My family bought their first television the week I was born.  Being brought up with as many as a dozen or so foster children or relatives who were down on their luck, I quickly noticed that BOX could make everyone sit down and laugh with Lucy or cry with Playhouse 90.  I wanted to get in that box badly.

We were a political family.  My grandfather was sheriff and my Uncle John was a democratic U.S. senator for 30 years.  He ran on the democratic ticket with Adlai Stevenson the year I was born (1952).  He lost to General Ike.

My Grandfather was running for sheriff the year he died, but he won the election anyway (that's the south for you). Granny was left to finish his term as sheriff.  As a toddler I called her Sheriff Granny!.   I wanted her to dress like Dale Evans and have a gun in a holster.  THAT was NOT gonna happen!  I told everyone that my granny was sheriff, and used it to the utmost.  Can you say brat?

 

In 1963 I made my starring debut as Scrooge in the operetta of "A CHRISTMAS CAROL" It's hard for me to look at some of these pre or edge of teen shots, but it was a big hit at Greenwood Elementary school and they let me direct the spring play.  I looked better in costume.  I promise.

In High School the bug bit hard when I got great reviews and huge audience response when I played BIG JULE in GUYS AND DOLLS.  Suddenly, I was really popular in High School.  Where I grew up that was a big (silly) deal!

Me and the cast of Guys and Dolls

That summer I went to Florence State and did a play with Academy Award nominee and Tony Award winner Peggy Cass (for her role in AUNTIE MAME)  We remained friends till her death and hung out in Hollywood 20 years later.  After high school I moved to Birmingham and got involved with Children's Theater there. I played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Merlin in Arthur and the Magic Sword, amongst many other plays.

Then I collaborated with a group of working actors from Atlanta, all Birmingham Southern graduates.  We did a daring (for the time, 1973) production of The Boys in the Band at Birmingham Festival Theater. 

It was a smash hit and total sellout with an extended run.  We received hateful reviews because of the subject matter, but it was a terrific ensemble piece that is still talked about in Birmingham theater.  Sadly, most of the cast has since died.  I decided to go on to Atlanta where I lucked into my first real acting job, when I snuck into an Equity audition for Man of La Mancha.  I won the role of Sancho Panza.  I was making the outrageous sum of $105 per week and thought I was rich.  We toured Georgia, and there was an especially  memorable performance at the Grand Opera House in Macon.  I followed this play immediately with a production of  The Subject was Roses in Atlanta.  Some of my Birmingham Southern friends suggested I go back and study under Dr. Arnold Powell, before heading out for a professional career in New York and Hollywood.  A friend, George Falkenberry introduced me to Dr. Powell.  I received a scholarship and became one of the star performers at the theater at Birmingham Southern for two years.  This experience laid a wonderful foundation for my professional career.

Here are a few pictures from the 20 plays I did at Birmingham Southern before moving to N.Y.C.

In 1976, after saving money working nights as a bartender and days as a waiter at The Magic Pan, I hopped  on a plane for New York with $800 in my pocket.  I moved in with friends from Birmingham Southern at 45 West 68th St., between Columbus and Central Park West.  I worked at Tavern on the Green, cleaned houses and took classes. I was introduced by Southern alumnus Pamela Payton Wright to Tennessee Williams and we became friends.  At the time he was directing Sylvia Sydney (who I would later costar with in Beetlejuice) in a production of Vieux Carré, which was produced at the St. James Theater on Broadway.  I hung around and worked as Production Assistant and learned a lot.  Then one day when the show closed early, I got a postcard from Hollywood, from another Birmingham Southern alumnus, that said, "Palm trees grow and rents are low."

The "Wee Tot" in me became dissatisfied with the cold New York winters and Hollywood became extremely alluring.

 

Tim Burton was in the audience and I was cast as Otho In Beetlejuice.

I landed in Los Angeles with $200 to my name, and checked into the Bryson Hotel which had six white corinthian columns supporting rearing golden lions at the garden entrance.  I talked the recently post op transsexual manager into letting me have a studio room over looking Lafayette Park for $200 (With no deposit!).  I immediately got a job working at Bullocks Wilshire Department Store, an art deco piece, within walking distance since I had no car.  Thus began my 10 year struggle of doing 20 plays for free, until Tim Burton saw me as Gertrude Stein and cast me as Otho in Beetlejuice.

Click Here for the "Getting There Was More Fun.." Photo Gallery