http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg004uyQCdc

Ok, so not the best quality and you have to get thru some chatter but it is an early look at Jeffrey Donovan on the Pretender.

Thanks for the link, LuLu! I've never seen any of the earlier stuff JD did, so this was fun to see. Was he only on this show for one season (you have 1997 in your thread title)? I can go look this up on the IMDB, ahem.

Thanks from me too.

Ahhh The Pretender! I loved that show. If anyone has the Sleuth Channel they air this show all the time. I try to catch it on there as much as I can.

Thanks for posting this.............I've seen the show on hulu on my PC.

I'd really like to see "Cathrine's Grove". JD plays a woman or a transvestite in that movie. It's years old and only on VHS. Have you seen it?

Jeffrey was only on about 4 episodes of the Pretender. MY favorite in first catching him was in Dragon House 1 and 2 off the show. I own Catherine's Grove. It's ok. yes, Jeffrey dons a blonde wig. I found the movie to be somewhat disturbing. I like his more recent work better.

I must confess I have never heard of Catherine's Grove. What is it about and why was it disturbing?

Catherine's Grove is a movie that was made about the same time Jeffrey did Pretender in 1997. He plays a guy who hires detectives to find his sister who he basically killed years prior by accident from throwingher from the treehouse. His dad used to beat him and loved his sister more in flashbacks. When she died he took over her persona and years later he hired people to find her. When his uncle who gives him money to live on gets called because Jeff's character is trying to find his sister, he tells the detectives that he is dying and basically ends up dying and leaving the house to Jeffrey who then in turn decides to take on his uncles persona. It's an identity crisis movie. But I found it to be extremely disturbing on different levels. I'd much rather see Jeffrey in lighter roles.

Come Early Morning and Believe in Me right now are lighter.

Wow. I had to read that twice to try to follow the storyline. It sounds like he played one screwed up guy. I would like to see him do something totally different like this, even if it is a bit disturbing. Spread those acting wings. But after viewing this I am sure I would want to go back to the lighter fare.

Thanks for posting a synopsis for me!

Yes thanks for the information. I wish it was out there somewhere so I could see it. I don't have a VHS anymore and it's not in DVD format.

I found the HBO movie "When Trumpets Fade" very disturbing. The scene he did was too much. I could only watch it once and once was enough. Guess I'm not a war movie person.

I looked up the screen captures for Catherine's Grove over at jeffreydonovanfans.com - I'd never seen him when he was younger (save for this clip that LuLu linked to from The Pretender). I confess that when I saw JD's hairstyle I began feeling nostalgic for the 1990s (the floppy Beverly Hills 90210/Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic hairstyle). I dunno if I am competent enough to post photos over here, so I'll just link to a couple that I liked in particular. [if anyone wants to post the images and knows how to do that, feel free to do so]


Catherine's Grove pic of JD, with a little tendril of hair out of place

Awww...I miss the 90s. Look at his hair, he looks so cute.

(and I'm *really* sorry I missed JD back in the 90s - what a hottie!)

Okay, these screen captures from the end of Catherine's Grove (of JD with the dog) are just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my life.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting these shots!!! I am digging the 90's hair too.

Thanks for the links. I like what they did with the fan site. I used to go to that site, but now it seems that this forum has more up-to-date info on JD.