People On-Line 12-14-98

Maria Ciaccia
People Online
December 14, 1998

A native of New York City, Maggart now divides his time between Vancouver and Los Angeles.

"When I was growing up, it was the wise guys I wanted to play, the De Niro and Pacino roles," Sentinel star Garett Maggart says. He's happily settled for portraying scientist Blair Sandburg, the Sentinel's sidekick, a part that suits him totally, right down to the description.

"I was actually in New York City, which is where I'm from, at the time the show was casting," the 29-year old New York City native tells PEOPLE Online. "There was a big hoo-ha. The script was faxed to my mom's office in Connecticut. I was a big hit for five minutes when it was rolling in. My mom picked it up, read the description and said, 'Oh, you'll get this job, honey.' Actually, it was the first time I'd ever looked at a thing and said, 'I'm going to get this.' It wasn't so much the description of the long hair-retro look (though it was really one of the first roles that described me) -- It's that it fit me personally. Blair is outgoing, kind, nosy."

Mom was right. Maggart was hired. However, there was one difference between Maggart and Sandburg -- Sandburg, an expert in ancient human cultures, is heavily into academics. Maggart says, "I went out and bought a couple of anthropological books to prepare for the part. It was a lot of reading. I'm dyslexic, and I was horrible in school."

Maggart, the son of actor Brandon Maggart and the half-brother of singer Fiona Apple, basically had only a role on an episode of Frasier to his credit before The Sentinel. "Since my dad is an actor, I knew what it was all about and what it was going to take. I knew I just had to stick with it. I did 200 auditions before I got my first job. I almost started to take it personally. But you just have to keep going, and you start getting some things."

Though extremely popular, the actor says, "I still enjoy a great deal of anonymity, which I like. I like to be able to do my job and get paid for it and reap the benefits, but I can go outside. Usually I have my glasses on, a beard growing and my hair pulled Back, so people don't recognize me -- except for the diehard fans."

When he's not filming The Sentinel in Vancouver, Maggart lives in Los Angeles with his 3-year-old dog Lola. In the future, he says, "I would love to do features, and I'd love to do more theater -- to do TV to be able to afford to do theater. I haven't got my heart set on drama or comedy, as long as it's good and I'm proud of it. I did Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire in college, and I would love to do Death of a Salesman, the total opposite end of it. I've never really been one for King Lear or Richard III. I studied all that in college. I don't understand them. (I'm joking!)"

What does he think of the huge popularity of The Sentinel on the Internet? "I've heard stories of the e-mails that UPN got when we weren't on the fall schedule," he says. The series was canceled by UPN after its season-ending cliffhanger. Maggart's character was apparently murdered by Voyager star Jeri Ryan and couldn't be resuscitated by Jim Ellison, The Sentinel (played by Richard Burgi). The fans got busy, and the show is no longer on life support. Maggart is grateful.

(Thanks to SOS and Cascade Underground)