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| Local Actor Hits the Silver Screen |
In his 1986 High School yearbook, Jeffrey Donovan described his plans for the future: "Go to college and get a degree in acting, perform in the theater, and make a lot of money. "As most aspiring actors know all too well, this is easier said than done. But the Amesbury native has seen the fruition of his dream with remarkable speed and success. "I'm really surprised at the successes I've had," Donovan says. "I knew at a very early age what I wanted to do, and now I'm doing it. I love acting, and I'm actually getting paid for doing something I love. I'm very lucky."
This is a big fall for Donovan. The film "Bait," in which he stars with Jamie Foxx, opened in September to good reviews. In addition, Donovan plays a central role in the much anticipated film "Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows," due to open Oct. 27.
"In `Bait,' I have a supporting role as the ex-con who's a comic foil to Jamie Foxx's character and problems," Donovan says. "It's a very funny
action comedy. In 'Blair Witch, 'I'm actually the focus of the film. It's a psychological thriller, not Romp in the Woods, Part Two. It's very different
from the first one. It's a commentary on the paranoia that gripped the country on whether or not the first film was real."
Donovan made his film debut in the 1995 independent film "Throwing Down," which won critical acclaim at the New York Hamptons Film Festival that fall. His impressive debut landed him a small acting part in Barry Levinson's film "Sleepers," which starred Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Bacon.
All of this is pretty heady stuff for someone who cut his theatrical teeth in the Amesbury High School Drama Club, which Donovan reactivated with Amesbury HS English teacher Patricia Hoyt. "
Jeff always knew he wanted to be an actor," Hoyt comments. "In high school, he starred in the senior play, 'The Sting,' in the role Paul Newman made famous in the film. At that time, the senior play was our big drama production, but he helped me reactivate the Drama Club for the underclassmen and was our first Drama Club president."
However great the temptation might have been, Donovan eschewed the role of the Tormented Artist in his days at Amesbury High. In addition to being voted "class chatterbox," he was on the tennis and football teams, and - according to the yearbook - spent his spare time "with his friends or on his motorcycle."
Hoyt, who has kept in touch with Donovan over the years, had high praise for her protg's performance in Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic," which he starred in this past summer at the Berkshire Theater Festival. "His work is professional and inspirational," Hoyt raves. "In `Toys in the Attic,' he showed the great range of characters he can portray."
After high school, Donovan went to Bridgewater State and University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He then studied at the State University of New York's prestigious graduate acting program.
Donovan made his Broadway debut in 1994, in "An Inspector Calls," and went on do television appearances. The range of series on which Donovan has worked is impressive: "One Life to Live," "Homicide: Life on the Streets," "Law and Order," "The Pretender," "As The World Turns," "Millennium," "Another World," "Spin City," "The Beat," "Witness to the Mob," "When Trumpets Fade," and "Critical Choices."
In 1998, Donovan appeared on Broadway again, this time in Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge." He's also performed at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, and Off Broadway in "Oedipus," "Skyscraper," "Freedomland," and "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight." His work has impressed New York reviewers.
"I was particularly taken by Donovan's easily contemporary Teiresias," famed theater critic Clive Barnes wrote of his performance in "Oedipus." A reviewer for Theatre Magazine was similarly effusive about Donovan's performance in "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight": "As Gene, Donovan gets an opportunity to set the stock Italian stud character on its ear. He's perfection, right down to his aligned bedroom slippers."
It was Donovan's role in "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight" that got him the part in "Bait," which Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert described as "a deadpan action comedy with a little Hitchcock, a little Bond and a lot of attitude. It's funny and clever, and it grows on you... It's one of those movies where you start out thinking you've seen it all before, and the longer it runs, the less you've seen before."
His next project after the Blair Witch 2 debut is a film called "Purpose," about the tumultuous process of Internet start-ups going public. "It's an independent film," Donovan says. "I really liked the script and the role." Despite his hectic and far-flung schedule, Donovan says he still manages to get home to visit his mother and brother two or three times a year. "I'm a small boy from a small town called Amesbury," he promises.
END
Date unknown - article courtesy of CAROL FEINGOLD
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