Catching up with Bruce Davison...

When NBC's new version of "Knight Rider" makes its debut as a series this fall, it has the advantage of having the talented Bruce Davison as a member of the cast.

"I get to be dad and I get to be the inventor and sort of be right in the middle of a lot of it," Bruce told me recently.

His character of Charles Graiman is an eccentric physicist who creates the Knight Industries Three Thousand, the second generation KITT.

"Get ready, there's going to be a lot of new stuff," he said of the revival. "It's going to be a lot of fun which is what we're looking forward to more than anything. KITT's back and he's bad!"

Bruce, who turns 62 on June 28, is a handsome guy who has often been cast as a politician. But he learned early on that character actors get the most work and he now has more than 150 film and TV credits to his name.

He is best-known for his movie roles, which include an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning performance in 1990's "Longtime Companion," playing Lucille Ball's nephew in the movie version of "Mame," starring in the original version of "Willard" and playing a U.S. senator and his imposter in the first two "X-Men" movies.

I wondered if he had ever seen the 2003 remake of "Willard" which cast Crispin Glover in the title role as a lonely man with an unusual connection to rats. Davison's version was a cult hit back in 1972 and even spawned a sequel, "Ben," with a famous title song sung by a young Michael Jackson.

"I never got to see it; I was out of the country the year it was running," he said of the remake. "My son recently saw (the original) and he said he didn't know what all the hoopla was about. It didn't scare him."

Bruce's most celebrated role, as a gay man whose lover dies of AIDS in "Longtime Companion," still stands out.

"It's certainly one of the closest things to my heart. It was quite a wonderful piece. Now the director's gone and others are, but Craig Lucas wrote a wonderful script and it was a great opportunity to be part of it."

Television and stage have provided the most steady work for Bruce. He was a regular in "Harry and the Hendersons" in the late 1980s, had recurring roles on "The Practice," "Kingdom Hospital" and "The L Word" and most recently did two seasons of the CBS drama "Close to Home."

Bruce made his Broadway debut back in 1968 and went on to star as John Merrick in "The Elephant Man" and in "The Glass Menagerie" opposite four-time Tony winner Jessica Tandy.

So after all these years and all the projects he's been involved with, I wondered if Bruce was still having a good time. His answer came easily: "It's never been better."