Young Goes West

"Evidently in Deadwood, there was a Chinatown," said Keone Young of the one-time South Dakota frontier town. Good for him, because it means this venerable stage and screen actor has landed a juicy recurring role as a Chinese godfather on David Milch's new HBO series, billed as a Western "Sopranos," and slated to debut next spring.

Young seems to prefer the term "survivor" to "gangster."

"He's a leader in the community," said Young. "It's turning out to be a wonderful part. It started out kinda slow, but my character has developed."

There's an undercurrent of criminal activity, of "people trying to get power" -- or, as "NYPD Blue" co-creator Milch has put it, it's a historic time in which "it was legitimate to explore the genesis of law. What interested me about Deadwood is that it was an outlaw settlement, on Indian territory, so the American law didn't apply; there were no laws at all."

At least part of what has interested HBO is the possibility for a grittily revisionist take on the Old West -- i.e., an R-rated show that doesn't shy away from nudity and moral ambiguity. Confirmed Young, "There's cussin' and everything. The whores are real whores. It's real hardcore stuff."

The wild West, indeed.