It all started with an email from Joe Williamson who asked me if I could have one of his clients on, “The View From Over Here”, to which I answered, for you Joe, “whatever you desire”. That’s a line from a movie. Then I get a new email telling me that: “His name is Ford Austin and you can read his bio that I have attached and I’ll tell him that the interview will take place at the Marc Graue Studio in Burbank”. It’s not that I don’t believe Joe but I always like to heck out all of our guests on the internet beforehand. You never know what you might find. And there it was in black and white AND pink. It was his publicity photo proudly showing off his actor’s grimace, while dressed in some kind of cock-‐a-‐mamie outfit, all of which was topped off by his pink punk rock ‘do’, complete with spiked hair, of course. What did I get myself into, I kept asking myself? I was ready to call Joe and tell him that I don’t do heavy metal, vampires or zombies but a promise is a promise.
On the appointed day, I was sitting with Malcolm Burman, my ‘wingman’ and producer having coffee in the employees lounge at the Marc Graue Studio while looking at Ford Austin’s photo.
MALCOLM: “Is this the guy that you booked for today?”
ME: “The recommendation came from Joe Williamson.”
MALCOLM: “Did you see what he looks like?”
ME: “Yeah. But it was after I promised Joe.”
MALCOLM: “What if he doesn’t fit in with the format of the show?”
ME: “No problem. If we have to, we’ll fake it.”
The door to the lounge opened. In the doorway stood this dude who I would refer to as a tall cool looking guy, wearing a leather jacket that reminded me of my motorcycle days, with an engaging smile and jet black hair. “Yes, can I help you?”, I asked. He looked at the both of us before he spoke. “I’m Ford Austin. Are you guys Stan and Malcolm?” Malcolm and I were flabbergasted and just sat there staring at him. Ford picked up on it and assured us, “I know, I know, it’s that picture of me on the internet.” What a relief that was and so we jabbered away while getting to know him during the few minutes that we had before air time.
Here’s a guy that was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas. In my book, that makes him a cowboy, at least until he decided to take up acting and spent the next few decades on the stage in Philadelphia and New York learning his craft. Honing his skills in the theater helped Ford in his transition over to Hollywood where, in a relatively short span of time, accumulated an impressive roster of IMDb credits consisting of: 88 for acting, 69 for producing, 38 for writing, 34 for directing, 37 for editing, 20 for cinematography, 16 for composing and believe it or not, some additional credits in the electrical department and as a crew member. Sounds to me like he’s grooming himself to take over the reins of a major studio. You think? Based on what I’ve seen I think he can handle it. During our interview of Ford we learned that he was raised by his stepmother who was Jewish and he married a girl who was Jewish which makes him Jewish by proxy and therefore it makes him a ‘natural’ to run a studio in an industry that was invented by the Jews.
A sampling of the projects that Ford Austin has worked on:
You’ve all heard the expression, memorialized forever on bumper stickers, “Shit Happens.” On March 9, 2011, Ford was working simultaneously on four feature films: “The Ghostmaker”, “The Right to Love: An American Family”, “Radical” and “Morella”, when he was involved in a horrific car accident while on his way home from the office. He was given a 1% possibility of survival and was put in an induced coma while the doctors worked on putting him back together. Needless to say, all production on the four projects that he was involved with came to an immediate halt. He credits his survival to his wife Lauree Dash, an Emmy award winning producer herself, who not only stayed at his side but also kept after him without letup so that he could learn to breathe, speak, eat and walk again. From his hospital bed he finished producing, “The Right to Love” and insisted on being present at the Skywalker Ranch screening and attending the New York premieres, all the while on crutches. Although Ford is back at work, for the first three years he underwent 30 surgeries, put up with 12 months in a wheelchair, endured 7 hospitalizations between the west and east coasts while having to cope with some $6,500,000 of medical bills. To this day he still undergoes mandatory rehab. Yes, shit does happen but Ford, with his tenacity, purpose of vision, multiple talents together with the love of his wife, Lauree, kept him on track and made him stronger than ever.
