GREGG RAINWATER WANTS TO SUCCEED IN SPITE OF HIS HERITAGE -- NOT BECAUSE OF IT...

Talking to The Young Riders co-star Gregg Rainwater, it's easy to understand how he wound up in the ranks of teen heartthrob. Handsomely chiseled dark features, couples with a remarkably gentle voice and an infectious laugh, no doubt helped land the 24-year-old actor on US magazine's '10 Sexiest Bachelors' list and earn him a following of ardent young female admirers.

There is also plenty in his background to make for the sort of breezy, breathless fan magazine stories typically written about hot young TV actors of his ilk. Gregg was so determined to get into showbiz at an early age that he not only appeared in community theater and performed in plays in his Flint, Michigan high school -- he also infiltrated a rival high school's theater department and landed roles in "their" productions.

But there are other dimensions to Rainwater. Certain statements he makes penetrate the Hollywood hype with real emotion. Not long ago, he says, during a chat with an aunt, he learned of the trials of his Native American grandfather, who left Arkansas as a young man and headed north during the depression, looking for factory work and freedom from the prejudice he hand known. He spent the rest of his life ignoring, or at least not talking about his Indian heritage, until, as an old man near death, he turned back to the spirituality of his youth and found comfort in voicing chants of his tribe.

"I wish I could have talked to him more, could have asked what he'd gone through... I wish he'd been open about his heritage, but at least, I'm grateful he was on his way back to it and that he did seem to find peace."

Rainwater recounts the story as one example of knowledge he has gained since taking on his role as the half-Kiowa, half-White character Buck Cross in Young Riders two years ago. Researching his roots and studying Native American history has become part of rainwater's life as he strives for authenticity in his video alter-ego. The experience, he notes, has been an education for him.

Rainwater has learned enough that he sometimes serves an unofficial technical adviser on Riders. Overall he has high praises for the Riders writers and producers. Pointing to the success of Kevin Costner's big-screen Dances With Wolves, he notes, "I think the American public -- and Hollywood -- are ready and willing to embrace an unbiased view of the Old west. A truthful view. And I do think we advance that."

Rainwater is at least as sensitive about labeling his own life. He resists being referred to as a Native American performer."

I wouldn't consider myself that any more that I would an Irish performer or a Filipino performer. All of that's in my blood," he says. "Why not just 'American actor' or 'actor' -- or human being?"

Source: Tribune Media Services. Author: Stacy Smith