Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998

First Friday

Stars of `L.A. Law' to speak on breast cancer

By ELLEN BERNSTEIN
Staff Writer

   Jill Eikenberry didn't have time to die when she and husband Michael Tucker learned she had breast cancer 11 years ago.
   The New York stage actors had just shot the pilot for the hit television series ``L.A. Law.'' They had two months to move to Los Angeles with their two children before shooting would begin on the television drama series that catapulted them to fame and fortune.
   How Eikenberry managed to squeeze radiation therapy into 16-hour shooting days still befuddles the couple, but she said Ann Kelsey, the activist attorney she played on the popular series, inspired her to battle the disease.
   ``I was playing a very aggressive character, full of energy, so it was hard to be lazy,'' the 51-year-old actress said by telephone. ``I wanted to pour myself into this new kind of exciting merry-go-round we were on. It was much more fun then thinking about mortality.''
   Married 25 years in June, Eikenberry and Tucker will share their cancer survival story at a breast cancer awareness event at 7 p.m. March 6 at the Omni Bayfront Hotel.
   Tickets are $25, and the money raised at the fourth annual First Friday event will fund educational programs, television spots promoting early detection and free mammograms for women who cannot afford them.
   The event is sponsored by the local nonprofit First Friday organization, Spohn Health System, Spohn Breast Care Program, American Airlines/American Eagle and the YWCA.
   Since 1994, Spohn has provided 376 free mammograms with money raised by First Friday events, said Linda Walker, general chairwoman of the First Friday 1998 Committee.
   Eleven years after a diagnosis that was once considered a death sentence, Eikenberry said speaking about cancer reminds her and her husband ``how grateful we are to have another year.''
   The cancer diagnosis, at a time of peak Hollywood fame for the couple, ``was a bizarre experience,'' Eikenberry said. ``In those days, people weren't talking about it in the same way. There was an enormous fear. Other than the support of my husband and a few of our dearest friends, I was feeling very alone.''
   Cancer changed their lives, drawing them closer as a couple, said Tucker, who played Stuart Markowitz, the soft-hearted tax attorney, on ``L.A. Law.''
   After the long-running series ended three years ago, the couple traded Hollywood fame for a quieter lifestyle in Marin County, Calif.
   ``It's bizarre to leave Los Angeles when you're in the height of fame and fortune. It's not what you're supposed to do,'' Eikenberry said. ``But there was something that I wanted that wasn't about this particular road you are traveling on. I feel that I had to go toward something I'd be happier in.''
   A focus of their talk in Corpus Christi is how the husband can cope and support his wife during cancer treatment.
   ``You must keep talking to each other about all the fears, the doubts and worries,'' Eikenberry said.
   ``Technically,'' Tucker said, ``if a couple finds out she has breast cancer, then he should put his full loving attention on her.
   ``But the wife should try to nurture a man's need to win in this situation by acknowledging his love and support,'' he said. ``He's going through as difficult a situation as she is, and men like to win.
   ``I felt like a failure in this situation, and it's something that a lot of men say,'' Tucker said.
   However irrational, men often feel that they ``let their guard down and somehow let the cancer in,'' Eikenberry said.
   Eikenberry and Tucker continue to work in television films and on stage, raising money for non-profit regional theaters. The couple met in 1970 working at Arena Stage in Washington D.C.
   These days, they devote time to nurturing their relationships by attending personal development workshops. Eikenberry is also active in women's leadership programs in Marin County.
   Eikenberry co-produced and hosted ``Destined to Live,'' a one-hour documentary for NBC that dealt with the emotional aspects of breast cancer from diagnosis to recovery.
   The couple are the official spokesmen for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a national organization dedicated to the advancement of breast cancer education.
   Next week, Eikenberry and Tucker will launch a new breast cancer screening device in New York that, according to manufacturer Humascan, holds promise as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for physicians. The new product is bra pads that measure temperature differences in a woman's breasts, alerting physicians to the need for further tests.