Father Figures

ALL FATHERS ARE larger than life to their children. But what happens when Father also happens to be larger than life to the rest of the world? Dad may be intelligent and authoritative, but what if he is also Walter Cronkite? Dad may be stern and steely-eyed, but what if he is also Clint Eastwood? Kathy Cronkite, daughter of Walter Cronkite--often called "the most trusted man in America"--was intrigued enough by celebrity fathers to write a book called "On the Edge of the Spotlight."

Sitting at the top level of the gymnasium bleachers, Harvey Mason Jr. leaves no doubt about his joy as a father watching his son, Trey, play basketball for Los Angeles Loyola. Yes, he has been nominated for Grammy Awards, is recognized as one of the world's most accomplished music producers and songwriters, gets to hang out with the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Aretha Franklin and Justin Timberlake, and once averaged 28 points for his high school basketball team in the 1980s, but the elder Mason looks so content just playing the role of proud dad. "Sitting in the stands is definitely a great thing for me," Mason said.

Sitting at the top level of the gymnasium bleachers, Harvey Mason Jr. leaves no doubt about his joy as a father watching his son, Trey, play basketball for Los Angeles Loyola. Yes, he has been nominated for Grammy Awards, is recognized as one of the world's most accomplished music producers and songwriters, gets to hang out with the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Aretha Franklin and Justin Timberlake, and once averaged 28 points for his high school basketball team in the 1980s, but the elder Mason looks so content just playing the role of proud dad. "Sitting in the stands is definitely a great thing for me," Mason said.

Charlie Sheen was a swirl of outrageous behavior during the public meltdown that led to his ouster from CBS' "Two and a Half Men. " But in his appearance at FX's Television Critics' Assn. panel on Saturday, Sheen was more mild than wild. The most outrageous thing about him was his wardrobe. In what may have been a TCA press tour first, Sheen wore plaid shorts and no socks as he sat alongside his costars of "Anger Management" and the show's executive producer, Bruce Helford. And instead of brash and outlandish outbursts, Sheen seemed subdued and almost a bit shy and uncomfortable.

John Thompson III called Georgetown the "son of" team, but the Hoyas coach and junior forward Patrick Ewing Jr. will try to enhance their own legacies today against Ohio State in a national semifinal at the Georgia Dome. Thompson and Ewing have been besieged with comparisons to their famous fathers, who led Georgetown to a national title in 1984. "John Thompson is my dad. That's what he is to me," Thompson said Friday. "Patrick Ewing is little Pat's dad, and on down the line.

President Clinton returned to his birthplace Thursday to bury one of the only father figures he has ever known. He was "a man without wealth or power and without position or any pretense, but who . . . was smart and wise, profoundly good," said Clinton in eulogizing his great-uncle Henry Oren "Buddy" Grisham, who died Monday at 92.

I'd like to thank The Times for publishing Duane Noriyuki's three-part series (Oct. 24-26) about returning to his family home to garden with his father. For all of us who would agree that "the words that fathers and sons speak to each other are never quite right," his story is a cheering reminder that understanding and reconciliation are possible even when words fail us. I thought it might interest readers who enjoyed the series to know that Duane Noriyuki is a father figure not only to his two daughters, but to a growing number of boys incarcerated at Central Juvenile Hall in East L.A. He teaches a writing class there as a volunteer to boys, ages 16 to 18, many of whom are facing life sentences in adult prison.

Dads, are you finding it hard to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the '50s' Jim Anderson, Ward Cleaver and Ozzie Nelson? Within the next week, you can look for a new role model on TV episodes that focus on some different retro dads--from Darrin Stephens to Lionel Jefferson to Frank De Fazio. Some of them have parenting skills shaky enough to make you feel as if you could be Father of the Year. The flip side of the '50s' wise, patient man in the easy chair has to be Ricky Ricardo.

Michael CAINE has a simple explanation for why he's often cast as father figures: He's loved being a dad to his two now-grown daughters, Dominique and Natasha. "My greatest conceit, and I am very conceited about it, is that I am a great father," he says with a smile. "My daughters will tell you that. I was always involved with my children.... I always regarded the most valuable thing I could give to my children was time."

