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

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.

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.