Fame

Fame? Now what is it? Can you lead a normal life whilst being famous? I think you can; when I read about the royal family and the normality of their lives I ask myself how can they do such things without people staring at them?

But they do; they wander around Windsor or Balmoral in their Land Rovers and they see the people they see all the time and the people know who they are and wave.

Just like me and you wandering around our neighbourhoods and saying hello to the people we know. But when they step outside the familiar places they are noticed there too, whereas we are not. Unless we dress up in a bowler hat, pins stripes and carry an umbrella into a Country and Western Texas Bar.

Many years ago I had a dose of mini fame; I was doing a soap opera on TV in Birmingham and at the time I lived in Oakengates, Shropshire which is around 35 miles or so from Birmingham.

I used to go to a place to drink at the weekends with my pals and I told them when I got the job in the soap and we carried on drinking and playing the card game NAP. People in the bar knew me and people in the neighbourhood knew me too.

When I went into the soap I travelled in to Birmingham six days a week – four days to rehearse in a rehearsal room then two days in the TV studio where we would tape two episodes a day. Then back in the car to Shropshire and on Sundays it would be a day off.

On Sunday lunchtimes I would go to the same place to drink and play NAP then back home for lunch in time to watch the football match on TV and maybe sleep in front of The Golden Shot – fans of The Golden Shot will know how long ago this is.

The episodes of the soap started to go out on the air a few weeks after I started and when they did, people in the place I used to drink would say they saw me on Television and so did the friends and neighbours; my mother would tell all her friends to watch and she got a great kick out of it.

Then one day as I was travelling in to a Saturday rehearsal my car broke down; there was no chance of getting it going straight away so I left it where it was at the side of the road; I knew there was a railway station nearby so headed towards it by foot. When I got to the station I waited for a train but all seemed hopeless as the next train wasn't due for another hour; so I sat on a bench and waited.

Presently a train came into the station but going in the opposite direction from where I wanted to go; I glanced up at it and it was full of teenage school girls; one of them looked at me and said “It's Jim!” I didn't really hear those words but worked it out later; then another girl came and shouted 'Jim” - that I heard clearly and soon quite a few of them opened their windows and started calling. That's when the penny dropped – they had recognised me! I had stepped outside of my comfort zone. I waved to them and as the train disappeared into the distance they were all waving to me and calling.

I never did catch that train and missed the only day's rehearsal I have ever missed; a pal came and gave me a lift back home to my comfort zone.

There have been many such incidents over the years whenever I have had something current on TV; when I was in General Hospital people would stop me in the street saying “please have that operation; it'll save your life.”

So I think movie stars, Royalty and the like have their comfort zones too but Royalty have been trained for a public life and people who seek fame have not.

If someone becomes famous early they don't always know how to handle it; we see the problems with drugs young movie stars and rock singers have – some of them not surviving.

People seek fame seek as if they are taking drugs; they want only so much fame and they want it on their terms but fame increases exponentially till it's out of control and sometimes it's very difficult to reverse.

Once in a very great while I get a fan letter – or more like an e-mail these days – and once in a very great while someone will recognise me in the street; that's usually in the UK; now if people remember me, no matter how seldom, what would it be like for someone like Brad Pitt or Jack Nicholson to start a new life?

I could quite easily change my life – take a job doing something else and get away with it.

I sell antiques/collectibles at Fairfax Flea Market once a month and when I am doing that I'm in another life away from the theatre - but that doesn't really count as most of the other sellers are actors and musicians and the like; in fact I think very few actors take jobs in bars these days or as waiters so casting directors could easily take a trip to any flea market to do their casting.

But I enjoy my monthly sale; I meet hundreds of people and I have loads and loads of conversations with people from all over the world – and many other places.

There I am above – someone snapped a shot and sent it to me.

There is a ninety second clip of me from The Stanley Dyrector talk show on You Tube - take a look; he asked me how and why I started and I said I saw a guy in the street going to a ball with a blond on his arm; he was famous as he was in a soap opera on TV – the same one I did as it happens - and it was one of those shows that went out in the evening that was always number one in the ratings.

I saw him on the way to the ball and I thought “Wow! I wouldn't mind a bit of that” and so I became an actor. Well it wasn't as simple as that; I had to go to drama school to learn the craft side of the job – you can't teach the artistic side; you either have it or you don't – and that took me about four years; one year of night school and three years full time college and by the time I finished thoughts of fame and fortune had gone. I just wanted to be a good actor – I still do!