Playing It Cool

Editor's Note: Looking back is an occasional series about showbiz veterans living in Las Vegas.

The British theatrical poster says it all:

"The Coolest Man in the World Arrives Today ..."

And these days, the coolest man in the world calls Las Vegas home.

A performer for 47 of his 60 years (he turns 61 on Tuesday), Antonio Fargas has played hundreds of roles on stage and screen.

For most audiences, however, Fargas is, was and always will be Huggy Bear.

For those who haven't been hip to the word on the street since 1979, when ABC's buddy-cop drama "Starsky and Hutch" ended its four-season run, Huggy served as the title duo's primary informant, a jive-talking hustler who clued the cops in to various nefarious doings with superfly style.

"It's the hook that opens the door -- and they get much more," Fargas says philosophically of his most famous role.

After all, playing Huggy Bear "was four years out of 47 years in the business," Fargas reasons, rifling through a closet full of boxes packed with evidence of his decades in showbiz. "That's HOW I DEAL WITH IT!" he booms with theatrical flourish.

Yet other clues signal that Fargas is cool with his most famous role.

Exhibit A: The Huggy Bear action figure displayed on the wall, its original packaging preserving Huggy's blue-jean jacket and pants, accented by the obligatory (and oh so groovy) checked scarf.

This isn't Fargas' first action figure, he acknowledges.

Back in the day, "I had one, but the kids tore it apart," Fargas recalls. "They took the clothes off; they took the head off. I get these through eBay."

The front rooms of Fargas' northwest Las Vegas home reveal few clues to his decades-long acting career.

But step into Fargas' office and framed photographs and mementoes illustrate the scope of his talents.

Sure, there's a photo of him as Huggy. But that shot doesn't get the prominent display of an autographed poster and costume sketch for "Playboy of the West Indies," a 1993 production at New York City's Lincoln Center.

Or a photo of Fargas at the piano, with a young Brooke Shields, in "Pretty Baby," a 1978 drama set in a World War I-era New Orleans brothel that prompted one critic to compare his performance with that of "Cabaret" Oscar-winner Joel Grey.

Other photographs show Fargas as Jim in a 1975 TV adaptation of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," and with Hutch himself, David Soul, in a British stage production.

Soul and his TV partner, Paul Michael Glaser, both made cameo appearances in the 2004 big-screen "Starsky & Hutch," which featured Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson -- and rapper Snoop Dogg as Huggy.

At the time, plenty of people wondered why Fargas didn't get his own big-screen cameo.

"It was political," he says, recalling how he helped persuade Soul and Glaser to participate. "But I took the high ground," Fargas adds, noting that he did interviews to promote the movie in Britain. "Being missed is almost as good as being there."

Besides, Fargas had other roles to play.

Just before he moved to Las Vegas two years ago, Fargas guest-starred as the "candy pimp" on a Halloween-themed episode of "Everybody Hates Chris," the CW sitcom inspired by comedian Chris Rock's '80s Brooklyn boyhood.

The "candy pimp" turned out to be neighborhood shopkeeper Doc Harris, who's since become a recurring character.

While most people can't help but think of Fargas as Huggy, "he's an iconic sort of character," says Ali LeRoi, "Everybody Hates Chris" executive producer and co-creator.

"He's into his craft," LeRoi adds. "He's always up for a challenge."

Fargas has been ever since he caught the acting bug in his youth.

Son of a New York sanitation worker, the third oldest of 11 children, Fargas grew up in the projects and made his movie debut at 14, after his mother spotted a casting notice for a movie called "The Cool World" and urged him to audition.

Even as a street kid, Fargas displayed a striking presence and a unique approach, remembers Rick Edelstein, Fargas' "teacher and mentor," who first met him in a Harlem arts workshop in the early '60s.

Fargas' "totally original" approach to his first scene (from "Hamlet") convinced Edelstein that "he had a kind of particular sensitivity."

A few years later, Fargas was touring Europe in James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner," portraying the son of a Harlem preacher and a rascally jazz musician. (Two decades later, Fargas played the father in another production.)

Eventually, Fargas and Edelstein reunited on "Starsky and Hutch," where Edelstein served as a writer and script supervisor.

But Fargas already had been cast as Huggy, thanks to another colleague: director Barry Shear, who first directed him in "Across 110th Street," one of several movies, from "Shaft" to "Foxy Brown," that made Fargas a familiar face during Hollywood's '70s "blaxploitation" craze. (Fargas later spoofed those roles in 1988's "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.")

"I don't care if it's the junkie or a pimp, it's still empowering to the black community," Fargas says of his "blaxploitation" days. "You feel proud to be a part of the picture."

And regardless of the picture, Fargas has "something no acting teacher can teach," Edelstein says. "There are opposites going on inside. It creates an energy you can't help but stop and watch."

That tension reflects some of the personal milestones Fargas has passed on his journey, including alcoholism and drug addiction.

Through the years, "I've evolved" to become "the best version of Antonio Fargas on the planet," Fargas comments. "And tomorrow I'll be better."

For Fargas, becoming an actor also meant "finding a family" in the arts, one "accepting of my craziness and eccentricities."

As for his favorite characters through the years, "Every character's like a child -- and I love all my children," Fargas says.

(In real life, Fargas has four children: Justin, an Oakland Raiders running back; Matthew, a budding filmmaker; Kevin, a Los Angeles police officer; and Tiffany, who's a mother with three children of her own.)

Fargas and his wife, Sandra, traded life in Los Angeles for Las Vegas because "I knew I didn't want to retire in L.A.," Fargas says. "I didn't need to prove anything anymore."

So far in his new hometown, Fargas has directed a play and signed on as a consultant for a local production company, citing "a vibrant, budding community of people in need of things other than what's on the Strip."

He's also thinking of writing a book -- and expanding his memoirs into a stage show or lecture. Or both.

"I want to teach and coach -- as soon as I'm settled," he says.

Before that happens, however, Fargas keeps working, whether it's his recurring role on "Everybody Hates Chris" or an upcoming holiday show that will take him back to Britain.

And while he's there, "Starsky and Hutch" fans undoubtedly will salute the coolest man alive -- the "ageless character" they know as Huggy Bear.

He's been a crossword puzzle clue and a "Jeopardy!" answer -- in the form of a question, of course.

And while "you can't get your head blown out of shape" by such universal recognition, "you can do a play for a hundred years and have full houses -- and still not have the audience 'Starsky and Hutch' had for one evening," Fargas notes. "Now that's power."