By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
November 6, 1989
William “Buffalo Bill” Cody built a reputation as a Wild West hero by bragging about his exploits as a scout and Indian fighter. Cocky Stephen Baldwin, who plays Cody as a youth in ABC’s “The Young Riders,” also knows how to buffalo an audience.
“I am the best,” said the 23-year-old actor. “If I don’t get hired, there’s going to be something else out there for me. I still believe I’m a lot better than a lot of guys out there, but that’s just because of the feedback I’ve gotten.”
In “The Young Riders,” a new Western series airing from 8 to 9 p.m. Thursdays on WLS-Channel 7, Baldwin plays Cody as an orphan with a temper as itchy as his trigger finger. Cody and other heroes-to-be, including the young Wild Bill Hickok, carry the mail as Pony Express riders.
“When I heard about the show, I tried to avoid it,” Baldwin said during a telephone interview from his Los Angeles apartment. “I thought it was going to be one of those typical, phony-baloney TV Westerns.”
At his audition, Baldwin decided he liked the Cody character because “he’s a nice guy, but he’s tough.”
The series is shot in Tucson, Ariz. Actors are required to do some of their own riding. Baldwin, who grew up in Massapequa, N.Y., told the producers he was an expert horseman. In fact, he rode a pony once when he was 8 years old.
“I’m from the East. What do I know about riding?” he said, laughing. “My horse knew immediately that I was from Long Island the minute I got on him. All of us on the show went through a training process for the roles. We went to something called Cowboy Camp for a week prior to shooting the pilot. In one week, we learned to fake it well enough.
“Now the horse kind of says to himself, `Well, this guy still doesn’t really know what he’s doing. But if I don’t listen to him, he’s going to get angry.’ He knows I’m not that good a rider, but he also knows I know enough to be the boss.”
Baldwin is the youngest brother of actor Alec Baldwin, who had featured roles in the films “Married to the Mob,” “Beetlejuice” and “Working Girl.”
“Nobody in our family ever thought of pursuing acting professionally until Alec started doing it,” Baldwin said. “He was the groundbreaker for us.”
Baldwin and brother Billy, 26, a former model, appear with Tom Cruise in Oliver Stone’s upcoming film, “Born on the Fourth of July.”
The “Young Riders” co-star said he was “a total psycho as a kid, and my grades reflected this.”
After one unsuccessful year in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Baldwin hired a manager and an agent. “My approach to acting is that you can either do it or you can’t,” he said.
After appearing Off-Broadway with Daryl Hannah in “Out in America,” Baldwin won a quick succession of film and TV roles. He made his movie debut in “The Beast” and followed that with a role in “Homeboy.” He also guest-starred in TV episodes of “China Beach,” “Family Ties” and “Kate & Allie,” and he played Gutter Pup in “The Prodigious Hickey” on PBS.
After “Born on the Fourth of July,” Baldwin will be seen as a street-gang member next year in the film “Last Exit to Brooklyn.”
“I play a pretty nasty guy,” he said. “He basically just raises hell, beating up drag queens and doing all kinds of crazy things. I’m not interested in playing glamor roles, unless the parts are really well-written.”
