Star Cop: He was Liz Taylor's bodyguard

WARREN Messing has two overstuffed, timeworn scrapbooks, painstakingly compiled by his wife, that document his 23 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. There aren't any perp walks here, though. Instead, there's the stocky officer with Elizabeth Taylor. And Sylvester Stallone. And John Travolta. To name a few.

Messing, on the force from 1960 to 1983, was a bodyguard to the famous and glamorous who traveled through Philadelphia in an era when star sightings and film crews weren't as common as they are today. In those scrapbooks, along with the commendation for valor from Frank Rizzo and clippings from long-gone Philly newspapers, are pictures of Anthony Quinn, Pia Zadora and Lena Horne - who was prettier than Taylor, Messing said.

As the lieutenant commanding a newly formed mobile strike force, Messing and his crew often did crowd control - more like fan control. They also kept watch over royalty, like Prince Saud-Bin-Turki, of Saudi Arabia, who Messing said drank like a fish.

"He was like a Hollywood cop," said Messing's son, Warren Messing Jr., himself a police officer for 30 years who's now stationed at Jewelers Row. "He'd fight his crime, but he rubbed elbows with a lot of famous people."

What emerges from Messing's stories is that he wasn't just a hired gun keeping fans at bay. Stallone, whom he worked with on "Rocky II," "III" and "V," hired him as a personal bodyguard for local premieres. When Stallone spoke at the dedication of the Rocky statue in 1982, Messing was by his side - although, the 5'9" Stallone stood on a box to appear taller than the 6'3" Messing.

Prince Saud entrusted Messing with his kids. In those scrapbooks are pictures of Prince Faisal horsing around in Messing's Somerton back yard. Messing used to take the Saudi royal-family heirs to a nearby country club to swim.

Taylor asked Messing to travel with her during a 1983 tour of "Private Lives." This was shortly after he'd retired from the force, but he declined. "I'm a family man; I wanted to stay here," Messing said. "But I probably could have made a heck of a lot more money."

Messing can't directly answer why celebrities seemed to like him. They trusted him because he was a police officer, he said. But it seems more simple than that. Certainly he's easy to talk with. He has a scratchy voice with an accent that could emanate only from someone born and bred in the Northeast. And his speech is often punctuated by a smoky laugh that emanates from his belly.

He launches into stories easily, interjecting that "heh, heh, heh" laugh even when he's recalling something like a standoff with a former mental patient who butchered a construction worker with a cleaver in 1980. "We negotiated for hours with him," Messing said. "We started to like the guy."

"He's just got a great personality," said State Sen. Mike Stack, who represents the 5th District, in the Northeast, and grew up near the Messings. "He's a friendly, down-to-earth man right off the bat. He's just easy company."

"Wherever he goes, he's like the mayor," Messing Jr. said. "He was the Mayor of Somerton and now he's the Mayor of Anglesea" in North Wildwood, where he and his wife, Helen, live.

Messing's condo is decorated with pictures of his three grown children, his many grandkids, his wife and their spaniel, Buster.

He talks about Helen, whom he married when she was 15 and he was 17, as if they were newlyweds. It was shortly after they married that Messing decided to leave his lucrative job as a car salesman to join the police force.

Messing's first foray into the spotlight was during the filming of "Rocky II," when Stallone would often leave the Kensington-based sets and have lunch with Messing and his strike-force guys.

Whenever Stallone needed extras, he came to Messing. Look carefully at the scene in which Rocky runs down Kelly Drive to the cheers of screaming kids. Many of those kids were Messing's neighbors, including Stack.

"You can see me blurring out in the background - I have a leather-look jacket on," Stack said. "Friends of mine swear they can recognize me. They will text me any time it's on TV."

Stack also recalled being an extra in Jonathan Demme's 1981 thriller "Blow Out," starring Travolta. Messing brought 50 people - many of them relatives - to fill out the ranks of extras in the "Liberty Day" scene (think a hybrid of July Fourth and Mummers parades). "We spent 12 hours out there in winter clothes in summertime, because someone stole the footage and they had to film it again," Messing said.

Stallone prompted Messing to step in front of the camera in a larger capacity when he gave him a small role in "Rocky III." "He promoted me to police commissioner here," said Messing, who also played a stockbroker in the Eddie Murphy comedy "Trading Places."

Messing has been in 15 films and is a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. His roles were never more than bit parts, but he made his presence felt.

Stack fondly remembered the scene in "Rocky III" in which Mr. T's Clubber Lang is insulting Rocky in front of Adrian. "He was one of those police officers who had the white hat and leather jacket, and he looked so cool," Stack said. "He had this grimace that was perfect. It's great facial acting."

During filming of "Rocky III," Messing hung out with Stallone and Mr. T (just "T" to Messing) at the Warwick Hotel restaurant. "I brought my wife to the restaurant and people kept bothering us. [Stallone and T] were both getting upset," Messing said about the tough-looking actors. "So finally, my wife, who is only 5-2, said, 'Why don't you leave these guys alone?' "

Messing's wife clearly prepared him for dealing with strong women. Maybe that's why Taylor took such a shine to him when he guarded her back in 1983.

Taylor was performing "Private Lives" at the Forrest Theatre with her ex-husband Richard Burton, whom Messing was initially hired to guard. During a rehearsal, Taylor spied Messing from the side of the stage and decided he was the perfect replacement for her regular muscle, who'd been sent to rehab. "I was [Taylor's] bodyguard more than [Burton's]," Messing said. To compensate Burton for his absence, Messing deputized a friend, former councilman (and brother of Princess Grace of Monaco) Jack Kelly, who was staying in a hotel suite neighboring Burton's.

Messing guarded Taylor for six weeks.

"She drew the biggest crowd," Messing said. "Burton didn't draw nearly as much attention. She was nice with the paparazzi. They used to swarm her and Sly. She was scared of them at first, but I said, 'You're with me; they won't bother you. We'll stop, we'll pose and they'll be happy and leave you alone.' "

Along with Taylor, Messing also had to guard her companion: a foulmouthed parrot named Alvin, who had a propensity for pooping all over her violet-painted dressing room. "The parrot would just be cussing inside the suite," Messing told the Daily News after Taylor died in March. "She would take him on the stage and I would always wait for the parrot to start cussing on the stage, but it never did."

While guarding Taylor, Messing met Leonore Annenberg, the late wife of former Inquirer and Daily News owner Walter. She was interested to learn that Messing was a former cop who did private security - until Messing said, "But I only do it for special people." He was talking about celebrities, but Annenberg took it the wrong way.

"She got all upset with me! But I probably could have went with her and made a lot more money."

Messing tried his hand at a couple of different careers after he left the force, including stints as a stockbroker and financial planner. He even made a run for a Council-at-large spot. "I didn't win, thank God," said Messing about his loss to Jim Kenney.

That loss prompted him to get into real estate, and he bought some condos down the Shore, including the one he lives in now. But he misses being on the job.

"I still dream police dreams," Messing said. "I retired 28, going on 29 years ago, and I still dream I'm going down to the police department down in Philadelphia."