Syracuse.com October 2, 2003 A career boom Despite a canceled TV series, actor Neal McDonough is busy with several movie roles   Hammers are pounding in the background. "We're putting in hardwood floors," Neal McDonough explains on the phone from his Hollywood Hills home. The actor's life is about to chalk up a landmark. On Dec. 1, the Syracuse University drama graduate and his longtime fiancee, Ruve (pronounced Roo-vay), will be married in his church, followed by a private club reception. "People are flying in from South Africa (Ruve's homeland) and Boston (McDonough was born in suburban Dorchester)," he says. In fact, this year the 37-year-old's life has been a series of major events. First, the wedding, which comes 10 days after the release of his latest motion picture, the big budget "Timeline," based on Michael Crichton's best seller. Once again, he is cast as a villain, as he was in his last film, "Minority Report," opposite Tom Cruise. He's a former Marine Corps officer who leads a group of archaeologists back to the 14th century via a new machine, but one with a deadly mission behind his pleasant, efficient exterior. McDonough says the character differs from the novel. He wasn't a Marine, and his name was John Gordon in the book.  Filming was tough, but also fun. "They spent $10 million building this castle (outside Montreal)," he says, sounding like a boy playing war. "It was absolutely unbelievable. Then they lit it on fire and blew it up." Not all of the life-changing events have been positive. "Boomtown," the sophomore NBC-TV drama series in which he played an alcohol-dependent district attorney, David McMorris, was canceled - a shock to critics who had heaped praise on it and to him. It succumbed to poor ratings, the victim of a reality show. If "Boomtown" hadn't been given the ax, the marriage vows might have been delayed, says the actor. "I thought, 'Well, I have time now. Let's do it.'"  The series' second year brought him into contact with Vanessa Williams, another former SU drama student. She preceded McDonough in the department, but they bonded over their same teacher ties. "We talked about how much we missed the department, especially professor (Edward) Greer and Geri Clark," McDonough says. "I remember when I was a freshman, I thought. 'I can skate through this.'  Geri smelled a rat from the beginning. She became a mother figure, always pushing me to do more and better. If it weren't for them, I can say I wouldn't be here." Williams was joining the "Boomtown" cast for at least 10 episodes, in which she was to appear as a police detective. Only two made it to air. Four others were shelved. But McDonough calls her work on the series "dynamite." When the actor's character went into rehab last season, McDonough managed to squeeze in a movie, a new version of the 1973 hit "Walking Tall." He was making an appearance on Jay Leno's show when Jeff Zucker, chief of NBC Entertainment, spotted him and came over to see how the filming was going. Slowly, the star told him. "Well," said Zucker in a display of humor, "I guess McMorris will be in rehab a little longer." McDonough is aware that the family of the real Sheriff Buford Pusser, on whose escapades the action film is based, are "up in arms over a few things." Primarily, the switch of locale from the South to the Pacific Northwest. The SU graduate admits the screenplay bears little resemblance to the original. Besides the location shift, the actor says, "They were also upset that 'The Rock' was playing the role." His character wasn't in the first film, and the role underwent a major overhaul after he was cast. "The director saw me in, of all things, "Ravenous", McDonough says, mentioning a movie he once thought might be his breakthrough film. So he was called in to audition. "I'm the villain, and he (the character in the original script) was an older man," McDonough says. The figure has "turned a mill into a casino where he also makes drugs. But I managed to turn him into a lovable, charming character." Now less despicable, McDonough's bad guy is due to be released by MGM in April. One of the actor's most prominent roles - a rare good-guy part - came in "Band of Brothers," the military miniseries based on the book by Stephen Ambrose. It won six of the 19 Emmys for which it was nominated. It tells the story of Easy Company, of the 101st Airborne Division, following it from its training in the early days of World War II through D-Day and the end of the war in Europe. Those who missed it on HBO can watch all 10 hours on the History Channel in the spring. No date has been set. Although he continues to audition, the actor can be more selective and exert modest clout, accomplishing character and name changes. Steady, well-paid work also contributed to the wedding being moved up, making it possible to say no to another movie. "I was offered a film that was supposed to start two weeks ago," McDonough says. He would have been cast in the heroic mold as a teacher who helps children find themselves and, in the process, finds himself. "It was a great part and a neat movie. But it would only have ended two days before the wedding. I can relax now. It's been 2½ years of not going one week without work. So I don't have to think, 'Oh gosh, what's next?'" Instead, the newlyweds will spend a leisurely honeymoon in South Africa and in Hawaii.