From 1977 to 1983, few performers were as popular as Erik Estrada.
Primarily thanks to his role on "CHiPs," as motorcycle-riding California Highway Patrolman Frank "Ponch" Poncherello, he became a sex symbol.
Once the show left the air, he did several other projects, from soap operas to Spanish telenovelas to currently hosting the show "World's Funniest Videos" and anticipating a major project announcement from a Latin American TV channel.
Deputized by a sheriff in Virginia, he's working with a task force to eliminate sexual abuse of children and child pornography on the Internet.
And Estrada, at least once or twice a year, makes his way to minor league baseball games to meet fans and sign autographs. That's what he'll do next week at Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, prior to a Quad-Cities River Bandits game.
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"I get out to places in the country where I normally wouldn't travel, and it usually takes two planes to get there," he said from his home in Studio City, Calif. "I get to where I normally wouldn't go in America and get a shot to meet them (his fans)."
Q: It seems you have embraced your past and not run away from it, staying with the character that made you famous. Is that a correct assumption?
A: Why wouldn't I be? Ponch is a terrific guy. I was going to be a New York cop before I became an actor. I got involved because one day I was chasing this girl and she got me into theater. I thought, "Hey, I grew up in the streets of Harlem. I can act." I auditioned, I got in and I got bit.
I thought, "Wow, I gotta try this out. It's fun." Next thing I know, I was playing a cop on TV.
Q: Was there a thought before "CHiPs" began that it would take off like it did?
A: Not really, not until I started getting bundles of fan mail. I'm talking big duffel bags of fan mail like crazy. I thought, "We may have something here. I may have a steady job for a while."
Q: What was the pinnacle of fame for you, the time you stopped and looked back and said, "Wow, I can't believe I'm here."?
A: Before "CHiPs," I did some movies and was really a good actor (laughs) before I became a celebrity. I did "Airport ‘75," I did "Midway," I did "The Cross and the Switchblade," Rev. (David) Wilkerson's story, and a lot of episodic television.
Then one day I walked into the supermarket to get my usual Porterhouse steak with a jar of peanut butter, which is what I used to eat ...
Q: Together?
A: The peanut butter and the steak, yeah. It's like Puerto Rican Thai cuisine.
I happened to walk by the magazine rack that they had in the supermarket, and I walked by there and started looking and I see my face on magazines. I look again and there's another one and another picture. I was on 14 covers - and I stood there in the aisle and started laughing. I was shocked, I was embarrassed and I thought it was so cool.
Q: What was the most bizarre tabloid headline you saw about yourself through those years?
A: For a long time I felt like the centerfold for the (National) Enquirer. They kept teaming me up with people. I would take a girlfriend to New York and we'd go dancing at Studio 54 and the photographers would shoot you while you're dancing. The next week, I open the magazine and they got me dancing with Farrah Fawcett. They cut my girlfriend's head off and put Farrah Fawcett's face on her body.
Even to this day (I) never met Farrah Fawcett.
