My Brushes With Celebrity

I told you, dear reader, that I would be back with a note about 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon or something like it and here it is:

While running into HEB last night to get some last minute things, I bumped, once again, into the former host of the Love Connection, the inimitable Chuck Woolery. And it got me thinking about my chance encounters/former relationships with celebrities on their way up-in their prime-or heading into retirement.

'Why does he care about this?', you may ask. Well, one thing you may not know about me is that I received my undergraduate degree in acting/performance and was in the middle of Repertory Theatre work and Cruise Ship performance when I decided that I would rather not live like a gypsy (running from contract to contract until finally making enough money to be able to scrape by in a studio apartment in L.A. or NY.) I wanted a home with a family before I got too old. So, I abandoned my original plans and went back to the drawing board.

But, every once in a while, especially when I meet a star (like talking to Tony Shalhoub from Wings and Monk fame at LAX Airport or pumping gas with Luke Wilson at the EXXON in Marble Falls) or when I see a friend on a television commercial or in a movie (like my friend Adam Langley who was recently 'Out-Whataburgered' in a t.v. commercial or Dorothy Miles who had a small speaking role with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in 21 Grams or Shelley Dowdy who I saw in Slackers, a KIA commercial and who has a role in the upcoming Evan Almighty or my friend Mark Johnson who has performed in several John Grisham movies including The Firm and A Time To Kill or Jeff Bailey who was the taxi driver in Walk the Line or Michael Davis who sang in The Producers. All of these friends have shared the stage with me at one time or another. And now, last but not least, my colleague and friend, Jim Dobbs, who, I found out the other day, was a contract actor back in the day and has worked with Cary Grant, Ida Lupino and Robert Alda in The Man I Love and Night and Day) I get to thinking about my old profession. Every once in a while I get this twinge in my stomach and I start to think about where I could be right now in my acting career. 'Oh the places we could have gone!' that inner voice says.

But I know and have experienced the unsure world of the actor and if I had not left the field and gone back to get my grad degree I would not have met and fell in love with my beautiful wife and we would not have this sweet little baby to care for and love so my thoughts only go so far before another, stronger voice steps in and tells me to cool it.

So there you have it. My 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon!