What kind of a man is Monk?

BEFORE Tony Shalhoub broke through as the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk, the Lebanese American actor had compiled a long list of supporting characters with widely diverse names: Haddad (“The Siege”), Kwan (“Galaxy Quest”), Scarpacci (“Wings”), Reyes (“Primary Colors”) and Riedenschneider (“The Man Who Wasn’t There”). Now it’s the talent, not the ethnic look, that people notice. This year, he has again been nominated for a Golden Globe, and he won his third Emmy for “Monk,” USA Network’s highest-rated show, which will start Season 5 1/2 in January.

Lately, Shalhoub, 53, has been adding to his resume not only as an actor but also as a producer and advocate, reaching back to his Arab American roots. One of his projects, an upcoming independent film called “American East,” tells about ordinary Arab Americans in Los Angeles whose everyday lives and plans have been altered by 9/11.

“Spike Lee had his agenda and his vision. It’s been done in the Hispanic American community,” Shalhoub said. His own 1996 film with Stanley Tucci, “Big Night,” dealt with Italian American restaurateurs who had nothing in common with underworld stereotypes.

“If ever there was a time for it to be done for the Arab American community, it’s now,” he said. “It’s now or never as far as I’m concerned.”

If he hadn’t succeeded as Monk, an everyman character of indeterminate ethnicity, it might have been more difficult for him to be a successful advocate, said Hesham Issawi, director of “American East.” “People don’t even realize he has a Lebanese background. He has the money, the artistic power and the influence in Hollywood to make some change in the image. And he’s not afraid of doing it.”

Yet Shalhoub had already helped improve the public image of Arab Americans simply by being himself, Issawi said. “He’s an inspiration,” he said. “You can see it on the set. They all look up at him. He’s a generous guy. He doesn’t walk in as a star.”

In a modest neighborhood near Hollywood and Vine, lights and cameras were trained on the star, standing nervously on a cracked sidewalk. Dressed in his detective’s trademark buttoned-to-the-throat shirt, he squinted and blinked, his mouth struggling in vain to form words to defend himself from a barrage of verbal abuse from a fellow actor playing his part.

Beaten, he turned and shuffled off, a sad shadow of the usually sharp-eyed detective.

It’s the sort of physical performance that stage actors like Shalhoub are trained to do and one reason Emmy voters like him. This year, they surprised him with his third honor for comedic acting despite expectant buzz surrounding Steve Carell (“The Office”).

Critics admire his ability to shift moods on a dime, a trait the show’s writers like to exploit. “Writing for Tony Shalhoub’s voice is like writing for Bob Newhart,” said co-creator and executive producer Andy Breckman. “It’s all about pacing, timing, the pauses.”

He said that after five years the writers try to come up with situations just to see how the actor will handle them. “We throw different pitches at the plate to see if he can hit it. It’s like a game for us. We did an episode where he went through all five stages of grief in 30 seconds.”

In “star math,” the relationship of an actor’s ego to his talent, Shalhoub also comes out on top, said Jeff Wachtel, USA’s senior vice president of original programming. “Tony has the best ratio I’ve ever seen,” Wachtel said. “It’s so little about his ego and so much about the quality of the work and his fellow actors, it just makes people want to vote for him.”

Shalhoub said he’s never considered himself a comedian. “The beauty of ‘Monk’ for an actor is that it presents the ideal challenge, which is doing comedic stuff and dramatic stuff all together,” he said. Monk’s humor comes from his being a tragic clown along the lines of Charlie Chaplin, Shalhoub said.

Sometimes, Shalhoub thinks viewers aren’t sure why they’re laughing or even if it’s OK to laugh. “Like Chaplin too, he’s kind of alone. He has his assistant and people he works with, but he doesn’t have that soul mate that completes him. He feels incomplete.”

In recent years, Shalhoub branched out from acting to direct (“Made-Up” with his wife, Brooke Adams) and produce (as a creative force in casting, writing and editing on “Monk”). Still, he said, he can’t quit acting. “I just love it,” he said.