It's not easy "Being Flynn. " Not for Jonathan Flynn, the absentee alcoholic father played by Robert De Niro, nor the restless twentysomething son Nick, played by Paul Dano, the estranged pair at the heart of this darkly tangled family drama where resolution is hard to come by and satisfaction — for them or us — is not a guarantee. Both Flynns fancy themselves writers, De Niro's Jonathan forever pontificating about the masterpiece that's almost finished; Dano's Nick not sure his scribbled observations have any merit.

It's not easy "Being Flynn. " Not for Jonathan Flynn, the absentee alcoholic father played by Robert De Niro, nor the restless twentysomething son Nick, played by Paul Dano, the estranged pair at the heart of this darkly tangled family drama where resolution is hard to come by and satisfaction — for them or us — is not a guarantee. Both Flynns fancy themselves writers, De Niro's Jonathan forever pontificating about the masterpiece that's almost finished; Dano's Nick not sure his scribbled observations have any merit.

Richard Steinheimer, a master of railroad photography whose poetic images documented a half-century of trains and the landscape of the American West, has died. He was 81. Steinheimer died May 4 at his Sacramento home of Alzheimer's disease, said his wife, Shirley Burman. "He was certainly one of the greats," said John Gruber, founder and president of the Center for Railroad Photography and Art in Madison, Wis. "He did very unusual and creative work and inspired a lot of other photographers.

John R. Wooden, who died Friday at age 99, left for the ages an exemplary body of work in which the rewards, ten-fold, outweighed the trials. No rendering of Wooden's legacy, though, is complete without mention of a man who influenced one of sport's most unimpeachable dynasties: Sam Gilbert. If Wooden was the father figure of UCLA basketball, Gilbert was its shadowy one. Gilbert was a small, burly, self-made man with unfettered devotion to the Bruins. He could be benevolent yet, to nose-poking reporters, a bully.

John Thompson III called Georgetown the "son of" team, but the Hoyas coach and junior forward Patrick Ewing Jr. will try to enhance their own legacies today against Ohio State in a national semifinal at the Georgia Dome. Thompson and Ewing have been besieged with comparisons to their famous fathers, who led Georgetown to a national title in 1984. "John Thompson is my dad. That's what he is to me," Thompson said Friday. "Patrick Ewing is little Pat's dad, and on down the line.

"TO be a man, a boy must see a man." The sentence shows up casually, in the middle of a paragraph, but it may as well be the refrain of J.R. Moehringer's soulful memoir, "The Tender Bar." Life was rocky from the start: His father disappeared after cornering Moehringer's mother in the bathroom with a straight razor when his son was 7 months old, and he was ever after a vaporous presence in his life. Early on, Moehringer began searching for men in whose image he might make himself.

Michael CAINE has a simple explanation for why he's often cast as father figures: He's loved being a dad to his two now-grown daughters, Dominique and Natasha. "My greatest conceit, and I am very conceited about it, is that I am a great father," he says with a smile. "My daughters will tell you that. I was always involved with my children.... I always regarded the most valuable thing I could give to my children was time."

Peter Michael Goetz, who is playing the patriarchal misfit in "Freedomland" on South Coast Repertory's main stage, has played father figures before. He portrayed the father of the groom to Steve Martin's father of the bride twice on screen in the "Father of the Bride" movies. "I keep hoping they're going to do a 'Father of the Bride III,' " the white-bearded actor says, "not because it would be any good, but because it would make some money."

Back in the 1960s, when an ambitious and talented group of "postmodern" writers were calling for fresh approaches to the art of fiction, Henry James (the "godfather" of novelist criticism) was an obvious target for attack. James was accused of being "fussy" and "prudish," his definition of realism was "old fashioned," his approach to aesthetics and culture was "elitist" and "conservative." This was all very convenient: Father figures need to be ritually ridiculed, slain, dismembered.

Who's your daddy? This seemed to be the question before America's TV viewers, an hour into the first presidential debate Thursday night, when the intensely visceral and fear-producing issues of Iraq and Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein seemed to leave a choice between two father figures. Who's the daddy, at a time when the electorate is having nightmares about unseen, vaguely understood enemies?

Ronald Reagan idealized the close-knit American family but was himself an untraditional patriarch who headed a famously splintered brood. During his years in public office, his children conducted family feuds in public, at times openly defied his values and rarely gathered for public or private functions. Before reconciling in Reagan's twilight years, they sometimes used press interviews or books to communicate with one another.