WITH AN EYE ON . . . : Her role as Superman's mom comes naturally to lifetime nurturer K Callan

WITH AN EYE ON . . . : Her role as Superman’s mom comes naturally to lifetime nurturer K Callan

By N.F. MENDOZA

Dec. 24, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

She may play Superman’s adopted mother--a mere Midwestern mortal--but K Callan could be considered a Superwoman herself.

Callan, of ABC’s “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” has been a regular on three series, guested on more than 100 TV shows, has written five books, is a party hostess extraordinaire (one of her books, “Life of the Party,” shares her secrets) and raised three children alone while pursuing her acting career.

She says her biggest role is being Mom--in real life and on screen. “I have been so many people’s mothers,” she says with a laugh from her San Fernando Valley home. In addition to playing Dean Cain’s TV mom, Martha Kent, she was recently seen as Eric Roberts’ mom in the Fox TV movie “Saved By the Light.”

“I am just such a mom, what with raising my kids ... I’m a Wheaties kind of person. I couldn’t ever be a femme fatale. “

It was this self-awareness of what roles she could play that helped Callan win parts when she moved to New York in 1968. Her kids, then 9, 8, and 5, were in tow.

“The biggest thing an actor can do is come to terms with who they are,” offers Callan, also the author of “How to Sell Yourself as an Actor.” “Think of Ronny Howard if he tried to be anyone else! We’re very definitely who we are.”

Throughout her career--which includes her first role as Peter Doyle’s blowzy wife in the 1970 sleeper “Joe”--Callan says she has “played some career women and snobby bitches, but I think I bring the most insight and heart to mom roles, or nurturing roles, which are actually synonymous.”

She’ll have fun as Clark’s mom on Sunday night. The ABC show’s repeat holiday episode features a takeoff of “I Love Lucy.” Lois and Clark are the Ricardos and the Kents are the Mertzes. “It’s hilarious,” she says.

Martha’s not your average mom. “She’s hip, she’s not afraid,” says the woman who plays her. “She’s just really cool.”

Speaking of which, what about her own first name, that K without a period? Callan explains she was born Katherine and called Kay while growing up. While teaching high school, her husband at the time suggested, “ ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if it was just K?’ Now that’s all that’s left of my original name, since Callan was his name. But the K is plenty,” she adds with a laugh.

Callan, who grew up adoring Betty Grable and Esther Williams, says she got the acting bug at 5. But, she adds, “My idea of what an actor was had nothing to do with being an actor.” She acted in school, studied drama at Texas University at Denton, taught drama at a girl’s Catholic school and started a children’s theater.

Her own career was somewhat on hold during her 11-year marriage. When it ended, she headed to New York. “It didn’t seem like a huge decision then. First of all, you’re young and dumb,” she says of taking her kids to the Big Apple from Oklahoma, where they lived while her husband worked on his doctorate. Living on New York’s Lower East Side, getting her kids to school and looking for work was a struggle, but Callan managed. “Somehow, it just worked. “

Nicely, in fact. Her son Jamie, now married and a father of two, is on the research faculty at the University of Massachusetts. Daughters Kelly and Kristie, both of whom live in L.A., play drums and guitar, respectively, in the band Lucky. The band has occasional gigs at Luna Park in West Hollywood.

As Callan’s acting career took off, her writing followed suit. Her first book, “The Los Angeles Agent,” came out in 1986. Also published: “The New York Agent Book,” “The Script Is Finished, Now What Do I Do?” and “Directing Your Directing Career”). Her “how-to” books, as she calls them, are updated annually, which keeps her busy, as does her new-found interest in screenwriting.

The avid seamstress also finds time “to build and do woodworking. There are always tools going off in my workshop.” She loves to play with her cat, P-2, who she’s convinced is reincarnated.

But the most important part of her day is the daily phone conversations to each of her children. Just like a Mom.

“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.