Warner Brothers tour snapping pictures

Warner Brothers tour visits active sets, so you'll see actors relaxing off-set. 

I had just done CBS's Cold Case when a tram came by, and tourists started snapping pictures of me. 

They'll be wondering for weeks just who I was.

Background acting 2009-2010

In 2009, I decided to try movies and television. I registered as a background actor at Central Casting in LA. 

Over the next week, they got me seven auditions which resulted in six jobs, Cold Case (CBS), Hawthorne (TNT), Heroes (NBC), Miracle on the Hudson (Nippon TV), Sons of Anarchy (FX), and two days on The Office (NBC).

On my own. I managed to get Raising the Bar (TNT) and Solved (ID).

I auditioned for student films, Internet webisodes, pilots, commercials as well as TV and film projects. 

I found them myself, maintained my schedule, and followed through.

I spent 2009 and 2010 in L.A. as a background actor and, as it turned out, I ended up starring in ten student films, backgrounding in ten TV episodes and playing bit parts in four feature films, including a featured role as "the whistling 1940's ghost dad" in Insidious (2011).

Watch my 2-minute scene here: TWO MINUTE SCENE

Stroke aside, movie ticket taker

I suffered a stroke on Veterans Day in 2010.

I am incredibly lucky. Since Lori recognized what was going on, called 911 immediately and the EMTs got me to the hospital in less than a half hour. 

Consequently, I ended up with no physical problems and the only other problem was that I sometimes cannot think of simple words like "manage" "URL" and "obsequious." 

So, the next year, at age 65, I got a job as a ticket-taker at the Cobb 12 Theaters at Countryside Mall in Clearwater, Florida. 

I loved working for them. Since Lori was a nanny for wealthy folks and needed the car, I took a bus to and from work.

An older hitman in The Delivery

In the 2010 student movie The Delivery, I play Robert, an older hitman, who tries to convince his young friend Jax played by Billy Thompson not to commit a more violent crime than he had originally planned.

It was a student film, and the crew were all younger than me, of course.

Andy in HANDY MARKET

 I did a lot of student films from 2009 to 2010 because I was in demand since I was an older man. Most other cast members were students. 

There's a real store in Burbank called Handy Market and a bunch of California State University - Northridge students decided to film a short there, called - of course - Handy Market.

I played Andy, the manager of the store.

My head in an aquarium.

Didn't worry about appearing to be fat in 2010 because only my head (made bald by makeup) appeared in the crazy student film, Super Rangers. 

I spent the entire filming day with my head in an aquarium. I played a character named Gor Don.

Certain Age and Solved 2 different experiences

Men of a Certain Age was an American comedy-drama television series created by Ray Romano and Mike Royce, which ran on TNT from December 7, 2009, to July 6, 2011. 

The hour-long program starred Romano, Andre Braugher, and Scott Bakula as three best friends in their late forties dealing with the realities of being middle aged. It won a Peabody Award in 2010.

Owen (Andre Braugher) is an anxiety-stricken, diabetic husband and father, who works at a job he hates, selling cars at a dealership owned and managed by his father. I played a car buyer in Mind’s Eye, Episode 3, Season 1. I walked around cars with Andre, nodding and pretending to ask questions, about a dozen times. 

Solved (ID) I played the dad of a murdered girl in Grave Danger, Episode 13 of Season 1. Reenactment scenes are shot with minimal sound, allowing the actors to improvise, because the scenes are usually played out against narration.

Career defining cases are presented by investigators. Forensic analysts, trace evidence experts, crime scene technicians, forensic document examiners, forensic linguistics, handwriting experts, and computer forensic specialists add their incredible investigation techniques to help solve compelling murder cases.

Cold Case tour

 

The Warner Brothers tour visits active sets, so you'll see actors relaxing off-set. 

I had just done CBS's Cold Case when a tram came by, and tourists started snapping pictures of me. 

They'll be wondering for weeks just who I was.

Dad Day

Tim and Eric Awesome Show! (Adult Swim: Cartoon Network) 

They paid me $300 to be foolish in front of a green screen. I was one of four fathers in a scene about a perfect dad’s day. 

We rapped, sang, and danced. 

Sons of Anarchy (FX)

I worked in Eureka, California on Episode 4, Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy (FX), a drama that explores an outlaw motorcycle club. 

My first task was to walk past star Katey Sagal as she emerged from her car. 

