[ MAUKA MAKAI ]

COURTESY OF NBC Biehn, one of the stars of the fast-paced series "Hawaii," is working in the isles for the first time since 1979, when he appeared in a TV movie called "The Paradise Connection" with Buddy Ebsen. The co-star of "The Terminator" and "Tombstone" says he feels right at home in his latest action role.

Sticking to his guns

Michael Biehn brings tough-guy
tenacity to his role as a detective
in the series "Hawaii"

IN a recent episode of the new series "Hawaii," two detectives searching for a wounded witness walk up to a cabdriver rinsing blood from his back seat.

One of the cops, Sean Harrison, played by Michael Biehn, steps on the hose to stop the flow.

"Hey," says Biehn, "you want to tell us how you got the blood in the back of your cab?"

"Picked up one surfer," says the driver, played by local comedian and radio deejay Augie Tulba. "He cut his foot."

Unconvinced, the officers threaten to impound the cab for two weeks.

"Two weeks!" the driver protests. "What am I supposed to do without my cab for two weeks?"

Biehn's expression doesn't change dramatically: a slight lift of the brows, a quick glance to the side that returns with a kilowatt spike in intensity, an almost imperceptible grin both bemused and predatory. "I don't know," he says, but his meaning is clear: You'd be screwed, pal, and we don't care.

"All right!" the driver relents, and spills what he knows.

Score another round for the Honolulu Metro Police.

NBC's fast-paced police drama provides the latest vehicle for an actor with a trove of tough-guy roles. Although new to Hawaii, Biehn plays the only detective on the show with any multicultural acuity or understanding of the islands. This he does credibly -- low-key and rock steady, with flashes of inner energy that fans might remember from "The Terminator" and "Tombstone."

In fact, with dozens of movies and TV shows to his credit, Biehn is the most accomplished star in any of the shows in production here, with the possible exception of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who plays the detectives' supervisor. In the sea of "fresh faces" (i.e., unknown actors) on the sets of "Hawaii," "North Shore" and "Lost," Biehn lends his show a sense of workhorse reliability and a racehorse record of success.

Consider:

» His roles as Kyle Reese, the time-traveling bodyguard in "The Terminator" (1984), and Hicks, the space Marine in "Aliens" (1986), won him cult-hero status among sci-fi fans.

» As outlaw Johnny Ringo in "Tombstone" (1993), his gun-slinging run-in with Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) in Wyatt Earp's saloon surely qualifies as one of the most electric and entertaining confrontations in moviedom.

» If Guinness had a record for the number of film portrayals of a Navy SEAL, Biehn could claim it for his performances in "The Abyss" (1989), "Navy Seals" (1990) and "The Rock" (1996).

TIM RYAN / TRYAN@STARBULLETIN.COM Biehn and Sharif Atkins are partners in the new NBC police drama. Although new to the islands, Biehn plays the only detective on the show with any multicultural acuity or understanding of the islands. Atkins plays John Declan, a recent arrival from Chicago.

Seated on the bunk in his trailer near the show's production set in Mapunapuna, Biehn puts out his cigarette in a small, nearly empty drink bottle and reflects on the highs and lows of a long career. Only once before has he worked in Hawaii -- on a 1979 television movie called "The Paradise Connection," starring Buddy Ebsen. That and a family vacation were his only exposures to the islands before he arrived early last summer to shoot the "Hawaii" pilot. So far, he says, he likes what he sees.

"I like Hawaii, mostly because of the people," says Biehn, 48. "The people, I feel, have a tremendous sense of pride about where they are from and their culture and their history. More so than any other states. Much more so. And it seems to me that they want to extend that feeling of Hawaii. They are very nice, very gracious, very friendly."

He adds, "The thing that is amazing to me is that nobody honks their horn."

The show, he says, attempts to convey those facets of the local lifestyle.

"We haven't really delved into it much on the show, but I'm a character that is supposed to have been here for a while," he says. "I'm a guy that married a Hawaiian girl, I believe. And one of the things that we really try to do is we try to show the culture and the history as much as possible.

