By Andrew Davis-Cole WITH his Stetson and steely blue eyes Texan millionaire Sonny stands apart from the River City regulars - because he's the only one who can claim to have been shot down by Darth Vader!
By Andrew Davis-Cole
WITH his Stetson and steely blue eyes Texan millionaire Sonny stands apart from the River City regulars - because he's the only one who can claim to have been shot down by Darth Vader!
Angus MacInnes played X-Wing pilot Gold Leader in Star Wars - the heroic squadron leader blown up by the evil Vader during one of cinema's most memorable action finales - the destruction of the Death Star.
Yet MacInnes' stellar CV - working with big-name directors Brian De Palma and Stanley Kubrick - doesn't stop him from feeling at home in Shieldinch, where he arrived as the love interest of larger than life Roisin McIntyre.
And in a case of life imitating art, this week Sonny traces his family tree and discovers he is a laird.
"I'm genetically Scottish, because both my parents are West Highlanders," he explains. "My father was from Skye and my mother was from Lewis.
"After the First World War my father came to Glasgow then travelled to Canada where my mother also moved."
The 60-year-old was bitten by the acting bug as a schoolboy of 18, after his performance in a Remembrance Day assembly caught a teacher's eye.
"He suggested I join a local theatre group. I thought he was crazy, but I got a small part in Shakespeare's As You Like It, and it was great fun."
After three years theatre training the same sense of adventure that had seen his parents set sail for Canada inspired MacInnes to cross the Atlantic to London for a year.
"My one year turned into seven! After a six-year spell back in Canada, I decided to settle in Edinburgh with my wife and daughter."
MacInnes studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in 1972 before landing his first film role in Norman Jewison's Rollerball, starring James Caan.
"I loved it, that's when I got crazy about making movies."
The ultra-violent Rollerball, released in 1975, went on to become a cult classic. But it was the public's love of sci-fi that was to catapult MacInnes' career into orbit.
In 1977 he was cast as the X-Wing squadron leader shot down by Darth Vader. MacInnes didn't realise at the time how significant that scene would be.
"For me, Star Wars was just another five days work - I had no idea what it would become," he admits.
"When we saw the preview, though, we could tell from the very first frame that we'd moved into new territory. It's great to be a part of film history."
On set, he'd met a fellow actor who would soon become a firm friend - as well as one of the world's biggest stars: Harrison Ford.
"I met Harrison fleetingly on Star Wars," MacInnes reveals.
"A year later he recommended me for a part in Force Ten from Navarone. On location in Yugoslavia we became pals.
"When I went back to America I visited him out in LA. Then Witness came along and he asked me to meet the director Peter Weir to discuss playing a role in that movie with him."
Despite the breaks and his talent, MacInnes has learned not to take himself too seriously.
"I did A Kiss Before Dying with Matt Dillon and Max von Sydow."
"I was in the climax of the movie but didn't watch it. Months later my wife and I rented a copy. Suddenly the credits are rolling and I'm sitting there slack-jawed. I'd completely disappeared. They'd chopped the whole last half of the movie off and junked it.
"It was hilarious - I'd never even lost a scene before, never mind a whole movie."
MacInnes had better luck after he landed his latest role through a chat with the casting director of the soap.
"She knew my film background and asked, almost jokingly, whether I'd do something like River City.
"I said: Of course! I'm an actor - that's my job' A few weeks later I did an episode. They didn't tell me that the character was going to get bigger but they just kept bringing scripts my way!"
Sonny continues to cause waves in Shieldinch as he prepares to open a burger bar. The show provided Angus with a further offering in the shape of the character itself.
For a Canadian actor, the role of a blustering American is a gift.
"All Americans are larger than life," says MacInnes. "They're lovely people - but they have a tendency to crazy.
"They're cliché ridden because they live in a fantasyland most of the time.
"When someone says play a Texan', that's food and drink to an actor. You know you can do almost anything.
"Sonny's quite clearly a buffoon. But it's important to remember he's a multi-millionaire buffoon.
"He's built a chain of restaurants and he's got loads of money - but he earned it. People don't make millions by accident. Although he's a bit gormless, underneath that there is steel. If you come up against that then you've got problems. He likes things to go his own way."
As characters go, Sonny and MacInnes couldn't be any more different. But there is one secret both carry that they can share with the Scottish audience - the secret of success.
