A C T O R

  

John Towey has made his living as a professional actor for over 45 years, including roles in television (Murphy Brown, The X-Files, and ER), movies (Fearless, Cries of Silence, The Invisible Kid) and on stage (Hamlet at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Amadeus, a Broadway production; The Three Sisters at The Guthrie).  He has acted in more than 75 stage productions along with 15 Shakespeare plays including four different roles in four different productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

 

John was bitten by the acting bug when he was cast in the leading role of his high school’s senior class play, Jenny Kissed Me.  His interest in theatre continued to grow during his college years and when he was 21 John left Rochester for The Goodman School in Chicago where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1967. Straight out of Goodman he was cast for a season of plays at the Pittsburgh Playhouse including Once Upon a Mattress, Henry IV, Part I, Three Men on a Horse, and Galileo.

 

In 1968 John moved to New York City. Within three months he landed a contract as a recurring character on an NBC soap opera Hidden Faces. He appeared in the original Off-Broadway productions of To Be Young, Gifted and Black followed by A Dream Out of Time, and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. He worked in supporting roles with Al Pacino and Martin Sheen in Julius Caesar, Christopher Walken and Irene Worth in Coriolanus, Joan Cusack and Don Cheadle in Cymbeline, all these at New York’s Public Theatre in the late ‘80s.  John also worked for three seasons each at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in the late 70’s, and the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis in the mid ‘80s.  He also taught scene study and improvisation to young people in these cities. 

 

In 1990 John and his family moved to Los Angeles where he performed at the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson (four plays under the direction of Sir Peter Hall), The Falcon, the John Anson Ford Theater, and the Colony Theatre. He also worked at the Pasadena Playhouse, the Labero Theatre in Santa Barbara, The Old Globe in San Diego, and the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach.  He appeared in 35 television shows including Murphy Brown, The X-Files, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Crossing Jordan.

 

In the past few years Towey has performed his one-man show, Travels with Charley: In Search of America, a 90 minute stage production which he adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel with the approval and permission from The Elaine A. Steinbeck Estate.

 

Click here to read this 2010 interview from Rochester Magazine,
from John's hometown in Minnesota —
10 (or so) questions with... John Towey By Steve Lange