The odd career twist of a former screen heartthrob

NEW YORK — "It WAS one of those wonderful phone calls," Robby Benson says, recalling February when producer Larry Mortoff dialed him up and asked if he wanted to direct "Billy: The Early Years," a new film about evangelist Billy Graham being released in late October. "It's why so many people are in show business. Because, mostly, you don't get the good phone calls."

It wasn't always this way. Benson, best known for his Windex blue eyes and wispy voice, starred in a trifecta of feature films between 1976 and 1978 -- "Ode to Billy Joe" (in which his sexually conflicted character throws himself from a bridge), "One on One" (a triumphant tale about his scrawny basketball star) and "Ice Castles" (about his hockey tough who melts for a blind figure skater). His cloying sensitivity in over-the-top roles may have made him a whipping boy for critics, but he won the admiration of teenage girls and nice guys everywhere.

And then Benson's lightfooted leap to success took a stumble. The good calls turned to bad, as Benson scored a string of box-office and critical disasters (probably the film least mentioned in the recent obituaries for Paul Newman was 1984's "Harry & Son," costarring Benson). And around that time, the tender heart he'd worn so many times on his shirtsleeves literally gave out on him, necessitating major cardiac surgery.

It has been 30 years since his moment at the top. "I'm still as naive as I was then -- in certain respects," says Benson with a strained smile, wearing a green vintage New York Jets cap low on his forehead, shadowing his once-brilliant baby blues. "I never learned how to protect myself. And that has never changed in my life."

When he received Mortoff's call for "Billy: The Early Years," he had been biding his time on his small farm in North Carolina with his wife, Karla DeVito, an actor-singer (best known for singing backup to Meat Loaf), and their children, 16-year-old son Zephyr and 24-year-old daughter Lyric. The offer seemed like a godsend. But in a two-hour interview punctuated by deep sighs and long stares out the window of his office at New York University's film school, where he is teaching an advanced production course, the 52-year-old admits to being "at odds" with himself over his latest effort.

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