NewsLibrary Document Delivery Journal Gazette, The (Fort Wayne, IN) October 10, 2001 Section: Entertainment Edition: Final Edition Page: 3D Action hero slows down Lee Majors longs for less vigorous roles Luaine Lee Scripps Howard News Service He used to bound 20 feet in the air, single-handedly upright stricken autos and intimidate the bad guy with feats of inhuman strength, but inflation has slowed even the "The Six Million Dollar Man." At 59, Lee Majors, who reigned for years as one of television's favorite action heroes, says he longs for roles a little less rigorous. Taking flight is harder than it used to be, he says, looking fit and tan as he unhinges his long legs and retreats into a black leather chair in a corner of a hotel lobby here. "When you're jumping as the Six-Million Dollar Man - even if I have to jump off a ladder into the frame of the camera - I couldn't go to my hands, so the knees had to go rooooooooof, and with all that, it kind of wore out the ligaments and stuff. So I would like to change my knees and be rebuilt. I may be one of these days," says Majors, who voluntarily stepped out of the limelight for a few years to raise his kids. Still living in Florida, but planning an imminent move back to L.A., Majors has found a gig that doesn't require superhuman efforts and Teflon knees. He's hosting PAX's new show, "Forbidden Secrets," where you can discover closely guarded secrets like where to find the best diamond bargains, what body language reveals about you and which urban legends are actually true. "This is something different for me and easy to do, a lot easier than the physical action dramas I've been running 'round doing for years. This is like a piece of cake for me. I can fly in from Florida and do my stuff in two-three days and fly out," says Majors. Those who remember him as the high-profile actor who first came to light in "The Big Valley" might be surprised by the Majors who sits here today. Polite, soft-spoken, dressed in blue T-shirt, beige slacks and sports coat, Majors confesses he's always been timid in real life. "I'm very shy in person but somehow when I get in front of a camera it somehow disappears. And I'm very comfortable doing this show, it's a lot of fun," he says. Though he was always talented in sports, when he was 12 years old he made a discovery that would alter the course of his life. "I found out I was adopted and I wasn't told by my step-parents. I found some newspaper clippings in the cedar chest. . . My mother was killed in a car wreck. In reading on, I found my father was killed eight months before I was born. ... I didn't tell them (the step-parents), so I kind of withdrew a little bit, but it made me more independent and made me want to prove myself more. I think that's carried over my entire life," he says. "Finding those papers was probably the turning point of my life as far as development, and my thinking and attitudes. It probably ... just made me a stronger person. My step-parents are both gone now, and we never talked about it at length any other time because I didn't want to bring it up because, obviously, they didn't bring it up. Even though they found out I did know, it was never talked about." Studying on a football scholarship, Majors came to Los Angeles after college to coach football and just "fell into acting," he says. From roles like the law partner in "Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law," the stuntman in "The Fall Guy," the soldier in "Tour of Duty," the grizzled private eye in "Raven," Majors says he left all that to move to Florida and rear his 13-year-old daughter and 8-year-old twin sons. "Now they're old enough," he says, patting the overstuffed arm of the chair. "I'm divorced, but I stayed in Florida and had them every other weekend for the last six years. Now that they're old enough. . . my ex remarried and moved to Michigan. They're in school, so I get them on their vacations. I also was taking care of my mom, who passed away last New Year's, so it kind of freed me up. I had nothing in Florida left because that was mainly my ex's home. So I'm moving back to work more." Majors admits he's a workaholic and, in the late '70s, he was the Attila of the action series, working 15-hour days and sleeping in his apartment on the Universal Studios lot where the show was filmed. "The only downside was I didn't have a life. I was working so much it was probably very good, it kept me disciplined and learning my craft. I fortunately went from one series to another until 'The Fall Guy.' That's when I said, 'I gotta take a break here.'" His workload also cost him his well-publicized marriage to his second wife, actress Farrrah Fawcett. Majors is divorced from his third wife and, though he sports a wedding ring, he's not married. He's engaged, he says, and he and his sweetheart, Faith Noelle, have been together for seven years. "We will probably get married next year," he says, proffering a picture of a pretty blond woman, who is younger than he. She's not in show business, he says proudly. "She's a domestic engineer, we wear (wedding bands) because people leave us alone. Nobody's going to hit on you." Photo by Scripps Howard News Service: Lee Majors' role in "The Six Million Dollar Man" took its toll physically on the actor. Copyright (c) 2001 The Journal Gazette