Killed off in the debut, the actor has gotten a new life
George Eads was broke, hungry, and desperate. The Texas Tech marketing grad had drifted from job to job until finally he found himself wiping down weight machines at a gym and driving a pickup truck with two busted headlights. The acting thing just wasn't working. "I used to go out to the Santa Monica pier, look at the ocean, and cry my eyes out," he says. "I mean, I had really lost it. When you start having visions about driving your car into a brick wall, you're in trouble. I'd look out at the ocean and say, 'Oh, man, just throw me a crumb. Just a chance.'" Then he got his crumb: a one-shot part in Savannah's pilot as Travis, a dirty dog of a guy who slept with his fiancée's best friend just hours before his wedding. "I just thought, 'This is my chance. I don't care if I look like a freak, I'm just going to go for it.'" Boy, did he. He was so good at being bad that even though the producers had killed him off, they decided to resurrect him as Travis's brother, Nick. "When they said, 'Hey, we want George back,' I said, 'No way, man. I want to do this John Woo movie where I get to rappel off buildings. I don't want to play Joe Beefcake who's on the cover of Teen Beat." Eventually, Eads relented. "I was tired of auditions. Now, I've got a lot more money, a huge trailer with a TV, a stereo, and a couch." And what promises to be a meatier role than any other male actor's in a show dominated by beautiful, sexy actresses. Guess what he did to celebrate: "I bought a new truck." But more important, he's lifted himself out of his funk. "I was swinging in the dark, but now I know I can do it. I don't have that anxiety anymore. And I don't have to worry every time a meal rolls around. I can eat." -- M.S.
