John Galt shares passion

Broadcast and voice-over legend John William Galt told a group of aspiring actors recently that even though the economy has brought everything down, the timing is

perfect – because there's no other way to go but up.

After suffering a stroke, a heart attack and being paralyzed for a while, the septuagenarian is still working as a voice-over artist.  He's also a writer and has one novel out and a short story anthology.  He's done more than 1,000 commercials and has had a long and distinguished career in professional theater and film.

Galt entertained an audience with his humor, philosophy and advice on the acting field  Sept. 30 at Richland's ongoing monthly "Professional Artist Series." The event was sponsored by the Drama Department. Andy Long, department chair and visiting scholar, attended and also spoke with Galt about experiences they've shared in the

acting field.

Galt took a few classes at Richland many years ago. He was also one of the first students at Mountain View College, where he directed plays through the Drama Department.

"The academic thing was not as important to me as doing it, although it is important, I think," Galt said. "What you learn from academia, although very, very important, is sometimes not as valuable as what you learn out in the real world, which is the art of shameless self promotion. I did a lot of plays. I love theater."

In college, Galt said when he started, he was a philosophy major until he found out that all he could do was teach. Then he changed to archaeology but found out he couldn't keep what he found. So he majored in theater and earned a Bachelor of Arts.

Galt got his start in the military in 1957 with the American Forces Network, and has been in the entertainment field for 50 years. He's always wanted to be an actor and had his heart set on playing Tarzan, but it wasn't to be.

"The problem with movies is that I have a bad relationship with the camera. I only look chubby, cute and harmless," Galt said. "But I did 31 films, so I gave it a good try."

Galt was the narrator in many movies:  "Forrest Gump," "JFK," "The Return of Josey Wales," "Paper Moon," "Problem Child" and "Born on the Fourth of July," among others. He describes Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump" as being "a very patriotic guy." Galt played the Fat Republican at the Miami Convention who attacked Tom Cruise's character in "Born on the Fourth of July.

In "Talk Radio," he voiced three characters – a guy from Maine, a truck driver from Texas and a kid in California. In working with Alec Baldwin, Galt described him as having "a good sense of humor." He and Baldwin have been buddies for a long time.

In promoting yourself, Galt said, "what keeps you out is they [the actors] don't know you. What keeps you in is, they do."

Galt said he did "76 weeks with Mickey Rooney playing a gay interior decorator." And, one of his most memorable jobs was two episodes of the TV show "Dallas."

Galt said voicing is a form of acting and gave several examples of characters. In one, he delighted the audience with a deep, mysterious voice as he whispered, "In the depths of the ocean lives a creature with only one thought:  Killing you."  The audience loved it.

"I've played everything under the sun that a short guy can play," he said. "On voice, it doesn't matter how tall you are. I've done all kinds of accents."

Galt's advice to aspiring actors who are interested in the voice-over field is to focus on enunciation.

Galt and Long both joined the Kim

Dawson Agency in Dallas some time ago. Long said he remembers when Galt would always bring in calendars with his name on them and recalls Galt saying, "If you don't have a John Galt calendar, you don't work."

"Back in those days, I did three to five recording sessions a day five days a week. That's a lot of work for Dallas," Galt said. Now, he gets jobs locally from ad agencies like The Richards Group in Dallas, which produces national Firestone spots. He demonstrated one such ad with the words,

"Traction – reliability – Firestone."

Galt said he's been asked to teach, but won't do it because he considers what he does as natural. 

"If I tried to teach, I would really mess it up," Galt said. "I'm in my 70s and I'm still working."

Galt's advice for auditioning is "Just go and do what you're comfortable with. What you‘re selling is you. Do something you can do – something you're satisfied with. If you don't get it [the part] it's still not a loss. It pays off. In the long run, you learn from it. "

Galt had one last note on the art of self promotion, and that was to give things that are shiny and useful with your name on them so that people will remember you. He did just that at the lecture, giving everyone who attended a shiny purple pen with his name, his agent and his email address, which is johnwilliamgalt@sbcglobal.net.