Sunday, November 27, 2011

Nature intervenes 32 1983

After a couple of weeks at wife's aunt, we settled into an apartment in Hollywood. The Gage Group was getting me out on several interviews but something unexpected happened that changed all priorities.

My wife had an appointment with a doctor and we were both suspicious of what it was. I waited in our car while my wife was seeing the doctor. She came out, sat in the car and said she was pregnant and what should we do? I asked why are you leaving it up to me, you're carrying it. She said it was mine also.

On our way back to the apartment, we talked about what this would mean for us, new to California and dependant on my acting career which was unstable at best. We had a choice and we decided to go for it ,no matter what. I was 37 years old at the time and this could be my last chance to be a father. So we chose to be parents.

I knew at this point my life would change dramatically. Up til then I had pursued my career with reckless abandon, not fearing the future because I was living in the moment, forgetting about the past and not thinking of the future.

That would all change now. I got butterflies in my stomach, it feels like stage fright. What if I failed? What would happen to my child? Can I handle the responsibility after leading a Bum's Life for the last 10 years? This put a pressure on me that I didn't have before. The stakes were raised  and I called the bet.

Luckily for all involved ,I was able to get guest spots on TV series. After Madam's Place I got a guest shot on The Jeffersons which was in it's final year after 200 episodes. The character was a thief who robs George Jefferson and on the first rehearsal, sitcoms usually rehearse for a few days before taping, I played the character like I was doing The Godfather.  Afterwards, I could feel that the producers were not that pleased in what they saw.

The next day I came into rehearsal and they completely changed my character. It went from a thief to a drunken bum which was much funnier. The taping went very well for me and now I had a good piece for my demo reel besides Baker's Dozen.

The two jobs that I got in Hollywood so far, Madam's Place and the Jeffersons insured that I would be keeping my SAG health insurance ,which not only would be covering me but my wife and my future child's birth.

IMDB The Jeffersons : Change of a dollar

Sunday, November 20, 2011

First score in Hollywood 31

The next month, July 1982, I took an old car, that was in the family, and took off for Hollywood. Driving across the country I felt a sense of freedom,traveling across the open road. You have to drive a couple of hundred miles west before you are free of the concrete jungle and out into the open country. I liked being on the open road and thought if I failed in Hollywood , I would drive one of those big rigs across the country.

Not that I had any doubt at all that I would make it big it Hollywood. After all, the first TV job I read for I got a TV series. Out in Hollywood where they produce tons of series, I would certainly get one right away. I needed to because the money was almost gone and now I was supporting a wife.

Day dreaming along the way, I planned to be bi-coastal. After making a couple of nice scores in La, I would return to New York and do nothing but Broadway plays and films.

When we finally arrived in La, after 12 adventurous days on the road, we crashed at Robert Pastorelli's apartment in the heart of Hollywood. I knew Bobby from New York, we were in Gray Spades together at the Ensemble Studio Theater directed By Risa Bramen.

We had the same agent , The Gage Group, and unwinding at his apartment, he received a call from the Gage Group to go on a audition. Bobby told them I had just arrived and they were able to get me in on the audition. I didn't expect any action so quick, my first day in Hollywood, but glad to see the move was already paying off.

The character I was reading for was a nervous guy and when I read for the casting director, Molly Lapata, I pushed and I could see the CD wince and I immediately pulled back within myself. I explained to her that I just drove in that day and was not ready to audition. I think she forgave me for my lousy reading as she had me in for other things ,which I got.

After a couple of days I had another audition for a show called "Madam's Place" , a show where the lead character was a puppet. I got the role and taped it and it went very well.

Off and running in Hollywood.

IMDB for Madam's Place

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Go West Young Man 30

After my interview with Laury Oppendum, the casting director of Hill Street Blues, I talked over her suggestion, about going to Los Angeles, with my agents at The Gage Group. They said ,why not? They indicated if I did well in Los Angeles, it would help me in New York when I came back, as actors with Tv and film credits were sought out to do Broadway plays. The Gage Group was very highly regarded in Los Angeles so I would have top notch representation there.

Since Sorrows Of Stephen , I had expected to get calls to at least audition for different plays at the other public funded equity theaters in New York besides The Public Theater. It was almost 2 years since I did Stephen, yet not one call from them. I was offered several Off-Off plays but I turned them all down. I wasn't ready to go backwards and I felt I would be selling myself short by working for nothing after the success of Sorrows of Stephen and my breakout in Tv with Baker's Dozen.

I talked to my new wife about La and she mentioned she had an aunt in La and we could crash there until things began to roll. Actors that had been to La always talked about how much they hated Los Angeles and missed New York . Their main complaint was the isolation. You could work with someone in La, develope a relationship during the shoot and when the project is wrapped everyone goes their seperate ways ,scattered all over Los angeles, and never see them again unless you crashed into them on the road.

In New York, you kept in touch with people by just walking down Broadway. Even when I still lived in Queens, I would take the subway to the City and get out on 57st. and Broadway. I would walk from 57st to the Equity lounge on 46st and Broadway. On the way I would run into actors that I had worked with and we would stop and gab for a moment. Up at the Equity lounge, actors would hang out and use the phones. It was fun and very social.

I had one good friend in Los angeles, Robert Pastorelli who was in Gray Spades with me at the Ensemble Studio Theater. He had gone out there after Gray Spades and had already done a couple of guest spots on Tv. He said , come on down, you will get more work than you can handle.

The agents said if I go I should leave soon, it was June 1982, and the hiatus would be over after the 4th of July and the tv production would begin for the new season.

Everything seemed to be pointing west. I got an old Toyota that was still in the family and at the end of June we drove out of New York toward Hollywood.

