By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
August 13, 1990
At 25, actor Blair Underwood has no memory of the Watts riots that tore apart Los Angeles in 1965. But after conducting intensive research and discussions with the former reporter he plays in the TNT movie “Heat Wave,” Underwood has an understanding of why the riots happened.
“Heat Wave” focuses on the real-life story of Robert Richardson, a messenger for the Los Angeles Times who became the paper’s first black reporter. A high school dropout, Richardson won his cub reporter status not by winning over editors with his writing style, but by being able to do something then no white reporter could – walk in Watts without being attacked.
Richardson’s moving stories – the first to relay the Watts battle cry of “Burn, baby, burn” – helped the paper win a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the riots. Despite his journalistic achievements, Richardson came under constant pressure to meet the expectations both blacks and whites placed on him.
His tenure with the paper ended shortly after the Watts coverage. Richardson eventually became an alcoholic and a vagrant. Michael Lazarou, the scriptwriter for “Heat Wave,” found him on the streets of L.A.
“Heat Wave,” which will be shown at 7 tonight on the TNT cable network, covers Richardson’s life from 17 to 25.
“We concentrated on the years before Bob’s demise,” said Underwood, best known to TV viewers as attorney Jonathan Rollins on NBC’s “L.A. Law,” airing locally 9 p.m. Thursday on WMAQ-Channel 5. “But there are talks of doing a sequel to `Heat Wave’ that would show what happened to Bob in the years after he became the country’s first black reporter. I would love to get into the role again, because he is such a fascinating man who lived a tremendous life.”
Underwood has been building quite a career for himself. He has chosen his work carefully. He gave a stirring performance as a civil rights activist in the TV movie “Murder in Mississippi.”
Though he wasn’t nominated for an Emmy for his role, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nominated “Murder in Mississippi” in the best drama-comedy special category. The academy also gave 13 nominations to “L.A. Law.”
“I know it sounds like such a contrived thing to say that it was enough to be involved in a project, but in regard to the nominations, it really was for me,” Underwood said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home.
“Of course, it would have been great to be singled out, but I consider it a compliment that the quality of people I work with is so great that I don’t necessarily stand out.”
This season on “L.A. Law,” Underwood hopes Rollins will be shown as more of a three-dimensional character. The writers helped Rollins in that respect last season when they gave him a romance with an associate.
“I think it’s nice to show that black people can be in love, too,” he said. “I think it’s great that we’re being depicted as complete, real people now.”
