New memoir by Andy Robinson

[Therin of Andor]

He was a Willard Decker audition competitor and, much later, Garak of DS9:

Stepping Into the Light: Sources of an Actor’s Craft, published by Figueroa Press:
http://www.trektoday.com/content/2015/10/robinson-pens-memoir/

 

[Kilana2]

He played one of my favorite Star Trek characters and I loved A Stitch in Time. A memoir is certainly something to be taken into account for reading, but I would prefer another Garak novel....

 

[Christopher]

I can't imagine Andrew Robinson playing Will Decker. Pre-Garak, I usually saw him playing smarmy bad guys. Granted, he also played John F. Kennedy in the '80s Twilight Zone revival's "Profile in Silver." But I thought he was miscast there, not looking the part at all.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Robinson may not have LOOKED much like JFK but he was a master at playing him. Same goes for James Woods as Rudy Giuliani in that TV-movie.

 

[t_smitts]

I can't imagine Andrew Robinson playing Will Decker.

That's probably why he didn't get the part. Same reason Jeffrey Combs didn't get the part or Riker (no joke!)

Pre-Garak, I usually saw him playing smarmy bad guys. Granted, he also played John F. Kennedy in the '80s Twilight Zone revival's "Profile in Silver." But I thought he was miscast there, not looking the part at all.

Yeah, I think he got a bit typecast after playing that killer in Dirty Harry. The same thing supposedly happened a bit to Anthony Perkins and Malcolm McDowell after Psycho and Clockwork Orange, respectively.

^ Robinson may not have LOOKED much like JFK but he was a master at playing him. Same goes for James Woods as Rudy Giuliani in that TV-movie.

Henry Hill (the mobster than Ray Liotta played in Goodfellas) said that while Joe Pesci didn't look anything like the psychopath he played in that movie (Pesci is short and was in his late 40's when he played the part, whereas the guy was tall and got killed before he turned 30), but was still pretty accurate, personality-wise.

None of the actors in Apollo 13 really look anything like the astronauts they portrayed, either.

 

[Christopher]

I'm still amused by the fact that Charles Dierkopf, who had a bit part in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a member of Butch's gang, looked far more like the real Butch Cassidy than did Paul Newman, who played Butch.

 

[t_smitts]

I'm still amused by the fact that Charles Dierkopf, who had a bit part in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a member of Butch's gang, looked far more like the real Butch Cassidy than did Paul Newman, who played Butch.

Sometimes they're not too concerned with physical resemblance. They didn't try too hard in "The King's Speech" either (though it's a great movie).

I also mentioned Apollo 13. For instance, David Andrews (whom you may remember from the ENT episode "E2") played Pete Conrad, the Apollo 12 commander, but looks NOTHING like him. (Andrews is tall, with a full head of hair. Conrad was short and bald. Google both for comparison.)

Andrew later played Frank Borman, the Apollo 8 commander, in From the Earth to the Moon, and actually has an uncanny resemblance to him.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And Paul McCrane was a much closer resemblance for Pete Conrad in that series. Which I highly recommend, BTW.

 

[t_smitts]

^ And Paul McCrane was a much closer resemblance for Pete Conrad in that series. Which I highly recommend, BTW.

Actually Peter Scolari played Conrad in the first episode, but, for whatever reason, McCrane took over in "Apollo 12" episode. And yes, McCrane looks a lot like him, except he doesn't have Conrad's distinctive tooth gap.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I tried to order the book from the original article's link, and they don't do international orders.

But Amazon has it!
http://www.amazon.com/Stepping-into...g+Into+the+Light:+Sources+of+an+Actor’s+Craft

 

[mrk]

Mine's in Customs right now! It claims it'll be here on Thursday. (Be efficient, Customs, pretty please!)

 

[tomswift2002]

I wonder if he included his stage play "The Giftbox" in the book. That's one thing I never liked about his short-story in "Prophecy & Change", it relied to much on knowing what had happened in his play, but when it's being read by someone who never saw the play a lot of stuff was pointless.

 

[JD]

^I gave up on the short story when I was reading through Prophecy & Change for that reason.
I did find rather annoying that the story relied so heavily on something that wasn't widely available, and was seen by such a limited audience.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I wonder if he included his stage play "The Giftbox" in the book.

I doubt it.

The problem is that "The Giftbox" was co-written with Alexander Siddig, and he saw it as a "stage happening", not something he wanted to see published in hardcopy, mass-market script format.

But isn't it enough that the short story sequel picks up on an event (that occurred offstage anyway)? It's the typical nature of short stories that you jump the audience into the midst of action.

 

[Therin of Andor]

My copy arrived today! Have had a quick skim and can't see many references to TV and movie work beyond the "Dirty Harry" Scorpio Killer and some 70s guest spots. Many stage roles and professional influences.

He may be saving Garak for a future volume?

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

My copy arrived today! Have had a quick skim and can't see many references to TV and movie work beyond the "Dirty Harry" Scorpio Killer and some 70s guest spots. Many stage roles and professional influences.

He may be saving Garak for a future volume?

That's disappointing.

 

[mrk]

If you're interested in learning about Garak and Andy's later career, this probably isn't the book for you. It covers his childhood, education, and his life and career up to the mid-80s. It also refers to his current teaching and how the earlier subjects inform it.

I think it ends in a good place, thematically -- he talks about playing a difficult killer in The Belly of the Beast, and how different it was in the performance and the aftermath than playing the Scorpio killer.

Reading this book, and having read A Stitch In Time, I was fascinated by how much of himself he'd put into Garak, as characterized in ASIT. There were a lot of parallels, and I can really see the acting process he's describing in the book working in ASIT.

Basically, if you're interested in Andy as a person, and/or in his artistic process, Stepping Into The Light is a book I personally found satisfying and would recommend.