SOME PEOPLE believe that Christopher de Leon is our best TV-film actor. If they?re right, we?re in trouble, because the acclaimed actor?s portrayals haven?t been all that distinguished of late.

These thoughts come to mind, because we recently caught De Leon?s performance on ?Maala-ala Mo Kaya?,? where he played a choir master whose wife had left him. To make things worse, he had a serious illness, so his prospects were grim and he sometime took out his negative feelings on his young wards when he had too much to drink.

That sort of down-on-his-luck character would require an actor of De Leon?s level and visibility to bend over backward to tone down his all-too-readily-identifiable signature persona, in favor of the creation of another, distinctly different character.

Modifications

But, the actor generally failed to do this. He was quite content to play himself, with a few modifications here and there in terms of voice and movement. He still employed the physical and vocal ?hagod? and ?porma? usually associated with him through the years. His portrayal wasn?t bad, but it was just a variation on his standard ?acceptable? performances.

To be fair, De Leon did come up with a moving death scene that was admirably simple and subtle, in contrast to his more self-consciously ?dramatic? scenes in the teleplay. It was in this concluding scene that we evinced De Leon at his mature best, and rued the fact that he didn?t allow it to come to the fore earlier.

Truth to tell, De Leon?s ?career best? portrayals were generally limned in the ?70s and ?80s, when he was meticulously mentored by his discoverer, the late, great Lino Brocka.

In his debut film, ?Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang,? De Leon was effectively and even memorably showcased by Brocka in his bitingly satirical drama about the stultifying strictures and characters in a small Filipino town.

After he and Brocka reportedly had a falling-off, De Leon found another visionary mentor in Eddie Romero, who elicited a similarly memorable portrayal from the young actor, as the clueless Filipino Everyman in ?Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?,? which has become a classic.

De Leon also did well in Gerry de Leon?s ?Banaue,? Mario O?Hara?s ?Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos? and Ishmael Bernal?s movies. All too soon, however, his thespic reputation got the better of him, as his subsequent portrayals fell into too predictable a pattern, and thus began to erode its value and cachet.

These days, De Leon is still one of our more dependable mature actors, but the bloom is off the rose. Perhaps it?s time for him to take stock of his career thrust, and reevaluate the cumulative worth of his performances through the years.

The first step toward this is both simple and sweeping: To ?forget? himself and focus totally on each new character assigned to him, making those characters as different from his own persona as possible.

With no strong mentor to further guide and mold him now, De Leon has to do this pretty much by himself. But, if he digs deep into his creative ?capital,? he could still come up with the true-blue thespic goods.