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

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.