Dennis Haysbert
By Madeliene Marr
When Barack Obama won on Election Day, there was one man who was particularly proud: Dennis Haysbert, who already knew what it was like to be the first black leader of the free world, playing President David Palmer on the hit television show '24'.
"I cried tears of joy, " said Haysbert, who visited The Miami Herald to promote his current TV show, CBS' The Unit. "What a happy day -- all over the world."
Haysbert thinks Obama may owe him a bit of thanks.
"I feel like I may have cracked open the door, " said the divorced father of two, 54. "I think I kind of manifested it. I mean, if I've done anything at all, I may have opened the eyes of the people to the possibility of an African-American president."
Though he's met Obama a few times, the president-elect never mentioned the fast-paced, split-screen hit.
"He's never acknowledged that I've done anything, " he said, quickly adding, "but let me make this clear. I don't think I have. Obviously, his accomplishments stand on their own."
Playing the big cheese has had its definite perks.
"To this day, I never get interrupted while I'm eating. They wait till I'm done, " said the California native. "And I've never been refused a cab. I'm one of few people in New York who could say that, especially black people."
Alas, Palmer's term ended with a bullet in season five, but Haysbert's not going anywhere. Switch on the TV at any give time of day and you'll spot the Allstate pitchman asking, "Are you in good hands?"
"I have to say 24/7, 365 days a year, that what's I'm recognized the most for, " he said. "That's because it's always on. It must reach 50 million people a day."
While spooking consumers into buying insurance with say, graphic car accidents, is his bread-and-butter gig, playing a Delta Force-like team member on The Unit is a blast.
"I feel like a kid playing shoot-'em-up, " he said. "You got your guns, you got your ammunition. Your boys are there with you. Basically we're big kids who get to play-act."
Don't expect Haysbert - who's starred in such disparate roles as a Cuban refugee baseball player in Major League to a gardener in a taboo relationship with '50s housewife Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven - to run for office any time soon.
"I have some friends in Sacramento who said if I never took another evil role they could run me for Senate in six years."
But a gentler, kinder image isn't interesting.
"Did you notice that after the first Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger became a good guy? They cleaned him up? I wouldn't want to get reprogrammed."
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