
"Ralph shouldn't be taken at face value," he says. "Here is Ralph, who we might think of as a lonely, pathetic kind of guy, but he drives a motorcycle. Somewhere in that nebbish soul he's a romantic. He has some Walter Mitty qualities."He's a sweet guy. I think his problem arises from the fact that he's socially inept. His wife left him at the reception. She couldn't speak English and apparently only married him to stay in this country. He's a sensitive, caring guy, very smart but very insecure in social areas. Still, I think he has a large capacity for caring for another person."
Groener plays the introverted member of the One-To-One Club, a support group for divorced people on "Dear John." He's tongue-tied around women.
The hit show, which was 11th in the Nielsen ratings in its first season, stars Judd Hirsch as John Lacey, Isabella Hoffman and Jere Burns as other members of the group and Jane Carr as its leader.
Groener, who's spent most of his career on the stage, auditioned for the role during one of his occasional visits to Los Angeles from New York. He still considers himself a New Yorker and he and his wife, actress Dawn Didawick, still keep an apartment there.
"The stage is still my first love and will continue to be," he said. He just finished "Sunday in the Park With George," at the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. He also played the role for four months on Broadway 1985.
He made his Broadway debut in 1980 in a revival of "Oklahoma!" as Will Parker, the cowboy who sings "Kansas City." The role earned him a Tony nomination. He also got a Tony nomination in 1983 for "Cats."
Prior to "Dear John," he had a role in the Showtime production of "The Country Girl" and in two miniseries, "George Washington" and "Kane and Abel." He had guest roles in such series as "St. Elsewhere," "Matlock" and "Remington Steele."
Groener says the most fun he ever had on television was a brief stint on "Captain Kangaroo."
"I did three shows when I was working in the theater in New York," he said. "On the first show I was a spaceman. The second I was the curator of a numbers museum. I came in on a pogo stick.
"The last time I was a kid who had to get dressed. It was a blast. I watched the show when I was a kid. Mr. Green Jeans was still there. Bunny Rabbit was still there. That was so much fun."
He was born in Augsburg, Germany, but came to this country with his family in 1953 when he was 2 years old. He went back once when he was 14 to visit relatives.
"My father was a concert pianist and composer who was drafted into the German army in World War II," he said.
"He spent a lot of his time leading an orchestra and entertaining the troops with skits and parodies. He got as satirical as he could without getting killed."
In San Francisco, his father worked for an insurance company but spent his free time putting on operas and musicals at a German-American club.
His mother sang in the operas. Groener got his first taste of performing by playing the drums in his father's Bavarian band at Oktoberfests.
At the age of 12 he began studying dancing at the Conservatory of Ballet.