Steve Guttenberg Returns After Break to Care for Ailing Father: 'He Really Wanted Me to Start Working Again'

Steve Guttenberg's coy, charming smile fades as his eyes well with tears when he begins to talk about his father. Over the past five years, the actor was a devoted caregiver until his dad died last summer at the age of 89.

For the '80s icon — who became a household name thanks to such classics as Police Academy, Short Circuit, Cocoon and Three Men and a Baby — the topic remains a raw nerve; the elder Guttenberg, Stanley Jerome, was his son's hero.

As he explains to PEOPLE, there was no second thought when the actor largely stepped away from Hollywood to focus on his father's complex health needs related to kidney failure.

"He was an extraordinary guy," says the 64-year-old TV, film and theater actor, who, along with his sister, became a trained dialysis technician, so his father did not have to leave the house for his daily treatments. The elder Guttenberg was as tough (a former U.S. Army Ranger and police officer) as he was tender, his son says.

"And we all took it pretty hard," Guttenberg says of the July 11 death of his father. "He was really the center. He really was the guy who you didn't want to disappoint." With that, the Short Circuit star notes one of his father's final requests: "He really wanted me to start working again. And I wanted to start working again."

And Guttenberg has done just that, starring alongside Cybill Shepherd, 72, in the upcoming How to Murder Your Husband: The Nancy Brophy Story, the true-crime tale premiering on Lifetime TV on Saturday. In the film, Guttenberg plays Daniel Brophy, who was fatally shot in 2018 by wife Nancy Crampton Brophy. Last summer, Crampton Brophy was sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

For Guttenberg, the Lifetime TV film was a gratifying experience, he explains to PEOPLE.

"I got on a plane on my dad's birthday to go to Vancouver to shoot that movie, so I have to feel that he had a hand in that," the actor says. "I was very lucky because I was the second lead, so I was able to get my skills back and started to remember what film acting is all about."

Bitten once more by the acting bug — much the same way he was when he arrived in Hollywood in 1976 at 17 with $300 in his pocket — Guttenberg yearns for his return to the big screen. And he has some ideas.

"I'd love to do an action comedy," Guttenberg says, with wide eyes and a wider grin. "I would like to work with some of my friends who I know."

One of those friends includes Dwayne Johnson, who Guttenberg appeared with on the HBO series Ballers.

"He's such a good guy," the actor says of the action icon. "He enjoys what he has and didn't forget where he came from."

Guttenberg is just as excited to talk about future prospects as he is to walk down memory lane, first by naming 1988's High Spirits as his career favorite picture. The topsy-turvy comedy also starred the legendary Peter O'Toole, a young and upcoming Liam Neeson, Beverly D'Angelo and Daryl Hannah.

"The dramaturgy of that film was amazing," Guttenberg says. "Peter and Liam elevated the move to such a classical setting."

The Bedroom Window is another film near and dear to the actor's heart.

"Really well-made movie with Curtis Hanson, who directed L.A. Confidential," he says. "Very Hitchcockian." Guttenberg notes Short Circuit is a close third. In the iconic 1986 film, Guttenberg played Newton Crosby, who designed military robots, one of which becomes sentient after being struck by lightning and is then named "Johnny 5."

"No CG then. Those are not visual effects. Those are special effects," he says of the team of puppeteers who operated Johnny 5. "John Badham, who directed Saturday Night Fever, directed it. I just was so starstruck by John."

Of course, that film and the hits that followed, including Cocoon and Three Men and a Baby, would never have been possible for Guttenberg had 1984's Police Academy not made him a star overnight.

In the comedy that launched a film franchise, a TV series for kids and merchandise that included a toy line, Guttenberg played Carey Mahoney, a goofball low-level criminal who is given the option between becoming a cop or going to jail. Directed by Hugh Wilson, the film opened No. 1 and grossed nearly $150 million off a $4.5 million budget. Among the ensemble cast, Guttenberg had several scenes with love interest (a then largely unknown) Kim Cattrall, who played cadet Karen Thompson.

"David Norton. Wonderful actor. It was between the two of us [for the role]," he recalls. "I'm sitting there going, 'There's no way I'm getting this.' I did my screen test with my dad's lucky police academy shirt. And I remember calling my agent, and I said, 'I think I did terrible,' and said, "Well, I hope you do terrible again — because you got the part.' And I was off to the races."

Guttenberg would play Mahoney in four Police Academy films. Among his favorite memories from making the original classic comedy are the pranks of the late, great Bubba Smith, the pair bonding as soon as they met. The NFL player-turned-actor played mild-mannered Moses Hightower in six Police Academy films.

"He would come into your room and say, 'There's an emergency!'" Guttenberg tells. "And you'd run out in your underwear to the middle of the courtyard, and then he's like, 'Oh, I forgot, dude. There's no emergency.' I'm like, 'You told me there's a fire or there's a bomb or something like that!'"

"First time I met him, I got out of the car, and he was standing there and he said, 'Gutt, I wanted to be the first to meet you.' So we talked a little bit, and we sat down like this and he said, 'Gutt, I know you're a freak.' And I said, 'I am.' He said, 'I know you are.' And it was just perfect," the actor recalls with a big smile. Smith died in 2011 at the age of 66.

And, yes, Simpsons fans, he adores being name-dropped in the Stonecutters song featured in season 6's "Homer the Great" as much as you would hope.

"It was a great shoutout!" Guttenberg says with a slight bow, much like his animated version does on the episode. "And [the late Simpsons co-developer] Sam Simon, I remember, I called him right after it and busted his chops like, 'Are you making fun of me?!' And he was like, 'No! No!' And I said, 'I appreciate it. I think it was great!"

Guttenberg also fondly reminisces about his friend, Kirstie Alley, with whom he starred in 1995's It Takes Two, along with the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

"She was devoted to her religion, devoted to her marriage, devoted to her kids, devoted to her family," Gutenberg says of Alley, who died in December at 71. "She was a force of nature: beautiful, smart, funny and generous."

In addition to his efforts to appear in more films, Guttenberg will do a short run of an ensemble show (Tales from the Guttenberg Bible) this spring based on his 2012 memoir. The show will run in April at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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Guttenberg has also written a book for caregivers from a devoted caregiver, currently titled Time to Think, in reference to his six-hour drive several times a month from L.A. to Arizona. Post Hill Press is set to be the publisher.

"It's all the memories of my dad when he was young and fit and what he did for me," Guttenberg explains. "My dad would pick me up when I was a little kid and hold me. And then when my dad got ill, I would pick him up and hold him. My dad would help me put my pajamas on when I was a kid. And when I was older, I helped my dad put the pajamas on."

"So I wrote this book, and it's for the caregivers," he continues. "You know, in this country, there are 35 million who take care of their parents. They're an unsung group because they're never together. You're always separate. There are blogs to sort of connect, but that's it. So when you're a caregiver, it's very lonely. So I wrote a book for all the caregivers in this country. I think that's going to be powerful."