Glamour heart-throbs who peak early and fall off the celebrity radar tend, if they re-emerge, to do so bereft of hair and charisma. It seems particularly true of so many of the icons of the early 1980s, and the young actor who exemplified that era of big hair and fancy dress was Michael Praed. By the age of 25, he had been in and out of several fetching costumes, starring on the West End stage in The Pirates of Penzance, on British television in Robin of Sherwood and in the glitzy American soap Dynasty as the Prince of Moldavia, marrying into soap`s most dysfunctional family.

Later, though, his career hit the doldrums, or, as he says, 'I couldnt get myself arrested in Hollywood.' His Relationship with the beautiful actress with whom he had settles in Los Angeles crumbled, and he returns to the UK, where 'I still couldnt get myself arrested.'

The second time round, his trajectory has not been as dramatic. He has spent years building up a CV in the theatre, appearing in productions as varied as touring musicals and plays by Harold Pinter. Now, more than two decades, after he was hailed as the big new hope of musical theatre, he is back, about to star in a new West End show. Beautiful And Damned is about F. Scott Fitzgerald, the brilliant American writer whose novels immortalised the jazz age before he became its most notorious casualty, and his wife, Zelda.

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Daily Mail Weekend Magazine 24th April 2004 Prince charming Once he found fame playing old-fashioned heroes. Then his career took a dive and he faced homeless. But now MICHAEL PRAED is back, starring in the West End. By MOIRA PETTY

Fitzgerald dies, burnt out, at 44. Michael Praed has just turned 44, but looks ten years younger, and is vibrant and handsome. He is boyishly athletic in jeans and tracksuit top. The only clue to his age is that the long dark hair, which was once arranged winsomely around his shoulders in pouting publicity shots, is now silver. It suits him. He once dyed it but now 'I like my hair,' he says, running his hand through it like a shampoo advert model.  

How he had coped with no longer being flavour of the moment after his axing from Dynasty ? 'I never saw the fame I had, which is bizarre. My position in the business has never been motivating force. I have never compared myself to my peers and I always had my feet on the ground. I did see some people get very grand and it got in the way of their work, when they confused success with ability. Their opinion suddenly became very important when, in fact, it was the reserve.'

He went from living in a Hollywood mansion to worrying about missed mortgage payments on a London home as he waited for the phone to ring.

His wife, Karen, a choreographer, and the mother of his two children, Gabriel, 10, and Frankie, 8, never suggested that he give up, but she must have witnessed the devastating effect on his self-belief.

When youre not working, things happen to your confidence. You doubt yourself and think that what youre doing isnt good enough. I once went for a job which was relatively insignificant, but I need the money. Id done my homework but I completely messed up the audition because I needed the job so much. I had the mortgage and bills to pay and I Thought, What if this goes on for another five months ? Then what ? I was going through my savings pretty quickly. It was potentially catastrophic although we didnt get to the stage of having the house repossessed. Ive blanked a lot of it from my mind but I knew that hanging around the house, being maudlin, was fatal. I didnt get low in the classical sense of being depressed. Im a fatalist and an optimist. I hadnt been profligate, Id put my tax money aside, but babies are expensive.  

My time there was tame compared to Scott and Zelda's life. She once went to a party and had a bath there. If someone did that in my house, I would tell them what they could do with themselves. I'm not comfortable making conversation with someone I don't know or, even worse, being introduced to someone impressive. You might meet the head of the studio at a party, but you're still a lowly actor. It's a signal failing in my character, but I cannot divorce people's positions from there character.'

Accompanied by his then girlfriend, Finola Hughes, the British actress who starred in Staying Alive with John Travolta, and whom Michael began dating in 1982, he set up home in California. With her long, rippling hair an old-fashioned beauty, she quickly found a role in the U.S. soap General Hospital. One New Year's Eve, they were invited to a pyjama party by a friend of Finola's.

'I had to go out and buy some pyjamas and I certainly didn't go to a designer shop on Rodeo Drive for them,' says Michael. 'I went to some store which didn't have my size so I ended up with a huge pair which weren't terribly nice. A limo turned up and we were taken to the Playboy mansion. I thought, "Oh great! I look like a complete idiot." I found myself in a room full of the most beautiful people on the planet in various stages of undress and intoxication. I was talking to a bunny girl who was naked. The irksome thing was that I couldn't get into the swing of it. I would love it now.'

Missed sexual opportunities seem to be a theme. Michael was brought up in Iran, where his father, an accountant, was based, but was sent to boarding school in England. Quiz master Nicholas Parson' daughter, Suzy, a contemporary, later said that he starred in all the school plays and was successful with the girls. 'It was news to mw about the girls,' he says with a wide-eyed look that isn't entirely convincing. 'I wish they'd told me.'

He does acknowledge, though, that drama was important at school and he won a much sought-after place on the prestigious Guildhall drama course. Soon after came his leading role in The Pirates Of Penzance, which led to his star turn in TV's Robin of Sherwood in 1983.

Despite the popularity of the show, he left after two series to star on Braodway in The Three Musketeers, but the young actor's dream turned sour. 'The reviewes were excoriating. Boy, does that hurt. There was no need to be cruel. We got the papers delivered during the first-night party. The show was seen as a disaster and people left the party. They didn't do it discreetly. My memory is that they went very quickly. I said to someone, "What does this mean?" It meant that the show was closed. I invested my all in it and had to pay the price. I had to forged friendships with other people in the show, but everyone just went their own way.'

The fiasco did, however, bring Michael to the attention of Dynasty's producers. He was cast as the Prince of Moldavia, whose wedding to a character played by Catherine Oxenberg turned into a now-imfamous massacre.

