A spirited soccer practice at the Rose Bowl has ended, and

Andrew Shue of the Los Angeles Galaxy is steering his sleek

black Porsche into the heart of Hollywood. The car is hardly

eye-catching in this part of town, but the driver draws plenty

of stares. Two bronze-skinned young blondes in a BMW convertible

recognize Shue and in an effort to get his attention, swerve

madly through traffic, leaving bystanders to wonder if someone

is filming a Dukes of Hazzard reunion.

All this for a second-string midfielder in a first-year

professional league? Granted, the Galaxy has emerged as the

success story of the fledgling Major League Soccer, winning its

first 10 games and drawing a league-high average of 34,107 fans

to its home matches at the Rose Bowl. But hard-core soccer

loyalists can't be terribly thrilled that, in a league filled

with U.S. World Cup veterans and foreign superstars, the face

most recognizable to American audiences, and the one most likely

to cause a car accident, belongs to Shue, who plays hunk Billy

Campbell on the Fox TV series Melrose Place.

An athlete jumping into the entertainment field is not uncommon,

but Shue, 30, represents a rare reversal of this trend: an actor

playing on a major professional sports team. Yet Shue, a former

All-Ivy League player at Dartmouth College and a professional

for one season in Zimbabwe, considers himself a soccer player

first. He got into acting at the prodding of his older sister,

actress Elisabeth Shue. After landing the Melrose Place role

with virtually no experience, Andrew stayed in shape by booting

soccer balls around the set.

Shue takes issue with the standard American argument that there

isn't enough scoring in soccer. "That is such a simplistic way

of looking at it," he says. "To me soccer is like life. You're

constantly moving and striving toward a goal, but you have to

accomplish it within a flow. There are times when you come so

close and get derailed, but that makes it all the more

satisfying when you reach your destination. That's why you see

players drop to their knees and cry when they score. There may

be only three times in your life, or even one time, when you

truly shine, but that doesn't negate the rest of the process."

Shue's life has been shaped significantly by the legacy of his

older brother, Will, who died in a swimming accident in 1988

during a family vacation in Maine. Will was a star in the Shues'

soccer-mad hometown, South Orange, N.J., and preceded Andrew on

the Dartmouth team. Andrew still has a hard time discussing the

tragedy. "Soccer was our bond, the thing that defined us," he

says. "The day he died we had been playing soccer all day.

Playing now is a return to our roots, the thing that makes our

family tick."

In 1989, still reeling from Will's death and unsure of his

future, Shue went to Zimbabwe, where he taught high school math.

He also played for the Bulawayo Highlanders. In his first game

Shue sparked a comeback from a 3-0 deficit and led his team to a

3-3 tie. He was carried off the field to chants of

"Mafana"--which means "likable boy who delivers the goods." Shue

became known as Sipho--the word for "gift" in the Ndebele

language--and helped the Highlanders to the B.A.T. Super League

Championship.

When he returned home to the U.S. in 1990, Shue worked as a

runner for ABC Sports in New York City before taking his

sister's advice to try acting. In 1991 he went to Hollywood and

quickly landed a part in a pilot that eventually fell through.

But he was later signed by producer Aaron Spelling for Melrose

Place. For Shue, acting is less of a passion than a means to an

end: In 1993 he and a childhood friend, Michael Sanchez,

cofounded Do Something, a national charity organization that

supports young people active in community service projects.

After the first 10 games of the MLS season Shue had appeared in

four games and played a total of 86 minutes. On May 12 he set up

the winning goal in the Galaxy's 2-1 victory over the San Jose

Clash, centering a pass to Greg Vanney from the left wing.

Because the pass bounced off Clash defender Paul Holocher, Shue

did not receive an assist. He made up for that with an assist in

the Galaxy's 4-0 rout of the MetroStars on June 9.

"I want to do everything," says Shue, whose wife, Jennifer, is

expecting the couple's first child in early August. "I want to

play soccer for a few more years if my body holds up. I want to

build Do Something so that it can fundamentally change every

city in the country. And I want to keep on creating in the

entertainment world, whether it's acting, producing or doing a

really cool TV news magazine show."

It's enough to keep him in the public eye.

COLOR PHOTO: DENIS POROY/AP Shue's career could bounce in several directions. [Andrew Shue]