"I find it very interesting. It's almost like a foreign country here at times. It's a tremendous mix of people from different parts of the world. Whether it's the food or the music, we really try to let the audience learn a little bit about what goes on here beyond Waikiki."

COURTESY OF NBC On the cover: Hollywood action star Michael Biehn, who plays Detective Sean Harrison on NBC's police series "Hawaii," says he enjoys the local people, laid-back lifestyle and his beachfront house in East Oahu.

OVER THE SUMMER, Biehn started to explore the islands with his wife, Gina, twin sons Devon and Taylor, who are juniors at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and 12-year-old son Caelan. The couple also has an 18-month-old boy, Alexander.

"We went on a dolphin excursion," he says, "swam with the dolphins and the turtles. Basically, I've got a real nice house on the beach on Kalanianaole Highway, so whenever we want to go to the beach, it's just right there. We do a lot of playing around in the water and stuff like that."

His wife and boys returned to California before the school year began but will return for visits from time to time. While the arrangement isn't perfect, Biehn says he'd like to see "Hawaii" last for several seasons.

As well as anyone, however, Biehn knows the TV and movie industry is a crap shoot:

» He was a late addition to the cast of "Hawaii" after actor Michael Madsen abruptly left.

» James Remar, who plays the hotel owner on Fox's "North Shore," was originally cast as Hicks in "Aliens." Biehn got the part when Remar dropped out, reportedly over creative differences.

» He was nearly rejected for the role in "Terminator" because the casting director didn't like the Southern accent he carried over from an audition for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Initially, "Terminator," which became his breakout movie, seemed a dubious project, Biehn recalls. At that point in his career, he had played a duplicitous cop in three episodes of "Hill Street Blues" and a fan stalking Lauren Bacall in "The Fan" (1981). He'd also played a cadet at a Citadel-like military academy in "The Lords of Discipline" (1983). Nothing huge, but he felt he could be a little picky with his next role.

"What people may not remember is, at the time I did 'Terminator,' Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't the big star that he is today," he says. "He had done the Conan movies, and he was really not, I would say, terribly respected in the business. He's obviously gone on to do great things."

The plot -- L.A. gets two visitors from a bleak future world run by robots -- sounded "pretty silly," he recalls. "And I was like, OK, who's directing it? And they said, 'A guy named Jim Cameron is directing it.' What's he done before? 'Well, he directed "Piranha II'" ... and I thought, oh, great.

"I mean, it really had just about every possible reason for me not to go in on it. But it was a good script and I decided to go in. And then, when I met Jim Cameron, it all changed because he's a very passionate guy, obviously a very brilliant guy, and I started to get excited about it."

For Biehn it was the beginning of a rewarding relationship with Cameron. "Between 'Aliens,' 'Terminator' and 'The Abyss,' which were all Jim Cameron movies, I guess I started to emerge a little bit as an actor who could hold his own," he says.

It also furthered his friendship with actor Bill Paxton, who played the spiky-haired yahoo in the opening scene of "Terminator" and Marine sidekick Hudson in "Aliens." Paxton later played a sniper in "Navy Seals" and Morgan Earp in "Tombstone."

"Bill is a great guy," says Biehn. "He's one of my best friends."

Biehn says his biggest disappointment is that the role of Hicks wasn't reprised in "Alien 3" under director David Fincher.

More recently, Biehn played an evil research lab director in "Clockstoppers" (2002), a conflicted cop in love with Gina Gershon in "Borderline" (2002), a U.N. secret agent with Wesley Snipes in "The Art of War" (2000) and a bumbling hit man allied with Rob Schneider in the comedy "Dying to Get Rich: Susan's Plan" (2000).

He says he'd like to do more comedy.

"I believe that under the right circumstances, working with the right people, that I can be pretty funny," says Biehn. "You know, 'Susan's Plan' is not a great movie, but I thought I was pretty funny in that. ... Rob was a lot of fun to work with. It was actually a pretty good cast. Dan Aykroyd. (Director) John Landis is fabulous. That is the great thing about this business. You work with so many great people."