Frank J. Budelman
Actor
"An Actor's Journey"
The Starting Point
Frank started on his theatre journey in 1953 when he starred in his HS Senior play. He sang in numerous Minstrel Shows in New York into 1955. After joining the USAF he met a student of Herb Berghoff and Uta Hagen in the United Kingdom and acted under his direction in a number of dramas and comedies. Frank's first comedy was the Male Animal where he played Dean Damon. He next appeared in My Three Angels as Jules and then in a drama called Time Limit as Col. Kim a North Korean prisoner camp commandant. He was part of an experimental theartre acting ensemble studying and performing roles in The Wooden Dish and Death of A Salesman, to name a few. For the remainder of his time in the UK, Frank was directed and trained by Harry (Mike) Morand, a Hollywood trained actor. For Time Limit, Frank's costume came from a costume shop in London and the label in the coat said Kurt Jurgens. Apparently Mr. Jurgens also played a Korean or Russian Colonel at some point. Frank was amazed that Mr. Jurgens and he were the exact same size.
It was during his time in the UK that he decided that he favored character parts over leads even though he got excellent reviews for his role as Charlie Reader in The Tender Trap. As part of the USAF Anglo-American Relations program, he spent a good amount of time at the motion picture lot of Pinewood Studios. His film fascination was born here where he got to move about the lot and see the making of Sean Connery's From Russia With Love, and Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmations. Frank finally had the answer to why he was always fascinated with movies.
Home from the UK
After returning to the USA in 1965, Frank worked at the San Angelo City Theatre in Texas where he performed the character role of The Stranger in The Little Hut. He received a great education in behind-the-scenes work as AD, and Stage manager. In Around The World In 80 Days (the musical) Frank portrayed a London Cockney, a Sherpa Guide and an English Gentleman. It was in this production where he learned the art of quick multiple costume and make-up changes. One of the most enjoyable roles he had while in San Angelo, Texas was that of the Villain in the City's production of the city's annual charity "Mellerdramer," The Pitfalls of Pauline.
Frank's travels throughout the world gave him an acute and accurate ability to affect regional and foreign accents. He left the USAF with the ability to use Russian, German, Greek, French and Spanish for his travels. While not fluent in those languages, he had great language travel and survival skills. While working as a landscaper on Long Island, NY to make enough money to return to college to study Theatre, Frank performed in numerous shows. He kept his hand in the craft by doing Doolittles buddy in My Fair Lady, The Father in Take Her She's Mine, a comic character in a Musical Review, and the role of Erie Smith in Hughie, by Eugene O'Neil at Suffolk College while studying acting.
College and Grad School
Upon leaving the USAF, Frank worked in New York City and did some acting with Civic and small professional theatres as mentioned above, but the intention was to save enough bucks to go to college and study theatre. After one year out of the service, he went back to college and studied Speech and Dramatic Art at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. Probably because of his prior acting experience and his maturity, he was offered parts in Main Stage productions as an underclassman mostly unheard of accomplishment. He was Dr. Nusslin in Frederich Durrenmatt's The Visit, and The Drunk in The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan.
Frank's acting development not only came from the volume of classical scene acting in classes, but, was further enhanced in the University's Experimental Theatre by character parts as Tom Rainey in Carson McCulloch's The Ballad of a Sad Cafe and The Doctor in Camus' The Plague. Frank was asked to join the University of Maryland Drama Wing, a fraternity dedicated to the performance of educational dramatic programs for elementary and high school teachers and parents. In his role of father of a dysfunctional family, he traveled to 5 states and accumulated over 150 performances. In addition to his performances he acted as moderator and discussion guide for the problems illustrated in the play. He also played the lead in a similar project concerning suicide awareness and prevention. Frank was presented with the Top 10 Award for his portrayals. As a graduate assistant in the Department of Speech, Frank taught Public Speaking and Voice and Diction.
