Simple life for ‘Dynasty’ star

Press, 18 July 1985, Page 15

Simple life for ‘Dynasty’ star

Wealth and its trappings do not interest “Dynasty” star Michael Nader. The 40-year-old, who plays the suave Dex Dexter and husband to Alexis (tonight on One), lives simply and likes it that way.

Off the screen Nader is far more likely to eat a home-cooked meal (he’s married with a daughter) than dress in a tuxedo and hang out with oil tycoons. “The cost of that kind of life style — the chaos involved — it isn’t my style,” he says. But he’s not always been so settled. In his younger days at Beverly Hills High School he spent most of his time getting into trouble. “They had me in the psychiatrist’s office and remedial training with all the retarded kids,” he says. “I was a bad boy in school.” On top of that, Nader grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. He lived in an apartment building, and not a mansion like most of his Beverly Hills schoolmates. “At 15, they had Ferraris and Porsches in the garage. Me and my friends drove ’4B and ’49 woodies. We were the surfing contingent.” While still in school,

Nader enrolled in an acting workshop and was cast, thanks to his surfing ability, as “background” in a series of 1960’s beach movies such as “Beach Blanket Bingo” and “How To Stuff a Wild Bikini.” He had a similar role in Sally Field’s “Gidget” television series.

He was not immune to the drug explosion of the times, “we all went through it,” he says, referring to the range of psychedelic drugs and marijuana. “We’re talking 15, 16 years old. We were the first ones it hit on a mass level, the guys hit-

ting 40 today. My friends, we all burned the candle of life strongly and early.” Four years ago, Nader swore off drugs and alcohol completely. “I don’t do any form of drug or drink,” he says. “I grew out of it. I lived through it. These days, I don’t need any sort of condiment to enjoy my life with.” Nader lived most of his adult life in New York. He went there in his 20s and was accepted at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio. For the next 10 years he alternatively studied, performed off-Broadway and waited on tables.

A modelling career came next (he was discovered in a shoe store) followed by a three-year stint on “As The World Turns.” When his contract ended he headed to Hawaii to surf and to reevaluate, finally returning to Los Angeles. He waited on tables again, and then was cast as Alexi Theophilus on a shortlived N.B.C. series, “Bare Essence.” It was this role that brought Nader to the notice of “Dynasty’s” supervising producer, Elaine Rich.