A. Michael Baldwin

How A. Michael Baldwin got here (hint: It involves a showbiz upbringing, Oreo cookies, and shrieking armadas of flying, brain-sucking spheres)
...
Pursued by the Tall Man and his relentless army of evil, interdimensional dwarves and shrieking armadas of flying, brain-sucking spheres, Baldwin was - and, seeing as how yet another chapter in the series has recently been scripted, is - Mike Pearson, the young hero of Coscarelli's legendary Phantasm series of horror films.
...
And, through it all, from Coscarelli's micro-budgeted original (an unexpected, left-field smash) to 1994's Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, and 1998's Phantasm IV: Oblivion, Baldwin has added nuance and gray-scale shadings to his ever-evolving character.
...
Only 1988's larger-budgeted, Universal Pictures-produced Phantasm II lacked Baldwin, who, despite the protests of Coscarelli and series regular Reggie Bannister (as the guitar-strumming former ice-cream vendor-cum savior of reality, Reggie), was momentarily-replaced by a young James LeGros at the behest of the film's financial backers.
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"We had an open casting situation and Mike actually had an agent at the time who sent him in - he just turned out to be perfect for the part," Coscarelli recalls."He was one of the better actors I'd ever worked with even though he was only 11 years old at the time - just perfect.And then, after Kenny and Co., I was trying to figure out some sort of vehicle to use him in, and I ended up formulating Phantasm, writing it around a couple of actors, which were Michael, Reggie Bannister, and Angus Scrimm.
...
"The thing you need to understand about Michael was that even at ages 11 and 12, he had a real sense of naturalism, a natural response to everything.It wasn't measured or postured - he always had an ability to convey a natural person, a natural kid, and that's something you don't often find as a director.And I think that while his style may be a little more structured now, in terms of his preparation, his style of acting remains very similar to what it was back then."

For better or worse, Phantasm will likely be the film that Michael Baldwin is remembered for - you can almost see his epitaph reading along the lines of "Kicked the Tall Man's Ass" - but it's by no means an albatross around his neck in the way that so many golden-age horror stars and character actors - Bela Lugosi being the most obvious example - viewed their own fame.
...
"Phantasm was a long time ago," says Baldwin, who in person is as laid-back and dryly humorous a person as you'd want to meet."I continued being an actor until I was probably 22 or something like that.I did lots of commercials and television and the whole routine.Studied acting, became a musician, and then when all my friends went off to college, I went off and found an Indian guru and lived on an ashram and had a grand time there."

As everyone knows, that sort of thing leads directly to either nirvana or the discovery of true love, and for Baldwin, the lucky guy, it lead to both, eventually landing him in Montclair, N.J., working for Olympia Dukakis' regional theatre company.It was there he met and eventually married Jennifer, whisking her back to Los Angeles and ultimately landing in Austin, which he'd first discovered in 1999 as a guest of honor at the Alamo Drafthouse and Stephen Romano's all-star Phantasmania weekend.

Of his friend (and now producer), Romano notes, "Mike's got this really amazing, dry, fuck-everybody sense of humor.
...
Romano, already pals and writing partner to Coscarelli, made fast friends with Baldwin, and so when the actor decided it was high time to exit the increasingly un-family-friendly realm of Hollywood for more suitably child-rearing pastures, Austin was at the top of the list.
...
There are almost as many schools of thought and action on the craft of acting as there are actors, but talking to Michael Baldwin about his work as an acting coach is an awful lot like watching a kid discuss what's so cool about Christmas morning.At once deeply passionate about his chosen field while simultaneously evincing a knowledge of actors and their strengths and weaknesses, Baldwin comes off as something of an acting guru: sage, wise, but not without good humor and more than a touch of the old good-for-your-blood irony.

"I do a thing called Process Acting," he explains, "which, like life, is about the journey and not the result.
...
As Baldwin says, actors have to deal with bad scripts all the time, so why not run a few lines from The Terminator in between Tennessee Williams and Clifford Odets?
...
And when it comes to the dicey question of why be an actor in the first place, Baldwin is far from cagey, noting that, truth be told, every single actor wants first and foremost to be a movie star, and offering a sobering reality check in lieu of the standard "go for it" platitudes.
...
"You can't tell people what they're not ready to hear," Baldwin adds."Ever.
...
For information on studying acting with Michael Baldwin, e-mail number9@ambaldwin.com.