This ends the first chapter of my life as an actor. In looking back I think I succeeded in my gamble. I went from a totally green actor who was in the first play I ever saw, in 1973, to going to Los Angeles as a working actor with a substantial resume and great representation in 1982.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Feast and famine 29 1982

We finished the back order 5 episodes and I felt I did well. CBS scheduled "Bakers Dozen" to start airing in the spring of 1982. This was not a good sign as it was not picked for the fall season . The producers said it was because there was a change in leadership at CBS, during the strike, and the new bosses at CBS favored shows that they had a hand in producing. It still had a shot to make it on the fall schedule if the ratings were exceptional. If picked for the fall would mean another 17 episodes would be made.

The day came to air the first episode on TV and I sat with my new wife and friends to watch. I was disappointed in what I saw. In my opinion, the two negative choices the producers made was to put in a phony sounding laugh track and casting a connected but untalented actress in the lead female role.

Although the show was a cop comedy, it was shot on film on the streets of New York and I thought the laugh track cheapened the show. When the ratings came out, the show did not do well and was cancelled after the 6 episodes.

That is the nature of this business, feast and famine. I went from a series regular on the brink of stardom to just another out of work actor.

That was depressing enough but I received a bill from my former manager, Lyn Kressel for 25% of the last 5 episodes. Now, I paid her 25% for the pilot but then she was accused of a conflict of interest and quit managing. I thought, why should I pay her for the last 5 episodes when she wasn't my manager anymore, which meant she wasn't trying to get me more work and advance my career.

Lyn claimed it did not matter that she wasn't working for me , the contract I signed with her stated that I had to pay her for any work I got from the pilot.

I got a lawyer and fought it and never paid her any more money. Of coarse I had to pay the lawyer which was almost as much as her bill. I didn't care as I felt I was being screwed.

Was this a mistake? It probably was as she went on to become one of the leading casting directors in New York. My new agents, The Gage Group, did not want to get involved and gave me no guidance in this matter.

Every actor I talked to, said I was crazy for going against Lyn Kressel as she would black ball me.I didn't listen to them as my experience with most actors was they are a bunch of wimps and would wash Lyn Kressel's dirty underwear if she asked them.

I still had enough money for awhile ,even with a new wife, but something had to happen soon or I would be broke again.

One day, my new agents sent me on a interview with Laury Oppendum, the casting director of Hill Street Blues, a hit cop Tv series shot in Los Angeles. When I went into the interview with Laury, she said that she and all her co-workers in La raved about my performance in Baker's Dozen.

She said I would be perfect for all sorts of guest spots on Hill St. Blues but unfortunately, she can't hire me from New York, but if I was in Los Angeles, she would not hesitate to have me in to audition.

I went home thinking about what Laury had said. I never to this point considered going to La but I was not getting any calls from the other Equity houses in New York and I had burned a few bridges.

My mind raced as I walked home. La,La, should I go?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Sag strike stops streak 28 year 1981

I completed "Baker's Dozen", a CBS pilot for a TV series, and it couldn't have went better. Everyone was pleased with my work including Ron Silver, the lead. A couple of days after we wrapped the pilot, CBS announced that "Baker's Dozen" would be picked up for another 5 episodes. This meant that in the next few weeks I would make more money than I had made my whole life up to that point.

I was nervous, it was to good to be true, something would go wrong, and it did. Screen Actors Guild picked this time to go on strike. This meant that all union film and TV projects in America had to stop production.

Why do actors strike? Yes, there must be some protection for actors, such as: safety on the set, keep track of residuals and carry the health plan. These are good things that the union does for us. But when they opt to go on strike, then it had better be a life and death situation.

The rich actors that make millions of dollars don't care, they already made it and can rest comfortably in Malibu , until the strike is over. Or they may go out of the country, away from SAG's jurisdiction, and make a couple of million doing a foreign produced film.

But what about actors like me? What we need is opportunity to show the world and the industry that we can contribute. Who cares about the nickles and dimes the union is fighting over, such as: more money for extras. I don't think serious actors, that work hard for years to develope their craft, should have to have the rug pulled out from under them so some housewife in Long Island can make extra money and have an exciting day on the set.

The strike went on for 6 months. I received a few offers for plays during that time and I turned them down until I received a offer to a play at Ensemble Studio Theater. The play was Gray Spades and I had done the play in the past. (see chapter 16).

I really didn't feel like doing a play while I was waiting for the SAG strike to end. I was having a great time around town. It was great, I would walk down the street or go into Jimmy ray's and you could see it in their faces, the respect, awe and of coarse envy, all at once.

What convinced me was the director, Risa Bramen. She was young, smart and aggressive. Risa went on to become one of the top film casting directors in the business. She picked it to do something edgy and to impress people with her versatility. A couple of other cast members were Robert Pastorelli, who went on to be a regular on Murphy Brown and Sam McMurry who also was a regular on Baker's Dozen.

When the play opened, for it's short run, the audience was filled every night with agents and casting directors. After the run I received a call from The Gage Group a top talent agent in New York and Los Angeles. I had a interview with this agent a couple of years previous and their attitude, at the time, was very dismissve. They asked me to forget about that and swore they would work for me diligently. So finally I had a agent. Not just any agent but one of the best.

Finally the actor's strike was over and I would be shooting the other 5 episodes. I was riding on cloud 9. All my life I have been broke. My father was a gambler so my family lived just above the poverty line.

Now, I would live the good life. I was so happy that I went out and got married again. I am not going to talk much about this marriage as it resulted in a beautiful daughter and her privacy should be maintained.