• December 10, 2001
• Vol. 56
• No. 24

Longest Yard

Starring in a Remake of the Poignant Brian's Song, Sean Maher Ran a Physical and Emotional Gauntlet

For Sean Maher, playing Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo in ABC's remake of Brian's Song was a jolting experience. As filming began, "I got the ball and I started running, and it was like, 'Bang!' I didn't know what had hit me," says the 5'10" actor, who was flattened by costars with college- or pro-football experience.

There were more shocks when Maher shaved his head to play the cancer-ravaged Piccolo undergoing chemotherapy. "When I stared in the mirror, I could imagine myself with this horrible illness," says Maher, 26, the same age Piccolo was when he died in 1970. Until he was cast, Maher hadn't seen the acclaimed 1971 TV movie with James Caan as Piccolo, whose interracial friendship with teammate Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams in the original; Mekhi Phifer in the remake, which airs Dec. 2) remains the core of both films, though the new one "spends a lot more time on it," says Maher.

The second of three children of Joseph, 62, a Pleasantville, N.Y., funeral-home owner, and Margaret, 58, a retired nurse, Maher graduated with a drama degree from New York University in 1997, then landed starring roles in the FOX shows Ryan Caulfield: Year One and last fall's The $treet. Now single, unattached and living in Manhattan, he says he "absolutely" wants a family: "I love kids." Paula Cale, who plays Piccolo's wife, Joy, confirms that. "At one point the baby couldn't fall asleep," she says of the Piccolos' onscreen infant. "Sean was cradling her and whispering to her—and he'd never worked with kids before."