FILM - another four-letter CUSS word that starts with "F"


I'm really good at auditioning if the
character I'm playing is supposed
to be a NERVOUS guy

There's an element of RISK being an actor.  You're exposing yourself to some degree with a VERY GOOD chance of looking like a TOTAL FOOL.

In fact, it has been suggested that people become actors for the same reason they like extreme sports.  Both have similar challenges that test one's vulnerability. 

After jumping out of airplanes for a few years I discovered an adrenaline rush can also be found being an actor ... with less chance of being KILLED.

But, the ACTING challenge (at least for me) is getting out of my own way ... giving up control to the CHARACTER so he can jump inside and become alive.  Sometimes it's very uncomfortable when he wants to do things I wouldn't do ... or uses secret fears & emotions deep inside my personal space. 
It's fun, though, when he CUSSES a lot.  I don't know why, but for some reason it feels good to say "#>%!" and "≠?¤#$" in front of a lot of people and not get in trouble for it.

In FRANKLIN WUNDER I played a widower who has a major heart attack while swimming and later escapes from his hospital's intensive care unit. 

It's a beautiful story of a dying man who questions whether he has ever done anything "good" for the world.  Without his realizing it, everything he does on the last day of his life starts a chain reaction that benefits the lives of strangers who happen to cross his path.

The film ends when Franklin decides to go swimming again in a lake where he had fun as a teenager.  There he has another heart attack and dies.  This required
stripping down to my underwear and jumping from a dock into cold water ... and swimming to the middle of Cullaby Lake near Astoria, Oregon (pictured here).  

There was a slight wind blowing and it was cloudy when this
was filmed -
temperatures were somewhere in the 50's.
The water
was FREEZING cold! 
When my "lifeless" body was pulled ashore several members of the crew kept pouring WARM water on me to calm down the shivering ... then, to appear dead, I held my breath as long as I could before starting to shake again. 

Playing a wet DEAD guy in a movie isn't easy when you're shivering
uncontrollably.    There ought to be an Academy Award for that.

Dick McMahon
My Wife and me at the Portland premier

I've been cast as characters who DIE in several films
 (probably because I look good DEAD)

and it always seems strange to hear the director say, "action" after I've already kicked the bucket.

Shouldn't it be "inaction"?


 IMDb credits

yet another flick in which I die
Click here