Life After College
College life was easy after 10 years of gallivanting all over the world with the USAF. However, graduating with an MA was not much help as there was a dearth of jobs in 1971 and the Viet Nam War had not yet created any new civilian jobs. His plan was to hotfoot it to New York (the city of his youth) and work the Broadway scene but, alas, finances were a severe problem. He had spent all his money on going back to college for 6 years and working just to get by so he didn't even have enough gas money to get to NY. It would be over 15 years before Frank would set foot on a stage again full time. You see, by then he had a wife and two sons to take care of and eventually college would be an issue for family finances. To slake his insatiable thirst for theatre, Frank embarked on a Community Theatre journey. In Keene, NH, Frank performed most of his Musical Theatre work, successively doing Oklahoma as Ali Hakim, Maime as M. Woolsey Lindsey, and L'il Abner as Scragg for the Annual Lion's Club Charity Show. He was cast as Selsden Mowbray in the Keene State Theatre production of Noises Off. He complimented those with lead roles in comedies such as Bell Book and Candle as Shep and Moon Over the Brewery as Warren for the Branch River Theatre, a dramatic character role in An Enemy of the People as Mr. Aslaksen, as well as AD and Stage Manager for Tartuffe for the Dover Repertory Theatre and a comic relief character role of Fred The Mover in Wheelhouse for Players Ring in Portsmouth, NH. Frank also taught Public Speaking as an Adjunct at Keene State College for the University of New Hampshire.
Paying Profession
However, undaunted by the exigencies of family raising and a very consuming telecommunications consulting career, he managed to use his flexible schedule to begin his lifelong dream of a paid film career. Every casting company in New England received his headshot and resume and, thus started the arduous journey of endless auditions and crushing rejections. Because of his determination to succeed, before long he began to be cast in industrial films, commercials, and feature films. Working as background (extra) was not a problem for Frank as he was just happy to be somewhere near a camera and performed in Mermaids, Wind, and Distant Justice. He had a speaking role in the Indie Feature Sleeping Beauty. Having minored in Film in graduate school, he had a fine appreciation of the art of filmmaking and film acting. Early on, he attracted the attention of a local Boston agent and his auditioning days began to wane.
Due to his vigilant agent, flexible schedule, dogged determination, and familiarity of the craft Frank began receiving commercial and industrial acting roles from producers without having to audition. Life was good. However, the exigencies of life caused his situation to change. His kids began growing up and the pressing need for college finances caused him to leave his dream and take a full-time job with a Fortune 500 company. This mid-life change would cost him 10 years of hiatus in his quest for stage and film work. His heavy national and international travel made it almost impossible to commit to any film or theatrical project.
Reembarking On Film/Theatre Career
Life in retirement gave Frank an opportunity to pursue his dream of a career in film. He returned to theatre to kick-start his acting reformation. He landed a part on his first audition. Frank was offered the parts of Rock Island Line Salesman 1 and Constable Locke in Music Man at the Leddy Center for the Performing Arts where he also appeared in every chorus and dance scene. He is currently only pursuing his film acting career full time. He has completed acting roles in 3 independent feature films, Stranger Among Us, Blackwater Farm, and Sons of Perdition, two student films and an independent short film, Used Books for FOX's Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg On The Lot contest #1818. In addition, he participated as background model on a Renault Racing Team Still Photo Shoot and as an extra in Episode 4 of Waterfront for CBS and an NHL Commercial featuring Bruins defender Zdeno Chara by NHL Productions. In addition, he has concluded a scene for a TV Film entitled Jack and the Beanstalk through Foolish Fairytales and has done three student films, Port of Call, Flight and Headphones. Frank was cast as a businessman in an industrial for Irving Oil Bluecanoe and as a nursing home patient for HCPro, Inc. He was a principle as the Gloucester Patient in Lahey Clinic's 2007 regional commercial, and has done extra and stand-in work on the films Bachelor 2, Pink Panther Deux, Lonely Maiden, Real Men Cry and the movie 21. He plans to take more TV and Film acting courses. Frank currently pursues film/TV full-time.
Education and Training
Frank holds a B.A. In Speech and Dramatic Art from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Speech Communication and Film.
He has attended a 6 week Master Soap Seminar by Dolly Springer, an 8 week TV Acting Workshop by Dolly Springer, and a 4 Week Voiceover Seminar by Roundwood Road Productions and Auditioning Workshop by Nashua Theatre Guild, an 8 week Adult Acting Workshop by Seacoast Repertory of Portsmouth, NH and a One Day Commercial Acting Workshop by Boston Casting's Media Performance Institute
Availability & Rates:
SAG Rates, Available 7 X 24 - 365, Please contact me for details. |
|
Frank Budelman
Brentwood, NH
Phone: (603) 702-1189
Email: budelman@comnetgroup.net
URL1: www.agencyprotalent.com/FrankieBee
URL2: www.comnetgroup.net/bio
URL3: www.nowcasting.com/frankbudelman |
