On most days, it seems a long way from Northern Ontario to the corner of Ontario Street and 1st Avenue in Vancouver. However, on the coldest day of the year, with snow falling and the mountains hidden behind the dark clouds, the imagination doesn't have to stretch too far. The police cars may say Seattle, but the air feels very Canadian.

On the sidewalk, doffing her coat so that the scene she is shooting looks as though it is being shot on a warmer day, is an actor who looks almost at home in the snow. That's hardly surprising since she was raised in it, back in Capreol, a town of 4500 just north of Sudbury. But on this production, a Stephen J. Cannell series called Two, no one cares where Barbara Tyson is from, they just know that she has arrived.

In Two, Tyson co-stars with American actor Michael Easton, who plays a man who is on the run for a murder committed by his evil twin. Tyson plays Terry Carter, the FBI agent who is one step behind. The series was created by Stephen Cannell and is now being produced by Two Television Productions for New World Entertainment, the company that bought Cannell several months ago, and Canada's Telegenic Programs Inc. The syndicated show is in all the major American markets with over 55 stations on its playlist.

That makes Tyson, who shares billing with Easton, the first Vancouver-based actor to star in a series with full North American saturation. (CTV is the Canadian broadcaster.) While Vancouver actors were once relegated to walk-on roles and small parts as guest villains in shows shot in British Columbia, a number of factors have combined to give Vancouver-based performers great exposure.

In addition to the devalued Canadian dollar, they include the proliferation of U.S.-Canadian co-productions made in Vancouver under Canadian content regulations; the cost of housing and transportation for U.S.-based guests; the differences in union contracts and the inevitable credits and exposure that have come with the growth in the B.C. industry. With just three months gone in this television season, Tyson is starring in Two, Martin Cummins and Robbie Chong have co-starring roles in the Vancouver-shot series Poltergeist: The Legacy, Molly Parker was featured in the locally shot mini-series The Titanic, and in Alberta, Gillian Barber had a high-profile role in the mini-series In Cold Blood.

The X-Files, arguably the most popular show of any kind to be shot in Vancouver, is doing its part in giving local actors high-profile credits. A case in point was a mid-November "sweeps" episode in which stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were given a week off while the producers handed the show over to the character "Cancer Man," played by Vancouver acting coach William Davis.

N. John Smith, a Vancouverite who came out of The Beachcombers to produce several shows for Cannell, including Two, says that every time a show comes north, its production company is forced to confront their own prejudices against Vancouver actors.

"We are always having to overcome the Los Angeles mentality," says Smith. "But the more [the Americans] come here, the easier it is to make inroads." Smith says that another factor that American companies have to take into consideration is the comparative benefits of working with the local acting union. According to Smith, Union of British Columbian Performers (UBCP) members have learned to be competitive with their Screen Actors Guild counterparts by allowing producers to cut costs on several fronts.

David Warry-Smith, a Canadian who has directed several episodes of Two, says that the Vancouver talent pool just keeps growing with every show. "There are a lot of talented people here, but perhaps more importantly, they have the credits. That's going to increase as times goes on, giving the people here a real competitive edge over those who work elsewhere."

Barbara Tyson has been competing with Americans for work since she was 17. She left Capreol for Toronto that year to audition for a role in Threshold, for which Donald Sutherland later won a Genie for playing a doctor who transplants a mechanical heart into a young girl. Mare Winningham beat Tyson out for the part of the patient, but Tyson stayed in Toronto and soon after got the part as Carol Burnett's daughter in Between Friends, which also starred Elizabeth Taylor.

She moved to New York when she was 21 and worked part-time in three different restaurants while taking acting classes at Carnegie Hall. She made her living doing voice work in commercials and on radio until she got the call from ABC to work in the daytime drama Another World, playing Dawn Rollo, the first soap character with AIDS.

She went to Los Angeles when her character died and worked on several sit-coms including Charles in Charge, Murphy Brown and The Famous Teddy Z. But she was 25 and the United States was beginning to lose its appeal.

"When I was 21, the States were bigger, stronger, faster," she says now. "My feeling was that if you go to the States from Canada, you get a job. That's what happened when I left Toronto."

In Los Angeles she got a call to do six episodes of a new Canadian series called Neon Rider. "It was only supposed to last six episodes," she recalls. "And I had never spent much time in Vancouver. So I came up and worked on it. But I ended up doing 40 episodes. That changed my life. It was like going to work every day with a family. Still today, crew come up to me and say, 'What a run we had.' "

Before she left the series, Tyson bought a house in Vancouver and commuted between there and Los Angeles. Now that she's back in Canada, she says she plans to keep a foot in Vancouver no matter what happens to the series. But she hopes that it gets picked up because she realizes that there are not a lot of lead series roles in which a female actor gets to play an FBI agent.