'Everyone thing I was killed during the massacre,' he says, rather peeved. In fact, he survived to be axed later when Dynasty slipped from number one in the rating and a cull of some of the cast was ordered. Joan Collins later spoke scathingly of the storyline, in which terrorists burst in on the wedding of Michael's character and sprayed the glittering gathering with bullets. That episode ended with the show's major stars lying blood-spattered among the smashed crystal, bur when the viewers turned in for the next instalment, none of the major names had been killed. The gangster element alienated some of the audience and Joan said, years later, 'I think it was the Moldavian massacre that put kibosh on the series.'

Michael is less quickly to condemn the outlandish plot line. He believes that the writers gave audience what they wanted and was never tempted to laugh when he got his script. 'The reality was heightened but it was a good example of a successful show of the time. Dynasty was a well-oiled machine. Everyday was very professional. We filmed for very long hours and it was relavtively high pressured because we had to shoot a certain number of pages a day.'

There were tales of the show's famous actresses, who included Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Stephanie Beacham and Emma Samms, rowing over who would wear thr grandest dress in each episode. Michael says that, as the mere Price of Moldavia, he was not consulted on their choices. 'As if I would be asked by Joan Collins: "Michael, what do you think of this?" ' One of his first scenes was a nude encounter with Catherine Oxenberg playing his wife. 'There was a shower scene, as I recall,' he says, loftily do so many of them now.' He appeared in two series of the soap, but says that his reported salary of &30,000 an episode was exaggerated.

'The Prince of Moldavia was fairly small potatoes. I made him a conservative person and they started writing conservative dialogue for him. He became a dull, so it was my fault. Drama is conflict und, unless you have that, there is nothing to play with.

'I get cross when I hear elitist arguments. Dynasty was a victim of contemporary taste and look derisory now. But the people who produced it were clever and figured out a formula that worked. They made millions. Why is money such a dirty word? I hate people who get on their high horse about serious acting.'

Michael's services were disposed of in a phone call to his home. 'They said, "Thanks very much but adios." What they meant was, "We think You're one person who is expendable." " I wasn't cross and didn't take it personally. Six weeks later Dynasty was top of the rating again. It had just been a dip.'

He invested time and money in his secret passion, song writing and recording. 'I took my songs to record companies but they didn't want them. It was disappointing. Months and months went into them.'

Michael found work on other U.S. TV shows bur finally, the part dried up. Meanwhile, his relationship with Finola had begun to falter. They had been introduced in London by his agent who asked if he would like to meet the capital's most beautiful woman. Initially Michael did not agree with the description. 'She ran into the restaurant with her hair all up, nervous and flustered, and I didn't clock her beauty.'

When the relationship took off, he was introduced to her former beau, Prince Andrew. They had dinner with him several times. 'But it was nothing to do with me,' splutters Michael. 'I was the appendage. That was very clear. It can be itimdating When you meet someone who, by virtue of who they are, is outside your circle.'

He describes Finola as lovely. 'It was a good relationship. It's to simple to say that we didn't see enough of each other because of our schedules. It wasn't me that finished it,' he admits, when pressed. They came to 'sensible' arrangements over the house they had bought and their joint finances.

'There was no acrimony. I didn't want more grief on the of grief. I believe she is now in New York doing soaps, but I don't see her.'

He had known Karen in the U.S., when she had been living with her boyfriend there. Six months after he split from Finola, he decided to return to the UK and find work on the stage again. Karen was back and he made contact.

'I didn't want to ring up all my old friends because I knew they'd want to go through my relationship with Finola and what had happend, so I rang Karen instead.'

Michael is not fond of talking about his relationship. Asked to describe Karen, he falters. 'Something intangible about her attracted me and I wanted to see more of it,' he finally offers. 'To say she is beautiful is a clich. She looks after herself and is more beautiful now than when I met her. She is an amazing listener and innately interested in people.'

Even after they had their first child, Michael equivocated about marriage. 'It didn't feel the right time. It was perhaps a little thoughtless in that I hadn't chosen to think about what that marriage contract could mean to Karen and that it would cement something. I'M sure she gave me hints, because she speaks her mind, but she didn't nag me.'

They married in 1995 at the exclusive Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados, courtesy of OK!magazine, which paid for it. Michael looks a little coy, and claims it is the only time he has used his fame in this way. They left their baby son at home but took Karen's mother as their witness.

'Karen looked ravishing. The suit that I was supposed to wear got left behind, but the stylist had seven or eight others for me to choose from. I defy you to find a more beautiful Caribbean beach. Great place, great food, great people. I preferred not having our friends and family there. It was a liberation not having to worry about them as you always do when they come to one of your first nights.'

Did Karen ever worry that he was surrounded at work by attractive women ? 'The gorgeous babes?' he laughs. 'The question of trust has never reared its head. She knows that if there is a scene where I'm in bed with someone, it's just a technical exercise. People intuitively know each other and she is no fool.'

When asked about issues like fidelity, Michael fidgets uncomfortably. 'My family is the most important thing to me and I keep them sheltered as one does with things that are precious.' On fatherhood, though, he is fulsome. 'It changed me on every level. Every rule you've ever known changes.'

His daughter, Frankie, born the year after he and Karen married, was in danger of being delivered before her lungs properly developed. Karen were given steriods and ask to hang on for some time before giving birth. 'There was a danger that Frankie's brain would be starved of oxygen and I didn't want to think about the consequences of that.' Eventually, she was born prematurely, but out of danger. 'Her four fingers were the size of my thumb nail,' marvels Michael. 'It put everything into perspective.