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LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON For Tanner; there isn't a better role model than his dad, OLTL's Robert S. Woods   Soap Opera Weekly November 5, 1996 Approaching fatherhood a little further along on life's journey than most has given One Life To Live's Robert S. Woods (Bo) time to reflect. "When you end up a father at almost 50, you end up with sort of a father-grandfather mentality. You always get to the point when you say, 'Look, just do it - because I'm the dad, that's why!' "Woods explains, humorously gritting his teeth. "I find myself constantly thinking about my own dad- because he was the same age, a little younger, almost 40, when he had me. I came real late for them, so my sisters were in their 20's when I was born, and I had a lot of help, a lot of input - whether I wanted it or not."   Relaxed, casual and down-to-earth, Woods wears fatherhood well - poetic justice, considering the long and difficult road he and his wife, actress Loyita Chapel, traversed to parenthood. "We waited so long," Woods explains, "and we had a lot of problems trying to have a baby, so he's a real special little guy." That special little guy is his son, Tanner, who turns 6 years old Nov. 15.   "I was cutting Tanner's hair the other day. You know, you put on a video to get him to just hold still, but he's always moving, the legs are going, and I have to put glasses on so I can see. So he's squirming around, and I remember my dad sitting in the kitchen, on that same stool we have now, saying, 'Don't move, or you're going to get a nick, and then we'll have to cut it all off- don't move, don't move!'"   Like many new fathers, Woods admits to hearing his own father's voice come out when he speaks to his son. "I'm constantly hearing it, and the things that you say like, 'When I have kids, I'm not going to do that.' It's bu!ls-t because you worry about them. My mom used to drive me nuts because she was always saying, 'Be careful, be careful.' I used to say, 'I know!' I now say it to Tanner 20 times a day. I had a brother who was hit by a car when he was 5 and I was 10 months old, so that's where 'Be careful' comes from, that fear of something happening."   The fear of "something happening" is not new to Woods, who served a 15-month tour of duty in Vietnam, seeing action with the Army's Fifth Special Forces group. He is an active member of a New York-based association for Vietnam veterans, which sponsors job training and employment programs. When asked if he has made the pilgrimage to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Woods' eyes immediately reflect that the Vietnam experience has not yet receded into the mists of distant memory. "No, I will...soon, I guess. It's something I gotta do, but I just saw a miniature version of it, and I've got books about it. It's a strange thing. Tuc Watkins (ex-David Vickers) was standing in my office set, and they've got pictures of me over there hanging in the office. They're 25 years old, and he's looking at them, and he's going, 'Wow, these are really you?' and I said, 'Yeah,' and he said, 'What war was this?' Now, knowing him, he's a bright guy, so he may have been pulling my leg, but he seemed like he was genuinely asking me. I told him there haven't been many, at least that I was able to participate in!   "I think the wall is perfect for what it is, especially because everybody is remembered there. You go through life...everybody's like a grain of salt out on the street. You come and you go usually you don't come and go just like that at a young age," Woods says, snapping his finger, "and just get snuffed out because you happened to be caught up in Vietnam. It was like an accident waiting to happen for a lot of people; over 50,000 guys got in harm's way. So, at least, there's going to be something there forever, with their names, and all the things....You know there's a whole museum of things left at the wall: letters, boots, medals, pictures. Everything that the families leave, the Smithsonian picks it up. They categorize it, date it, and they keep it. I've read some of the letters -- high school sweethearts, children, letters to their fathers...."   As a man with one foot in Hollywood and the other in Vietnam, Woods feels that Hollywood's treatment of the subject has been all over the map- but he has a special affinity for Oliver Stone. "I think that Oliver Stone has a real way. I saw his movie (Platoon, 1986), I could smell the movie. There's a really skank, rotting vegetation smell I had forgotten about -- until I was in the Reserves. I had stayed out a year, and then I got in this Special Forces Reserve Group. Our summer camp was down in Panama, and we parachuted into Panama in the middle of the night. But the thing was, as soon as I hit ground, there was that smell. It smelled like Vietnam. There was that tropical, rotten stink. Every now and then I'll catch a whiff of that in the forest, or somewhere -- if it's real wet."   Thankfully, the militaristic stunts Woods performs as Llanview's top cop -- and one of OLTL's top stars -- are all make-believe. "That's a weird word, star," Woods offers. "I like it better than hunk," he says, mockingly exaggerating the 'k' in hunk. "I don't have to worry about hunk anymore. When you've been playing the same guy for 16 years, the character grows at the same pace, and then it peaks at one point -- and then you're sort of like, the older guy. Luckily, I still get to work with those younger guys. I was thinking of this when I was hanging from that pipe with Thorsten (Kaye, Patrick)," he says, recalling an adventure storyline. "We're doing pull-ups jerking around and running up the ladders, and all of that, and I'm like, 'Oh man, my back,' and he's doing all right. He's OK, and I'm like you're OK, too. I was 18 years old when you were born, you little sh-; never mind you're OK I don't think of myself as being real old, either; I still think of myself as being one of those guys. Tanner keeps me going."   Woods' affection for his son is rivaled only by Tanner's reciprocal admiration -- as evidenced at Tanner's "Show and Tell" day at school. Most kids bring their good luck charm, their favorite toy or even their pet reptile -- Tanner brought his pop and put him on display. At the time, Woods was still sporting a bleached blond buzz-cut and green contact lenses for his character's turn in an under cover mission. "His friends at school, they call me the Commissioner. 'Hi, Commissioner!' Tanner has a hat with a badge on it that says, 'Comissioner, Llanview Police.' I got these hats made up for everyone, and I got him a little one. One of his friends hit me up for one the other night. 'You know, I really like that hat that Tanner has.'   "Everybody wants a better life for their kids than they have. He told me, 'Dad, when I grow up, I want to be just like you.' And my eyes welled up, and I told him, 'Yeah, well, I think you want to set your sights a little higher than that. And he said, 'Thanks!' That's up to him. I wouldn't encourage him. Loyita's always going, 'No, no.' And I say, 'You know, it's a tough row to hoe, but things been so bad, really?' I mean, maybe he can be like Mel Gibson, or somebody like that, or Robert Redford. He's a cute little guy, and he's funny, and he understands...he's really getting savvy about the business.   "Because of the job I get to spend a lot time with him than a lot of people. I don't have to travel so much, and I've turned down offers to travel for public appearances so I can spend time with him growing up while I can. Years go faster the older you get, so I know in another 10 years from now he's going to be too busy for the old man," Woods surmises. "He's going to have his own group, and at 15, I'll be in the way." -   Robert l. Schork (Soap Opera Weekly November 5, 1996)