MacLeod captains Christian movie

Local businessmen bring independent film to Modesto

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

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An independent Christian movie, "The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry," opens at Brenden Theatres on Friday, thanks to three businessmen — Andy Fletcher, a Modesto dentist, John Beech, a Turlock chiropractor, and Eric Kjeldgaard, an Oakdale real-estate developer for Opportunity Builders, which builds low-income projects.

"I love movies," Fletcher said. "I found out about this movie on Facebook. When I looked and saw that it was playing in Sacramento (and elsewhere) but not in Modesto, I called to find out what it would take to get the movie here."

He and two friends, who all attend Central Valley Presbyterian Church in Ceres, put up the $2,000 required to bring it to Modesto for a week. Its run will be extended if enough people see it during its weeklong engagement.

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The movie stars Gavin MacLeod ("The Love Boat," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") as the title character, Robert Guillaume ("Benson") as his neighbor and Jansen Panettiere, younger brother of Hayden Panettiere of "Heroes" fame, as a boy who interacts with them.

The simple plot is about three 12-year-old boys who strike up a friendship with Sperry and learn lessons from him about friendship, bullies, the Bible and forgiveness.

The movie overtly discusses belief in Jesus and uses a lot of Christian phrases. "The film is aimed first at a Christian audience and has been well received," said director Rich Christiano.

MacLeod, 78, calls it "the most meaningful project I have ever done."

He spoke with The Bee by phone from his home in Southern California on Friday.

Setting a new course

MacLeod said he became a Christian in 1984, during his "Love Boat" years. Divorced from his second wife, Patti, for about three years, he was in San Diego to see a show with Bernie Kopell (Dr. Adam Bricker on the show) and Kopell's wife. Later that night, "I thought about Patti and wanted to know how she was doing," MacLeod said.

At the same time, he was dealing with the fact that his mother had a brain tumor and needed risky surgery. "I woke up in my bed in Beverly Hills — at that time, I thought a big house would make me happy — and I just prayed to Jesus that if he gave my mom more time, I would turn my life over to him."

He also called his ex-wife.

"She said she was part of a group called LADIES — Life After DIvorce can Eventually be Sane," he said. "It was a support group, with Gene Hackman's ex-wife, Michael Landon's ex-wife, all of them. Jerry Lewis' first wife had taken my ex-wife to a prayer meeting. They started praying for me to come home to her. It's interesting, it was the same night that I was in San Diego and started thinking about her."

She later invited him over. When he arrived, she said, "Your dinner's cold. It's been waiting for three years."

"I was glad to see she had still had her sense of humor," MacLeod said. "She gave me a Bible with my name on it. She said, 'I've started wearing my (wedding) ring again.' She said, 'I always set a place at the table for you.' She told me she had been born again, and I asked her what that meant. That was the beginning of us getting back together. Now, we have a threefold marriage covenant — God, Gavin and Patti. There's no thought of leaving any one of them. We've been blessed by that."

MacLeod wrote a book to help others in their marriages called "Back on Course." He and his wife have had a show by the same name on the Trinity Television Network for more than two decades.

"We're doing God's work. It's amazing what happens when you give your life to Christ."