"To have a character this strong is great. For an actress, it's a given that most male roles are stronger than female roles. Women get to play the wife of the hero or the girlfriend of the hero or the sister of the girlfriend of the hero or the bitch or other clichéd roles, but for me, it was a real change because I get to play this person in a position of authority. It's very odd that you see a female role written with an edge. Just now lately we have seen edgy characters written for females, usually it's just for men. But we're starting to see that more. If we get picked up, I'd like to see the character be developed more. We've developed this bitch-on-wheels persona and now it is time to take that further and develop her more."

ON THE SET OF "TWO": Barbara and her golden retriever, Shayna.

For any Canadian actor to make an impact in movies or television, there has to be a sense that no matter who or what the competition is, they will triumph. Tyson says that since the day she left Capreol High School—the same school that graduated country music star Shania Twain—she has maintained a level of confidence that has seen her through the toughest of times.

"I had no idea that I would get out of the small town and be creative, but once I did, I had a true belief that that was what I was destined to do. You have no room for self-doubt in this businesss. You have your fears, but no one is going to do it for you. I always had this confidence. Based on what? I don't know. It was just there. The worst thing you can do as an actor is to look over your shoulder and worry about who got the part instead of you.

"In L.A., the competition is fierce just because of sheer numbers, not because they're American and we're Canadian. It has nothing to do with the border. It's just that they've been doing it a lot longer and there are a lot more of them. I have heard some people say that Canadians in general have an inferiority complex. So if I'm sitting in an audition and usually I'm the only Canadian there, I'm not going to say 'I'm Canadian, I'm not worthy.' Not a chance."

Tyson says that if the series isn't picked up after it wraps in early December, she will do what she has done in the past: keep her Vancouver base and look for work in Los Angeles and here. She says that it doesn't matter where she ends up, that as long as she keeps working, she will be happy.

"If I can make my living acting, whether it's an 'A' movie or a series, then I will be happy. I'm happy when I'm working, and I'm not happy when I'm not working. There's that actor's cliché that after you've finished a job, you say 'Oh my god, I'll never work again.' It comes from rejection. But you have to have the confidence in yourself to believe that you'll work again. I don't want to be rich. I just want to keep working."

— Ian Caddell

TV GUIDE
September 20, 1991

ON THE TOWN WITH LES WISEMAN

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, CTV's Neon Rider has a new character. In the locally produced drama concerning a teen rehab set on a working ranch, Barbara Tyson will play Eleanor James, a haughty administrator assigned to distill some order out of Michael Terry's (series star Winston Rekert) organic heart-over-paperwork methods. She wants to set him straight and maintain her decorum in the wilds of a B.C. horse farm, but is slow to accept that high heels and woolen skirts are not suitable attire for tripping lightly through the horse pucky.

Tyson's trailer dressing room rings with the strains of country diva Patsy Cline; a jasmine joss stick smoulders in the ashtray. Looking substantially more laid back, in jeans and a sweater, than her character, she analyses the prim Ms. James. "She's a city girl trying to fix up this mess. She aspires to go up the corporate ladder, and this is just the initial appointment. She tries to get the upper hand and affect that metropolitan air, but she doesn't quite have it. And her frustration is a source of humor."

She is also a potential love interest for the shaggy and preoccupied Michael Terry. "There's an underlying tension with Rachel [Suzanne Errett-Balcom], the social worker, a triangle thing," she laughs. "Neither of us wants to admit that we want him. Underneath the politeness, there is that female thing between Eleanor and Rachel that if you like him, I don't like you. He's appealing to the women, because he doesn't show any interest. He's a hard-working guy who helps kids and doesn't have time to meet women."

Tyson is pleased with the moral thrust of Neon Rider. "People will watch the show for the entertainment value and come away with something more. It deals with kids in a realistic way, and it isn't preachy. Its angle is not 'Tommy, you shouldn't take drugs'; it shows what might happen if you do. It's not afraid to show different sides of the issues. Usually, TV shows get so fluffy they trivialize the issues. And the issues are not always wrapped up. Maybe we didn't save this kid. It's not like 'Gee, Tommy, I'm really glad you kicked that heroin addiction; you must come back to visit the ranch some time.' "

Originally from Barrie, Ontario, Tyson got her first break in the TV-movie Between Friends, with Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett. Since then, she's played Loraine Clark in Alien Nation and was Ernest P. Worrell's sweetie in Ernest Goes to Jail.

Neon Rider—which is now seen in 30 countries—makes its season debut September 21. The first three episodes are shows shot last year; scripts introducing Tyson start with Episode 4.

