WITH AN EYE ON . . . : A talk with the newest, coolest member of ‘90210’ (that would be Jamie Walters)

Jamie Walters dashes to the table in the Downtown restaurant and immediately begins to apologize.

“I don’t know Downtown at all,” says the Marblehead, Mass., native, who lives about 5 miles from the business hub of Los Angeles. Although 30 minutes late, the newest cast member of “Beverly Hills, 90210” looks like he could have raced on a bike to the interview. He’s wearing a yellow short-sleeved shirt over a long-sleeved black-and-white checkered pullover.

It doesn’t take long for the conversation, fueled by the “90210” publicist’s complaints of stomach churning, to turn to one of Walters’ previous evenings spent helping a friend who had partied too much. Walters, 25, ended the story by telling how he had to put said friend into a shower to revive him.

“My God,” the publicist declares, “You saved his life.” Walters shrugs.

It’s that kind of coolness and humility amidst heroism that make the actor, who stars as Ray Pruitt--love interest of Donna (Tori Spelling)--on the young-adult sudser, appealing to his audience.

In an ensemble cast all too familiar with gossip, clubbing and celebrity, Walters really is like Ray among the “90210” crowd--just slightly outside and glad to be there.

“Some of the L.A. scene can be really gross,” he says. “Going out at night is like going to work, with all the actors.”

“I was worried at first,” he recalls. “Am I going to fit in with these people? Is the audience going to accept a new character? Those kind of worries.”

It helped that Walters was already acquainted with some of the cast members. He plays hockey with Jason Priestley and knew Ian Ziering and Luke Perry from auditions in New York, where Walters lived for three years. Once on the set, Walters says, “everyone was totally warm.”

Walters describes his “90210” character as “pretty, like, mainstream. He’s pretty normal. I grew up knowing a lot of people like Ray, working-class guys.”

Unlike working-class Ray, Walters is in the process of looking for a home to buy in the Sherman Oaks area where he lived during the Northridge earthquake.

“I still want to find a place there,” he says, after describing a scene from Jan. 17, 1994, when he and his roommate ran two blocks to help a couple trapped under their home, only to discover the couple dead. “It was awful,” he says softly. “They were really young, too.”

Walters left his own Boston neighborhood for New York University, where he attended film school before getting work in commercials. His first job landed him in an award-winning campaign for Levi’s. Roles in the features “Bed & Breakfast” and a starring role opposite John Travolta in 1991’s “Shout” followed. Next came a recurring role on ABC’s “The Young Riders” and then a lead in 1992’s “The Heights.”

“The Heights” may not have won over audiences, but Walters’ “How Do You Talk to an Angel?” sure did. The song, introduced on the show and which went to No. 1 on the charts, made the series’ soundtrack a hit. Walter’s current single “Hold On” is often requested on Top 40 radio stations.

“Ray’s got his aspirations, his music” too, says Walters, who has been making music since he was 11. Walters often plays songs from his self-titled debut album on “90210.” In fact, Ray’s appearances at the Peach Pit After Dark have become an incorporated standard on the Fox show.

The actor-musician is also looking to tour this summer and work on another album to perform next season on “90210.”

Walters, who says he’d be a park ranger if he wasn’t an actor, says “90210” changed his life more than any other show. “People watch and follow it. It’s an endless sort of story. You never know where it’s going to go. Its always exciting to get the scripts so you know what’s going to happen.”

“Beverly Hills, 90210” airs Wednesday s at 8 p.m. on Fox.