No shrinking violet: Wisconsin native Shannon Whirry fits the part when it comes to playing strong women

DAVID FANTLE AND THOMAS JOHNSON

Special to the Journal Sentinel

976 words

5 February 1998

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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© 1998 Journal Sentinel Inc.

She slinked into Verdi’s Espresso Bar in Milwaukee’s East Town. Every guy’s head in the joint turned to catch a glimpse. She was one hot tomato. A real looker with a great pair of pins.

Apologies to crime novelist Mickey Spillane, who popularized much of this street vernacular 50 years ago with his first “Mike Hammer” novel, “I, The Jury.” Spillane could have just as well penned those words to describe actress Shannon Whirry.

A blonde, blue-eyed femme fatale on the cusp of full-fledged stardom, the Green Lake High School graduate and Wisconsin native made her annual pilgrimage back to the state to visit with family and friends. In Milwaukee, she squeezed in a promotional interview for her latest project, the syndicated television series, “Mike Hammer: Private Eye.” Whirry (pronounced worry) enlisted her mom, Sherry, to navigate the streets of Milwaukee and to accompany her to the interview.

It doesn’t take a super sleuth such as Hammer to get the skinny on Whirry. In the course of the interview, we learned that she owns a fixer-upper home in the Hollywood Hills; packs a pistol for protection (she owns a 9mm and can rival Annie Oakley as a sharpshooter); lives with her boyfriend of five years, Chris, a cop; does not side with the actress Hunter Tylo, who was bounced from “Melrose Place” for becoming pregnant; and has no plans for marriage or children.

For the newest incarnation of the venerable sleuth, Stacy Keach reprises the part of Mike Hammer, a character that seems to fit him like an old gum shoe. He has played Hammer in several made-for-TV movies and in two different series on CBS.

In the latest version, Whirry plays his trusted secretary, Velda. The show airs Sundays at 11:05 p.m. on Channel 58.

Whirry has established a cult-like following in kick-butt and sexually steamy feature films and cable movies, such as “Out for Justice,” “Animal Instincts” and “Dangerous Prey.” The part of Velda would seem like a safe career retreat for an actress who likes to take chances. Not so, she said.

“Velda as created by Mickey Spillane has always been sexy and smart,” she said between sips of her latte. “I have no problem being sexy as long as they let me be smart. I think it’s a terrific role model when you can be sexy, smart and professional.”

She makes no apologies for the roles that have required her to appear in various states of undress, leaving little to an audience’s imagination.

“If a part called for any type of nudity, I at least made sure that the woman was smart and powerful. The roles that have required nudity have either been good or interesting or they have presented me with an opportunity to work with actors I respect. I’ve never just whipped off my top and run down a hallway.”

Whirry’s body of work is especially interesting when you consider that she is a seriously trained actress.

After graduating from Green Lake High, she was one of 300 people (out of 3,000 applicants) accepted at New York City’s prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts. For six years in the mid-’80s, Whirry hopped from one off-Broadway role to another, eventually winning a Jean Dalrymple Award for best supporting actress for her role in “The Latest Craze.”

A cattle-call audition and her casting in the 1991 Steven Segal action flick “Out for Justice” launched her film career.

Despite her dramatic training, Whirry does not deny that her physical attributes circumscribe the range of acting opportunities open to her.

“I’m not going to be able to play a shrinking violet,” she said. “That’s not who I am and when people look at me that’s not what they see. Why deny what I am and where my strengths lie. I like playing strong women. I’m a strong woman, and that’s what I like.”

All of which leads us to a discussion of the recent jury verdict in favor of Tylo, who was hired to play a seductress on “Melrose Place” and was fired by the show’s producers after she became pregnant.

“They didn’t hire her pregnant. They didn’t want her pregnant. To me, they were within their rights to let her go,” Whirry said. “She hadn’t even become an established character on the show. She was hired to be the ingenue. That takes away when you’re eight months’ pregnant. If she was trying to get pregnant, she should not have gone for that type of work or she should have waited a year until they established her character.”

With no plans for marriage or children, Whirry may not be likely to find herself in a similar situation.

“If you would have asked me when I was 5 years old and long before I became an actress, I would have told you that I’ve never wanted children,” she said. “Children require a great deal of time and nurturing. I don’t think it’s fair with my lifestyle of long work days and travel to raise a child.”

Same can be said about marriage.

“Part of my non-belief in marriage is that both my mother and father have each been married three times, and Chris’ (her boyfriend) mother was married four times. We don’t come from people who have stayed married, so why believe in the institution?”

Call her independent or opinionated it doesn’t matter. It’s no “Mike Hammer” mystery that Shannon Whirry knows what she wants out of life.