PEOPLE MAGAZINE
February 1, 1988

BARBARA BUSH RIDES OUT THE PAIN
OF A DOOMED SOAP OPERA ROLE

The moment someone on a soap opera coughs, faints or comments about a recent spate of blinding headaches, the audience knows that it's just a matter of time before the character succumbs to a Mysterious Fatal Disease unknown to the editors of Merck's Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. Last month, however, something far more consequential happened on NBC's Another World. Singer Dawn Rollo, played by Barbara Bush [Tyson], was diagnosed as having an all-too-familiar, all-too-real disease—AIDS. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has been dealt with on prime-time shows and TV movies, but [Tyson's] role marks the first time that daytime soaps—usually in the vanguard when it comes to social problems—have tackled the super-sensitive issue.

"Everybody said it was too depressing," says one of Another World's head writers, Thom Racina, who wanted to do an AIDS story line two years ago when he was writing for Days of Our Lives. "People didn't know enough about it. Now the time is right." Racina, who has drawn much of [Tyson's] character and plot from a close woman friend of his who has AIDS, believes "just about everybody's life in America is affected by it—or will be. AIDS is timely and it provides a dramatic story."

This hasn't been lost on rival soaps. An AIDS story line was introduced in September on ABC's All My Children, and CBS' The Young and the Restless will soon follow suit. Are we seeing the trivialization of a tragedy? Dr. Mathilde Krim, co-head of the New York branch of the American Foundation for AIDS research, doesn't think so. "I'm not worried that these stories are on soap operas," says Krim. "It's hard to convince people that there's a new disease around. These programs help viewers understand that AIDS is part of the present reality."

Playing the first female AIDS patient on daytime TV, [Tyson] agrees. "My character is a virgin," says the 24-year-old actress. "I hope it's going to erase the myth that it's only a gay disease or that only people who do drugs get it." Barbara says her first reaction if she were to learn that she had AIDS would be "shock, fear, then acceptance. I'm going to play all those stages on the show. I want people to see the torments AIDS patients go through."

Tyson's character, introduced on the show in August, first came down with a persistent cold, then checked into the hospital for what everyone, including boyfriend Scott LaSalle (Hank Cheyne), thought was pneumonia. But she was told she'd contracted AIDS through her mother, a prostitute and intravenous drug user from whom she'd received a blood transfusion five years earlier. Yes, this is a somewhat sugar-coated version, but enough biting realism remains. The character will die sometime in the next few months.

"The role is a challenge and a big responsibility," says [Tyson]. "The best part of it is that the show isn't going to focus on someone dying of AIDS, but focus more on the quality of life after the diagnosis. My character is very resilient, and that's what the public is going to see."

Born in Capreol, Ontario, more than 200 miles north of Toronto, [Tyson] displays the same optimism under adversity. Her family was divided in 1966, when her parents separated. Her older brother, Robert, went to live with their father. Barbara, then 3, stayed with her mother, a real estate operator. "I was always the new kid in school," says Barbara. She also had to adjust to her mother's three marriages. [Tyson], who concedes that her mother lacked judgment in the matter of husbands, says, "I probably went through more than your average child. I went through stages of jealousy. I was hungry for the love of a real father. But my mother had love in abundance, and I learned a lot from being in different families. I grew up fast and learned to be my own judge."

Tyson was 16 before she saw her father and brother again. She calls the reunion, which took place near the home of her paternal grandparents, "emotionally scarring—so much pent-up feeling had to come out." While she's now close with Robert, her relationship with her father—Howard Bush, employed at a fiberglass company—has been more restrained. "I think we both wished we knew each other better," says Barbara. "Once, he told me he loved me and was sorry about anything he might have caused. But I have no bad feelings. He's my dad."

An intense, impassionate personality, even when she was young, [Tyson] began putting on variety shows at age 5, charging the neighbors 15 cents to attend. When she was 16, the producers of a Canadian docudrama called Teen Mother chose her to play the lead. Hooked on acting, [Tyson] moved on her own to Toronto the following year. "Anyone but Barbara would've been too young, but she was ready," says her mother, Jean Chretien, who's been happily married for seven years to her fourth husband. "You could drop her in the middle of China and she'd get a job."

Tyson made several appearances in a Canadian TV series, The Edison Twins, then played Carol Burnett's bratty daughter in the 1983 HBO film Between Friends. Moving to New York in 1985, Barbara found an apartment and worked as a waitress and commercial actress. An aspiring singer as well, she joined forces with producer friend Roger Greenawalt and cut a demo that helped her land the part in Another World.

Tyson, 5'8" and normally 131 lbs., has lost 11 lbs. so far from the trauma of taping her AIDS scenes. "They take a lot out of me," she says. "In rehearsal I'm talking about death all the time." But she's also gained a few things since taking the role—a compassion for AIDS patients and an awareness of safe sex. "Not that I was promiscuous to begin with," adds Barbara, who is seeing someone special, though she refuses to talk about him. She's also developed a heightened sense of responsibility. "I want people to really miss my character when she goes," says [Tyson]. "If I can move people and educate them about this disease at the same time, then I've done my job...I really wanted to do this right—it's important to me."

— Written by Joanne Kaufman, reported by Toby Kahn