Because the scene involved two cameras and car action, we shot that scene about a dozen times.

The Office (NBC)

On NBC's The Office (2009), I was the guy who was pushed aside by a self-important Dwight (actor Rainn Wilson) about a dozen times as he races into a hotel ballroom.

I worked much of the time we were there over two shooting days.

 There were about fifty background actors working both days.

Heroes (NBC)

In the NBC show Heroes, I was a college professor on Orientation, Episode 1, Season 4. 

We filmed it on the UCLA campus.

I walked down the stairs near the Powell Library, glanced at a clipboard and passed star Hayden Panettiere. 

This sequence put me within twelve inches of Hayden a half-dozen times.

 

Cold Case (CBS)

I played a homeless man named Sammy who witnessed a crime on the CBS show Cold Case. 

I was happy that the camera stayed on me and a detective interviewing me for the entire 30-seconds that co-star Danny Pino walked by, talking on a cell phone.

Thirty seconds of screen time!

Films, Pilots and films

I auditioned for student films, pilots, and film projects. 

In 2009 and 2010 I ended up starring in ten student films, backgrounding in ten TV episodes and playing bit parts in four feature films, including a featured role as a whistling 1940s ghost dad in the horror film Insidious (2011)

Background acting

When we returned to Los Angeles in 2008, I tried my hand at background acting. 

(I had been a theater actor 1974-1983.)

I signed up with Central Casting.

They got me Cold Case (CBS), Hawthorne (TNT), Heroes (NBC), Miracle on the Hudson (Nippon TV), Sons of Anarchy (FX), and The Office (NBC).

Sandcastles: A Mocumentary

In the 2010 student film Sandcastles: A Mocumentary, I play Jack McKee. 

I abandoned my highly paid job as an architect to join the sandcastle circuit, which became an obsession. I'll do anything to win my fifth trophy.

Funny show.

Got the job. Jack McKee in Sandcastles

At the USC campus, I auditioned for a project I wanted to be involved with. Mitchell Golden's fascinating Sandcastles: A Mockumentary. It was to be a student film about a budding documentarian who follows the major players in the fictional Greater Los Angeles Sandcastle Showcase (GLASS). 

The role I read for was the lead character, Jack McKee. Recently divorced and trying too hard to cover up his depression with false optimism, McKee abandoned his highly paid job as an architect to join the sandcastle circuit, which became an obsession. 

He'll do anything to win his fifth trophy.

The mockumentary is one of my favorite film forms. 

For years, I have worshipped at the shrine of Christopher Guest, director of Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. 

I have a natural gift for the straight-faced improv the genre requires. To prepare, I spent the half-hour before my audition sitting at a desk in the hallway writing a series of improv hooks. 

Then, I spent about 30 minutes with Mitch Golden, his camera and computer, during which he interviewed me. I improvised my answers based on his notes and mine. 

From his inscrutable smile, I didn’t know if he’d cast me. But it was a wonderful experience to exercise my mockumentary muscles once more. 

Sure enough, 24 hours later, I got the job.

The finished film was hilarious.

$300 for 2 hours on a green screen

Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!

(Adult Swim: Cartoon Network)

Spent two hours on this seriously weird show. It is bizarre and satirical, like a day of nonsensical cable-access TV. 

They paid me $300 to be foolish in front of a green screen. 

I was one of four fathers in a scene about a perfect dad’s day. 

We stood in front of the green screen and rapped, sang, and danced. 

I was Dan and I rapped the most. 

The scene is 38 seconds long and it’s on YouTube. 

See it here: Dan on Dad's Day :38

Digging a grave in GROWTH (2010)

I am in the opening credits of the 2010 horror film Growth digging a grave. 

Despite its modest budget, Growth's producers secured 150 computer-generated shots and several aerial and underwater shots.

Not in the air, or Hollywood

I shot a reenactment episode in 2010 for Nippon TV at Air Hollywood, which is neither one. 

It's not in the air. It's not in Hollywood.

It's an airplane mockup studio with wide-body jet interiors, small airplane interiors, and an airport terminal set. 

Air Hollywood’s Los Angeles studio is located just ten miles north of Burbank Airport in the film-friendly city of Pacoima, easily accessible from four freeways.

With three stages, a prop house, and a fabrication mill comprising approximately 100,000 square feet of studio space, their facility is ideal for on-location filming.