LOS
ANGELES - Kim Delaney had to read some history
to get ready for her new roll in the series "Tour of Duty," which is
set in a war she is too young to remember.
"I had
no real awareness of the war" Delaney saysThe show wass set in
1968 and I was only 7 years old. I didn'tt have much
time to study before I got the job. But I've spent a lot of time since then
reading and looking at documentaries trying to get a feeling of the passion people felt then. It's
particularly hard to find something written by a woman."
"Tour of Duty
focused on an Army platoon assigned to duty in the late 1960s. This season, the time
frame moves ahead slightly to 1968 and the platoon is reassigned to Tan Son Air Force Base in Saigon.
Besides Delaney, BetsyBrantley and Dan Gauthierhave also joined the cast. Brantley plays acivilian psychologist working for the government and
Gauthier is a young helicopter pilot.The shows returning stars are Terence Knox,Stephen Caffrey, Tony Becker, Ramon Franco and Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.
"My character has
an office in Saigon but she spends a lot of time in the field," she says.
"Its a good role because I'm not with just one person. I'm involved with all the people. She is innocent when
she arrives. She hasn't been corrupted by the world. She wants to get to the truth of each story, whatever it is, at any cost."
Alex Devlin also develops a love interest with Lt. Myron Goldrnan, the platoon leader played by
Stephen Caffrey. She's also attracted to LT. Johnny McKay, the helicopter pilot played by
Gauthier. Her role as a correspondent requires her to take frequent trips to combat zones in a helicopter.
Delaney made her professional debut in the soap opera "AllMy Children" in New York. She had a recurring
role in NBC's"L.A. Law" and earlier tils year was in the NBC miniseries"Something Is Out There."
In the miniseries, she played the girlfriend of Joe Cortee, who is her boyfriend in real life.
"I grew up in Philadelphia and went to all girl's Catholic schools," she says. "I didn'
t act in high school because I was very shy. I had four brothers and I probably spent more time at their
school than mine. Actually, I didn't know what I wanted to do"
After high school she moved to New York and began a modeling career. "I got an agent and he gave
me the name of some acting coaches," she says. "I studied two years.
That's when I knew I couldn't imagine doing anything else. My second year of studying I got All My Children
Her character on the soap opera, Jenny Gardener, "took off like a shot," she says.
"She was a very sweet ingenue, a victim, sweet ingenue, a victim, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks trying
to make good. Delaney stayed with the show for three years.
Her first movie was"That Was Then, This Is Now," which took her to Minnesota.
Delaney joined the series as it returned to the air this month for
its second season, this time with more emphasis on women in the war. She plays Alex Devlin, a
combat correspondent for a wire service called American News International.