The fuzzy memories are all coming back for Phillip Paley, but sometimes it's still hard for him to talk about his days as America's favorite monkey-boy.
"It just changes the way people look at you, once people find out that you were Cha-Ka," the 45-year-old said of his long-gone career as a child actor on the television show "Land of the Lost." "I don't tell too many people. But, well, I guess that's all changing now."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, June 09, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
Phillip Paley: In an article in Saturday's Calendar section about Phillip Paley, who played Cha-Ka in the original "Land of the Lost" TV series, the last name of UCLA linguistics professor Victoria Fromkin was misspelled as Frompkin.
It's changing because "Land of the Lost" has been found once more -- and Paley, who now works as a litigation support manager at a Santa Monica law firm, is embracing his semi-secret past.
"I'm appreciating all of it now more than ever," he said.
"Land of the Lost," of course, was a 1970s children's show that became famous (or infamous?) for its cheesy charms and low-budget special effects. Now the brand name is back with the Universal film that hit theaters Friday. This time there's a major star (Will Ferrell) and lavish special effects for the re-imagined tale of three human travelers dumped into a mysterious landscape populated with dinosaurs, lizard-men and the Paku, a sort of ape people.
The most memorable of those hirsute Pakunis was Cha-Ka, played by young Paley and, in the new film, revived by "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Jorma Taccone, with a more ribald take on the beast-boy.
The premiere of the film was last week at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and for Paley, who was invited to attend by the producers, it was the first time he had walked the Hollywood red carpet. Like so many child actors, Paley's odyssey shows how ephemeral fame can be. His face was on lunch boxes in the 1970s, but his memorable spot in pop culture history is still a small one that requires a bit of explaining.
"My fiancee, Marla, was with me and introducing me to the press and spelling my name, so she was my publicist that day," Paley said. "But everybody spells my first name wrong [with one L]. It was wrong in the credits of the show, believe it or not, and it's misspelled all over the Internet. That's just how it goes I guess. . . ."
Born in Los Angeles, Paley was discovered by a talent agent at 11 months old when his mother was pushing him down the street in a stroller, and he appeared in a national television spot for Gerber baby food. Then in 1973, he earned his black belt in karate at the tender age of 9 at the Chuck Norris karate school in Encino, an accomplishment that made him a bit of a celebrity.
