The following is an excerpt from the People Magazine Interview with Miguel Nunez

"He has great improvisional skills, " says Pluto Nash director Ron Underwood, "and this great spirit." Both came in handy in 1980 during the two months he was living on welfare and spending nights at L.A''s Union Resuce Mission-the place Nunez now volunteers and runs the mission's Thanksgiving food drive.

Nunez's acting career began to take off with roles in the "87 TV drama Tour of Duty and '92's Lethal Weapon3.

In 1994 his love life perked up as well when he met med school student Yulanda Simon, 30, at a jazz club. Four months later she said "I do", and the couple now share a San Fernando Valley home with their two daughters, Mia, 7, and Micole whom Nunez often brings to the Union Rescue Mission. "Fatherhood has been my greatest joy."

"Even when my stomach hurt because I was so hungry," he says, "I had no doubt in my mind that I would be where I am today."