SECTION: FEATURES-COLUMN- 7 DAYS-BIOG- JOHN MCGINLEY; Pg. T04

LENGTH: 623 words

HEADLINE: Scrubbing up to a new comic role

SOURCE: MATP

BYLINE: ROBERT FIDGEON

BODY:
After years of cinema drama John McGinley is the doctor of laughter in Scrubs, writes ROBERT FIDGEON

While new comedy series starring such Hollywood heavyweights as Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ellen DeGeneres were dying in the US, medical sitcom Scrubs, with a cast of relative unknowns, was winning viewers and critics alike.

Now it's in its second season and young Zach Braff has stolen more than his share of hearts as fresh-faced intern John "J.D." Dorian.

But it's Tinseltown veteran John C. McGinley who has stolen the show -- as the mercurial, crusty, heart-of-gold Dr Perry Cox.

McGinley, 43, known for impressive big-screen performances in six Oliver Stone dramas -- including Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio and Nixon -- had never landed an ongoing role in a TV series, despite many auditions. "With my dorky head, I guess I just wasn't handsome enough," he says. "I'd do the audition but never hear back.

"TV tends to look for the living equivalents of squeaky-clean Kens and Barbies, but with my dial I'm more like Ken's dirty old uncle."

McGinley auditioned five times for Cox before landing the role and concedes he is enjoying comedy after 15 years of drama.

"I'm modelling Cox on the way Ed Asner played Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- compassionate, but not a hand-holder. Asner never kissed Mary to make things better, and Cox is no colleague-kisser either," McGinley says, chuckling at the comparison.

He's easygoing and quick to laugh. He stars in a quirky medical comedy, but behind this affable exterior hides deep personal pain. In real life, health care is as serious as it gets for McGinley.

As a divorced dad, McGinley's life away from the cameras is devoted to helping raise his four-year-old son, Max, who has Down syndrome.

"It has affected the way I treat everything," McGinley says.

"When you have a child with special needs you have to have complete love and acceptance."

Born in New York City's Greenwich Village, McGinley was encouraged by his parents to pursue an acting career.

Mum Patricia, a retired schoolteacher, and dad Gerald, an investment banker, coaxed their son through three years at New York University's theatre program.

He graduated in 1984 and his big break came that same year.

Understudying John Turturro in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, McGinley was spotted by Oliver Stone when standing in one night for an ill Turturro.

Roles in the six Stone movies followed and he moved to Hollywood in 1993. While working on the film, Nothing to Lose, in 1996, he met production assistant Lauren Lambert. They married, Max was born, and for the first weeks of their son's life McGinley and Lauren spent all their time in the neo-natal intensive care unit, hoping for a miracle.

"You pray someone will walk in and be able to do something, but it's unfair to think that doctors are miracle-workers and able to save your child with a snap of the fingers," he says.

"Truth is the doctor is going to treat your child, but at the end of the day the doctor's going to go home. That's when you, as parents, have to pitch in and take control," he says.

While McGinley doesn't acknowledge it, there's no doubt Max's condition played a big part in the collapse of his marriage. He and Lauren split in 1998 and are now divorced, but Max remains the No. 1 priority for both.

"It hurts when your marriage goes under, but I wouldn't take back those years for anything," he says.

"Having Max has altered profoundly the way I treat and regard other people. I have a beautiful son who has shown me what love is. I'm extraordinarily lucky.

"I just want to spend all my time with him, savour every moment."