Onstage at Manhattan's Cort Theater, greying, broad-jawed Actor Ralph Bellamy, 53, brilliantly plays the strong-minded young Politician Franklin D. Roosevelt in Dore Schary's Sunrise at Campobello. Offstage, for the past six years Actor Bellamy has performed an even tougher role: two-term president of the 10,000-member Actors' Equity, A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Last week, after some 200 petitions flowed into Equity's Manhattan office urging him to run again, Bellamy changed his mind, agreed to go for a third term. In deference, the only other announced candidate, Negro Actor Frederick O'Neal, bowed out of the race.
In a profession noted for temperament, Bellamy has been a strong, group-minded...