PASADENA, Calif. — At last, actor Matt Craven lands on the right side of the law in his latest role as precinct captain on NBC's innovative new series, "Raines." But it wasn't always so.

In fact, Craven, a self-confessed street kid, not only suffered brushes with the law but downright clashes.

His father died when he was a baby. His mom reared him and his older sister, supporting them by running a beauty shop in St. Catharines, Ontario. Craven quit school in his sophomore year to help out financially, but he was running with a tough crowd.

"With no dad and a single mom, I was on my own a lot," he says over a martini in a dimly lit hotel lounge. "I just wanted to be part of something, and that happened to be guys from the pool hall. And that was bad news."

Just how bad he was soon to learn. "When I was 15, five of us broke into Burke's Jewelry Store in St. Catharines. I can say this because it's 35 years later," he grins. "I went home, and they all went to Billy's house. They got busted and all went to jail. From that moment on, I've never done a bad thing in my life. We got $75,000 worth of stuff, but they got busted the following morning," he shakes his head.

"I was the youngest. My nickname was 'Mouse.' ... I grew up really fast. We all went back to Billy's house, it was four in the morning, and there was a voice in my head that said, 'Go home. Go home.' ...

"I got home, went to bed, slept till 11:30 the next day, the phone ringing. It was Mom, Mom at her salon. 'What time did you come home last night?' I said, 'About midnight.' She said, 'Thank God. Kevin, Roy and Stevie, they've all been busted.' I hung up the phone and thought, 'Are they going to tell on me?' For two weeks, I never left the house."

He'd stolen cars. At 13, he was a pool hustler, which is where he learned to be a "very good liar."

That came in handy when he was trying to bust into acting. "I started getting extra jobs, got a bartender's job and learned quickly I was absolutely screwed because I had no experience, and nobody would talk to me. I couldn't get an agent — nothing.

"So, being a street kid, I realized I had to do something about that. So I went to the library and I researched all the theaters across Canada and then read play after play — took me about four months. Then I made up a complete false resume. And I got an agent the next day.

"I said, 'I worked in Saskatoon, did Chekhov's "Three Sisters" there.' I had to really be careful about it, make sure I was right for the role. And I didn't know that much about it yet, so I was taking chances. But I knew I had to do that. If I didn't, I couldn't get work. I knew if I got in the room. I could maybe do something. It took a number of years to get those lies off that resume, but the day I had a real resume, I was real happy," he laughs.

Bill Murray gave him his first break in "Meatballs." Craven was working as an extra on the film but was ostracized by the other actors because he was a clumsy newbie in filmmaking. When Murray discovered him eating by himself, Murray befriended him, took him under his wing, and gave him a small part in the film. Since then, Craven has co-starred in movies like "Crimson Tide" and "A Few Good Men," and TV series such as "Boomtown," "ER" and "L.A. Doctors."