During a break in shooting, he spoke in a normal voice but carried on Monkish characteristics as he shifted on his tall director’s chair, hugged his chest and twitched. Was he, perhaps, uncomfortable? “No ... no,” he said in Monk’s hesitant, half-polite, half-shy manner. And then, “Yes.”

Almost every actor with an ethnic background has stories about being cast early on as a negative racial stereotype. Shalhoub said actors must assume some responsibility in whether to accept those parts. “It’s about your choices and your willingness to turn things down, or branch out and initiate your own projects,” he said later over the phone as he was being driven home after work.

The good thing about cable, he said, is that an actor isn’t overexposed. The other thing, at least in his case, is extra time. Because “Monk,” a 16-episode series, is broken up into two half-seasons, one airing in summer, the other in winter, Shalhoub is free for other ventures.

In 2003, he took a small part in a short satirical film, “T for Terrorist,” about a young actor who goes berserk after being cast one too many times as an Arab terrorist and turns the tables on the director.

In 2005, he helped establish the Arab-American Filmmaker Award Competition along with the Network of Arab-American Professionals, Zoom in Focus productions and Zahra Pictures. In the contest, established Arab American filmmakers submit their screenplays; the winner gets his or her film produced.

“It’s important,” he said. “There are so many great stories that need to be told to offset the negative images in the media -- not just the news, but in other television and film.”

In “American East,” Shalhoub plays a Jewish Egyptian American who agrees to start a restaurant business with an Islamic Egyptian American -- to the consternation of both of their relatives. Issawi said he and co-writer Sayed Badreya pitched Shalhoub the idea for the film in a coffee shop near his home. “He loved the idea.

He ended up paying us to go write the script.” Later, Shalhoub traveled with them back East to shop the script to other producers.

“Once people heard his name, they would read the script,” said Issawi, whose only other notable project was “T for Terrorist.” Shalhoub also helped shape the film itself.

“Tony always said let’s shake the boat, show them things they’ve never seen before. Let’s put Jews and Muslims in one movie and see what happens. Sort of like the Middle East in America.”

In production, a problem arose with the Islamic character. “We were trying to say certain things through him,” said producer Ahman Zahra. “Sometimes it would end up being preachy or too documentary-ish.

“Tony’s character would say things not necessarily nice to Arabs and the Arab cringes when he says it. Tony says you’ve got to hear what other people are saying about these guys. That balancing between what other people say and what we want to hear brings both sides out. It makes it appealing to everybody,” he said.

The film also stars Kais Nashif (“Paradise Now”), Sarah Shahi (“The L Word”), Ray Wise (“The West Wing,” “24”) and Sayed Badreya in his first lead role. Zahra said, “We’re hoping this could be the start of a new wave of expression, not just for Arab Americans but other minorities ... to give them a voice.”

Shalhoub was “No. 9” in a family of 10 children whose father emigrated from Lebanon at age 10, and whose mother was a second-generation Lebanese American. He was raised in Green Bay, Wis., where his father ran a sausage company from a truck. “He wanted to expand that into a family-run company and mail-order business,” Shalhoub said. “He opened a little shop. His idea was that the company would sustain all of us and keep us close in the same area. Even though that didn’t happen, we stayed close.” Every summer, the family gathers in Wisconsin for a vacation.

Shalhoub was raised as a Christian; he doesn’t speak Arabic. According to Issawi, Shalhoub was not involved in Middle Eastern culture as a child. “It happens a lot. The first generation wants the child to be part of the melting pot. They’re tired of the politics back home and don’t want them to go through their own experience. Then the person grows up and wants to find their roots. It happened to Tony later on in his life,” after his father died, Issawi said. “He was lucky to have found the medium of film and cinema to help him explore.

“That’s the beauty of it. He succeeded as an American, now as an Arab American going back to reach into his own history. The Middle East is now very much a part of America. It’s important for Americans to understand what the Middle East is about. He’s one of the people building that bridge.”

As for his next roles, Shalhoub says he’s not avoiding ethnic characters, nor is he seeking them out. Though Monk has no particular ethnicity, even in his back story, Shalhoub said it just hasn’t factored in the stories so far. “But you never know.”

lynn.smith@latimes.com