The Paul McCrane Fan Page

X-FILES "Leonard Betts"

To play this tricky part, the producers chose Paul McCrane, a former teenage actor who has successfully made the transition to adult character roles in projects like RoboCop ("I was the guy who wound up in a vat of toxic waste," he says) and the well-reviewed 1996 CBS crime drama Under Suspicion.

To turn himself into a thin, bald emergency medical technician, McCrane had to do practically nothing. Playing the rest of the role, though, was a different matter.

In preparation for his transformation scenes. he had to spend several hours in makeup having his plastic appendages installed. To portray his own severed head in the autopsy scene, he had to wrench himself through a hole in Scully's autopsy table, then hold perfectly still.

The pale, baby-like eyes in his "new" head were created with contact lenses -- which at one point during the shoot were accidentally installed, quite painfully, backward. During his bathtub scenes, he had to remain motionless for long minutes underwater -- his body covered with barrier cream so that the colored glop standing in for antiseptic wouldn't dye his skin for the rest of the shooting week.

A Review of "Leonard Betts" by Tom Carissimi

      ...The guest stars, most notably Paul McCrane, were nothing short of wonderful. McCrane's portrayal of Leonard Betts spanned the range from a man who cared about people through his dedication to his craft to the sub-human monster who would attack his own mother to sustain his existence. Marjorie

Lovett, as Elaine Tanner, gave a convincing portrayal of a mother who can see her son doing no wrong. Her response ("My son wouldn't kill anybody, and if he did, I'm sure he had a good reason") demonstrated her undying devotion to her son. Ms. Lovett was especially convincing when describing her son's childhood when he was beaten up by the local bullies when he was eight years old. She was "everymom," the woman who loves her son unconditionally, no matter what people say about him....

These Photos are (c) Fox Television

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