PASADENA, Calif. – Actor Ron Livingston may have been just another passing fancy for Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City,” but that role helped people remember where they’d seen him before.

After all, he hailed from Marion, Iowa, not exactly a hotbed of famous actors. But he got lucky. His dad was an electronics engineer with a beautiful singing voice, his mom became an ordained Lutheran minister, so when Ron showed an interest in performing there was no strong objection.

“We had one Equity Theater in Iowa and there were only seven paid actors in the whole state. So I think I was fortunate I came into it,” says Livingston, seated in a hotel lounge here. “I learned to love it for the parts that I think are kinda lovable rather than from the parts that can get a little crazy.”

Time to get a little crazy came later after he’d graduated from Yale, served an apprenticeship in Chicago’s theaters and moved to L.A. where he wangled a series of odd jobs. (The Yale degree helped win the odd jobs).

“I worked for Universal, did some mail room delivery and then for the theme park division as an art department assistant. They were building (the theme park) in Japan. I had an offer to go to Japan. And it was a real crossroads because the money was great … But at that point I’d been here for a year and hadn’t booked anything as an actor. It was a decision: ‘Are you going to turn down this thing? What’re you going to do?’ Ultimately I had to pass on it and let it go because it was not exactly what I moved out here to do and ultimately it paid off.”

Livingston, who bunked with a friend for a time, captured one of the lead roles in the cult hit, “Office Space.” He went on to work for 10 months in England as Lt. Nixon in “Band of Brothers” and costarred in independent films like “The Cooler” and “Swingers” when he was cast as Jack Berger in “Sex and the City.”

“That show was really kind of amazing in its reach,” he says. “It’s one of those shows that, because it’s pay cable, you don’t really get a Nielsen bead on it that kind of really reflects its reach because people tend to gather in clumps to watch it. The thing that amazed me about it was that flight attendants all over the world saw “Sex and the City.’ Doesn’t matter what country you are in. The flight attendants know Jack Berger.

“I’ve compared it a little bit to – you take pretty much any girl in America, and if you stick a Miss October sash on her, she’s not buying drinks for the rest of her life. I think being one of Carrie Bradshaw’s boyfriends is sort of like the romantic lead stamp of approval, that maybe I didn’t walk away with in “Office Space.”‘

He bears the stamp of approval for his latest role in Fox’s new romantic-action drama, “Standoff,” premiering Sept. 5.

Livingston, 38, stars as part of a crisis negotiation unit where he is paired with an attractive and independent woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). Sparks flash between them as often as 911, calls but the chemistry can be toxic as well as bittersweet.

A one-hour action drama marks a seismic shift from the very first show he auditioned for in L.A. “It was for the original cast of the reality show, “The Real World.’ My friend actually drove me to the audition and dropped me off and I went in. And, of course, it was for “The Real World’ and they didn’t have anything for you to do but sit around and talk. That was the beginning of reality, really … I remember coming out and saying, “Man, is this what auditions are like in Hollywood? Because I’ve never heard of such a thing. This seems crazy to me.’

“Apparently I was not attractive or interesting enough to make “The Real World.’ I was just another actor.”

Being just another actor is OK with Livingston, who has a healthy take on the field he’s chosen. “I never came at an acting career like it was a mission. I never felt like I had to achieve something. It was always kind of half of a lark … I kind of half expected to get another job and continue to do community theater my whole life.”

The revelation came to him early on. “There was a moment where you realize it ain’t brain surgery and nobody’s life is at stake, and in the end, you’re just telling stories … You get the spotlight for a year or two or 10 or whatever, and it moves pretty quick onto somebody else. That’s just how life in general works. It’s built as if it’s a lot about you and ultimately it’s not about you, it’s about us. I don’t work for the studio or the director or the network or not for myself, really. I work for the people in the audience who sit and watch the thing. If they like it, then everybody is successful and we get to pat ourselves on the back and say how great we are. But really we work for them.”