Peter Gallagher is reminiscing about a defining moment in his acting career. It was the early aughts, and he had just been cast in a buzzy Fox drama in the role of Sandy Cohen. Some of his friends, however, had concerns. Why was he throwing it all away on what they dismissively wrote off as a teen soap?
At the time, he was a Tony Award-nominated performer who had given acclaimed performances under directors like Steven Soderbergh and Robert Altman. But Gallagher knew he was on to something. “Teen soap?” the father figure to a generation of “The O.C.” fans says, still a little flummoxed at the idea. “I thought it was a great American drama with comedy.”
It’s a late summer morning, a few days after the actor’s 69th birthday. Gallagher arrives at Salon’s New York studio early, prepared, and as confidently gracious as if I were his guest, instead of the other way around. It feels appropriate for a man who says that the only advice he ever gave his children was “to work harder than anybody else.”