GIVE HIM AN OSCAR - VOTE FOR RICHARD JENKINS FOR BEST ACTOR

It was several years ago. I was sitting in a dark gym, that was supposedly transformed in an atmosphere of nightclub with a jazz band. We sat at large circular tables, found some average food, smorgasbord style and there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling - saying it was expected that there would be some dancing. The music was better than the average high school band. But this school was Moses Brown - a private Quaker school in Providence, Rhode Island. My son was playing tenor saxophone in the Upper School's Jazz Band. And usually I don't mind going to things alone, but this night it felt a little uncomfortable. Everyone it seemed was there with a husband or a wife. And most people had preselected the people that they would sit with. Not me. I couldn't really see the person I was sitting next to well enough to be able to recognize him even if I might by chance have seen him before. So, I asked him what he did. Well, at least I didn't say something lame like "It's been cold lately." So he answered, "I'm an actor."

Well, a little awkward, because I was looking at him sideways, and though there was no smoke in the air to blur his face, I couldn't make out who he was. It was barely light enough to find the plate with my food on it.

I can't remember what I said next. Somehow I got his name. Richard Jenkins.

The Richard Jenkins who in 2009 is one of the five men up for the Best Actor category for an Academy Award.

Now here was my problem that evening. I hadn't kept up with his career. At all. But I knew who he was. But because years and years ago, I had seen him repeatedly in the Trinity Repertory Theatre Company plays. So, all I could come up with in my mind was to mention Trinity Rep and an actor that I also remembered as a stand out at the time, Peter Gerety. There are 84 movies or TV shows that Richard Jenkins has been in.

He was there with his wife. I remember we talked about Moses Brown and his wife thinking it was important that their son have a good education. His son was a Senior that year. Guess what instrument he played in the jazz band?

Drums.

Just like Richard plays in The Visitor.

I felt so badly afterward ... that all I could say was that I knew him from Trinity Rep - the Rhode Island professional theatre company. Geez, I wish I had kept up with his career... so I could have complimented him on his current success. So, there I was, with an opportunity to talk about acting and I squandered it. What a knucklehead.

I love where I live....as I have admitted repeatedly.

I know it may seem silly to be impressed with people we see on the screen (or in this case - somehow missed seeing on the screen), but we are, or at least some of us are. I can't imagine if I had been sitting beside my current favorite actor, Gerry Butler. I would have been blushing in the darkness.

I love where I live, because I have had the opportunity to be close to people that otherwise I wouldn't have back in northeastern Indiana where I was born. Here, Nicolas Cage has a house about 10 minutes from where I live. One of his many, but still he and his wife enrolled their son in a local private school in Newport. Years ago, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward walked past me at Rogers High School's auditorium lobby. They were there because Joanne supported the dance company performing that evening. I was just standing there and knew it was them, but it was such a fleeting moment. And unexpected.

We were in an elevator in New York City where we were spending the weekend once and there was the actor Fyvush Finkel. At the time he had just been in Picket Fences.

Last summer, I was walking along Americas Cup Avenue with two others on August 8, wearing our STOP GENOCIDE t-shirts and Chevy Chase walked by us. He was there for the Newport Jazz Festival.

Just little moments. But still. Fun moments.

The Best Actor category for 2009 includes
Richard Jenkins
The Visitor

Frank Langella
Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn
Milk

Brad Pitt
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke
The Wrestler

Source: www.oscar.com

February 22, 2009 - The Oscars

Richard Jenkins News

Here are just some of Richard's roles

1. The Cabin in the Woods (2010) (pre-production)
2. The Rum Diary (2010) (pre-production) .... Lotterman
3. Norman (2009) (post-production) .... Doug Long
4. Dear John (2009) (post-production)
5. Waiting for Forever (2009) (post-production) .... Richard Twist
   
   
6. The Tale of Despereaux (2008) .... Principal
7. Burn After Reading (2008) .... Ted Treffon
   ... aka Burn After Reading (France)
8. Step Brothers (2008) .... Dr. Robert Doback
9. The Brøken (2008) .... John McVey
   ... aka The Broken (France) (International: English title)
10. The Visitor (2007/I) .... Prof. Walter Vale
11. The Kingdom (2007) .... Robert Grace
    ... aka Operation: Kingdom (Germany)
12. Rumor Has It... (2005) .... Earl Huttinger
    ... aka Rumour Has It... (Australia) (Canada: English title) (New Zealand: English title)
13. Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) .... Frank Bascombe
    ... aka Alternative Career (Philippines: English title)
    ... aka Fun with Dick & Jane (USA: poster title)
14. Earth to America (2005) (TV)
15. North Country (2005) .... Hank Aimes
16. "Six Feet Under" .... Nathaniel Fisher (19 episodes, 2001-2005)
    - Everyone's Waiting (2005) TV episode .... Nathaniel Fisher
    - All Alone (2005) TV episode .... Nathaniel Fisher
    - Ecotone (2005) TV episode .... Nathaniel Fisher
    - Time Flies (2005) TV episode .... Nathaniel Fisher
    - Untitled (2004) TV episode .... Nathaniel Fisher
    (14 more)

Peter Gerety roles

Regis Philbin talks about Richard Jenkins and The Visitor - Don't Miss This

This Year's Real Underdog - a video interview in Dave Karger's Oscar Watch

New York Times article about Richard Jenkins and The Visitor

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Richard Jenkins on The View
Uploaded by lester94111
Richard Jenkins agent is Rhonda Price

The Visitor

Richard Jenkins ~ Nominee for Best Actor
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The Visitor - Trailer

The Visitor trailer scenes, interviews and on set footage - 25:40

A video - As part of the ongoing Back Stage "Evening With" series, actors Richard Jenkins and Haaz Sleiman spoke to a packed house after a screening of their film 'The Visitor' in L.A. 4:05 www.backstage.com

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What Did I Do?

Where's Tarek
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Drum Circle
Uploaded by overturefilms

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Drum Lesson
Drum Lesson
This video uploaded by starzmedia

Beloved One
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Come On I Need Some Music

I Just Want My Life

Staten Island

Above videos uploaded by overturefilms

This is the text from the overturefilms

Walter (Richard Jenkins) comes home to his apartment in New York and finds an unexpected visitors living there (Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira).

The Visitor

In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy's follow-up to his award winning directorial debut The Station Agent, Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) stars as a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City.

Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale (Jenkins) is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.
Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument's exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter's faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture, age and temperament fall away.

After being stopped by police in the subway, Tarek is arrested as an undocumented citizen and held for deportation. As his situation turns desperate, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friend with a passion he thought he had long ago lost. When Tarek's beautiful mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives unexpectedly in search of her son, the professor's personal commitment develops into an unlikely romance.

And it's through these new found connections with these virtual strangers that Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life.

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