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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 14 March 2017
Milo Ventimiglia poured his dad into Jack on ‘This is Us’

LEANNE ITALIE shoulder-to-shoulder with
Associated Press in life, support, and they
NEW YORK (AP) — In Milo support you, you know,”
Ventimiglia’s trailer on the he added in a recent inter-
set of NBC’s “This is Us” view.
hangs a black-and-white Ventimiglia, at 39 already
photo of himself at maybe in the business more than
3 or 4, leaning on his dad’s two decades, said he
knee, father and son smil- poured other aspects of his
ing in the front yard in front parents into the character
of a tree. and his on-screen marriage
Above and below the to Mandy Moore’s Rebec-
snapshot are handwritten ca, including their very hu-
signs, reminders that have man challenges and flaws
helped the actor mold his of late as the show headed
popular character, Papa into Tuesday’s first-season
Jack Pearson, on one of finale. The elder Ventimi-
network TV’s weepiest fam- glia, Peter, wasn’t a crier,
ily shows of the moment: for instance, just as Jack is
“Be a Good Father,” Ven- often the dry-eyed, stoic
timiglia penned above, while others in the Pearson
with “Be a Good Husband” clan swirl around him. Odd- This Jan. 8, 2017 file photo shows Milo Ventimiglia, left, and Mandy Moore at the NBCUniversal
below. “I saw my mom and ly, tears — and Jack’s lack Golden Globes afterparty in Beverly Hills, Calif.
dad with a great, great thereof — were a topic Associated Press
healthy marriage,” said of conversation between that?’ And I started break- served in Iraq, Kuwait and ty hot spots,” Ventimiglia
the kind-faced Ventimiglia, Ventimiglia and “This is Us” ing that apart and think- Afghanistan. He remains said. “He was 20, 21 years
neither father nor husband creator Dan Fogelman. ing, ‘I believe that my fa- committed to the cause old. To know that my father
himself. “I think I would ab- “I didn’t see my father cry ther was trying to give me of helping vets. His dad has experienced war, like
solutely love to have that, until I was maybe 21 years strength as a young man was an enlistee during the some of my friends have
have a family, have a wife, old, when his father passed moving forward in life.’” Vietnam War, in the Army experienced war, gives me
have a partner. You think away,” Ventimiglia said. While on another NBC Corps of Engineers. He built a different perspective. ...
about who is that one per- “And I thought to myself, hit, “Heroes,” Ventimiglia bridges and roads and There’s gotta be a better
son that you’re going to be ‘Wow I’ve never seen my spent time on a USO tour, bases. way to solve the problems
with that you can just walk dad cry, until then. Why is hanging with veterans who “I know he was in some pret- that we have.”q