How A. Michael Baldwin got here (hint: It involves a showbiz upbringing, Oreo cookies, and shrieking armadas of flying, brain-sucking spheres)
...
If, by chance, you happened to be a teenage girl living in Japan in 1976, then chances are your heart still quickens at the mention of the name Michael Baldwin, who, at the ripe young age of 11, found his calling in a little-remembered film called Kenny & Co., where he effortlessly essayed the role of smartass sidekick Doug to Dan McCann's titular adolescent everykid.
...
Pursued by the Tall Man and his relentless army of evil, interdimensional dwarves and shrieking armadas of flying, brain-sucking spheres, Baldwin was - and, seeing as how yet another chapter in the series has recently been scripted, is - Mike Pearson, the young hero of Coscarelli's legendary Phantasm series of horror films.
...
And, through it all, from Coscarelli's micro-budgeted original (an unexpected, left-field smash) to 1994's Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, and 1998's Phantasm IV: Oblivion, Baldwin has added nuance and gray-scale shadings to his ever-evolving character.
...
Only 1988's larger-budgeted, Universal Pictures-produced Phantasm II lacked Baldwin, who, despite the protests of Coscarelli and series regular Reggie Bannister (as the guitar-strumming former ice-cream vendor-cum savior of reality, Reggie), was momentarily-replaced by a young James LeGros at the behest of the film's financial backers.
...
"We had an open casting situation and Mike actually had an agent at the time who sent him in - he just turned out to be perfect for the part," Coscarelli recalls."He was one of the better actors I'd ever worked with even though he was only 11 years old at the time - just perfect.And then, after Kenny and Co., I was trying to figure out some sort of vehicle to use him in, and I ended up formulating Phantasm, writing it around a couple of actors, which were Michael, Reggie Bannister, and Angus Scrimm.
...
"The thing you need to understand about Michael was that even at ages 11 and 12, he had a real sense of naturalism, a natural response to everything.It wasn't measured or postured - he always had an ability to convey a natural person, a natural kid, and that's something you don't often find as a director.And I think that while his style may be a little more structured now, in terms of his preparation, his style of acting remains very similar to what it was back then."

For better or worse, Phantasm will likely be the film that Michael Baldwin is remembered for - you can almost see his epitaph reading along the lines of "Kicked the Tall Man's Ass" - but it's by no means an albatross around his neck in the way that so many golden-age horror stars and character actors - Bela Lugosi being the most obvious example - viewed their own fame.
...
"Phantasm was a long time ago," says Baldwin, who in person is as laid-back and dryly humorous a person as you'd want to meet."I continued being an actor until I was probably 22 or something like that.I did lots of commercials and television and the whole routine.Studied acting, became a musician, and then when all my friends went off to college, I went off and found an Indian guru and lived on an ashram and had a grand time there."

As everyone knows, that sort of thing leads directly to either nirvana or the discovery of true love, and for Baldwin, the lucky guy, it lead to both, eventually landing him in Montclair, N.J., working for Olympia Dukakis' regional theatre company.It was there he met and eventually married Jennifer, whisking her back to Los Angeles and ultimately landing in Austin, which he'd first discovered in 1999 as a guest of honor at the Alamo Drafthouse and Stephen Romano's all-star Phantasmania weekend.

Of his friend (and now producer), Romano notes, "Mike's got this really amazing, dry, fuck-everybody sense of humor.
...
Romano, already pals and writing partner to Coscarelli, made fast friends with Baldwin, and so when the actor decided it was high time to exit the increasingly un-family-friendly realm of Hollywood for more suitably child-rearing pastures, Austin was at the top of the list.
...
There are almost as many schools of thought and action on the craft of acting as there are actors, but talking to Michael Baldwin about his work as an acting coach is an awful lot like watching a kid discuss what's so cool about Christmas morning.At once deeply passionate about his chosen field while simultaneously evincing a knowledge of actors and their strengths and weaknesses, Baldwin comes off as something of an acting guru: sage, wise, but not without good humor and more than a touch of the old good-for-your-blood irony.

"I do a thing called Process Acting," he explains, "which, like life, is about the journey and not the result.
...
As Baldwin says, actors have to deal with bad scripts all the time, so why not run a few lines from The Terminator in between Tennessee Williams and Clifford Odets?
...
And when it comes to the dicey question of why be an actor in the first place, Baldwin is far from cagey, noting that, truth be told, every single actor wants first and foremost to be a movie star, and offering a sobering reality check in lieu of the standard "go for it" platitudes.
...
"You can't tell people what they're not ready to hear," Baldwin adds."Ever.
...
For information on studying acting with Michael Baldwin, e-mail number9@ambaldwin.com.