Bruce Boxleitner Reveals How He Found Stardom, Stayed Grounded and Fell in Love Again

TV star Bruce Boxleitner has been a gunslinger on the tube for decades, from a six-shooter on the Western series How the West Was Won to a plasma pistol on the sci-fi show Babylon 5 — with a double-barreled shotgun of varied roles in between.

At age 75, Bruce isn’t ready to holster his career. He’s got a recurring role in the new series Blue Ridge and starred in last year’s Great American Family holiday film Christmas Under the Northern Lights — all while having fun in real life with third wife Verena.

“I’m totally enjoying my life now,” reveals Bruce. “I don’t have the pressure I had when I was younger to aggressively pursue my career. That can sometimes be a detriment to the family. Verena’s keeping me young. She says I’m going to live to at least 125.”

Bruce grew up in an Illinois town called Crystal Lake, “like the camp in the Friday the 13th movies,” he says. “When we got a TV, I remember Davy Crockett and Zorro were my first TV heroes. I got a kitchen knife and carved a Z in our door like Zorro did. My mother and father freaked out.”

When he was 16, he worked in a family-run movie theater in Prospect, Ill., and fell for films.

Bruce got his big break thanks to Gunsmoke star James Arness, explaining, “I’d been in one of the very last episodes of Gunsmoke and then James hand-picked me for How the West Was Won and gave me my career.”

After appearing in the 1982 sci-fi film Tron, Bruce confides, “I realized I wasn’t going to be a movie star, so I headed back to TV where I felt comfortable.”

He landed on his feet, starring in Scarecrow and Mrs. King with Kate Jackson. During one season, they filmed the adventure comedy series in Europe in 1984 while the Summer Olympics took over L.A.

“I remember Katie and I standing on the top of one of the Alps staring at seven different countries when a blizzard hit us from out of nowhere,” Bruce says.

“I also remember racing down the autobahn to Munich with Katie and some of the other cast doing about 200 miles an hour to get to a Neil Diamond concert.”

In 1999, Bruce starred in the TV drama movie Freefall with Kate’s Charlie’s Angels co-star Jaclyn Smith.

“Every morning in makeup Jaclyn would say, ‘Well I talked to you-know-who again last night. We talk about you all the time,’” Bruce recalls.

“I knew she was talking about Kate but she’d just keep teasing me, saying, ‘I never knew certain things about you, but I do now. You were a naughty boy.’ It’s always been great fun.”