|
Former Mobilian Richard Tyson has spent years navigating his way through the tumultuous waters of Hollywood. Recently, he survived a real-life storm when his boat capsized during the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.
Actor Richard Tyson wasn't cast for the summer blockbuster 'The Perfect Storm,' but he knows about playing the part of a boater in trouble during rough weather. For Tyson, though, his role in the boat capsizing episode was real.
While scouting places along the Gulf Coast for a new movie he hopes to produce and act in, the famous son of Mobile attorney John Tyson Sr. took time off to participate in the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo. Tyson, his wife, Tracey Kristoffersen Tyson, two of their friends and the 20-foot boat's captain were at Dixie Bar, a sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico, headed back to Dauphin Island when they ran into heavy winds and rain. As they headed toward Navy Cove on Mobile Bay, hurricane force winds tossed about the boat, capsizing it.
'I come up out of the water and my two friends are up, but our wives were still down there,' recalled Tyson, seated with his brother, Bobby Tyson, at Roussos Restaurant downtown. 'Tracey was still down in the cabin trying to get out. Tyson dove down into the water again, looking for his wife. 'I said, 'God I can't do it alone.' I'm yelling, 'Tracey!'' he said, his loud voice booming through the restaurant. He went under a third time, and when he came back up he heard the boat captain yell, 'Tracey's up.' Tyson wasn't acting when he talked about the harrowing experience. He realized they were lucky to be alive. So on Sunday, the day after the storm, Tyson went to church in Mobile with his family. 'I sang loud,' he said, singing a line from a hymn they sang. 'I'm the Lord of sea and rain,' he sang, his voice getting louder with every phrase. 'It seemed like every part of the service was based on something to do with trust and getting through the storm,' he said, pausing and looking down. 'It was pretty emotional.'
Sitting at a table in the corner of the bar at Roussos, the well-buffed actor munched on fried crab claws and talked about his latest Hollywood venture, Richard Martin Productions, his own production company. He decided to use his middle name, Martin, instead of his last name because it sounds more Hollywood. 'I've finally been able to do it,' said the tanned, blue-eyed Davidson High School graduate. 'I've been talking about doing this a long time.' Tyson has a script and the help of some area investors who have agreed to pump money into the film, estimated to have a $2.7 million budget. 'I can't announce anything yet, other than it takes place at a casino and on Dauphin Island,' said Tyson, the brother of Mobile District Attorney John Tyson Jr. He had just spent two days in Biloxi on a 'fact-finding mission' for his production company. Tyson will produce and act in the movie, 'Double Down,' which is about a gambler, played by Tyson, who falls on hard times, picks himself up and turns his life around. Tyson described it as a 'modern resurrection story.' He also hopes his father-in-law, actor/singer Kris Kristoffersen, will star in the movie, which be filmed along the Gulf Coast.
Most people have recognized him on the big screen with his trademark wavy ponytail, but these days he's sporting a shorter look. Though he's lived in Santa Monica, Calif., for 20 years, he's never forgotten his roots.
'He never lost his loyalty to home. He loves this region,' said his father, John Tyson Sr.
Last year he became one of the owners in the now defunct Mobile Admirals, which was once a member of the Regional Football League. He also returns to the area once a year to participate in the Ken Stabler Celebrity Golf Classic.
He hopes to return home more in the near future, but this time to produce, direct and appear in films he wants to make along the Gulf Coast. He also wants to put the stories of Alabamians on the big screen. One project he's passionate about is telling the story of Red Eagle, the half-Anglo, half-Indian leader who led the Fort Mims Massacre.
'One of his objectives is to re-image the South away from its portrayal as a bunch of tobacco chewing lynch mobs,' said John Tyson Sr.
For now, however, he's committed to working on back-to-back movies when he returns to Los Angeles.
In less than a week, he'll begin filming a new movie called 'The Run' with Nicholas Turturro, who played detective James Martinez on 'NYPD Blue.' A month later, he'll start work on another film.
Though he's made more than three dozen movies, his most recognizable film has been 'Kindergarten Cop' with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. His career started to take off after 'Kindergarten Cop' and then he landed the role of Genghis Kahn in the movie by the same name. While it was the 'role of a lifetime' for the actor, he spent almost a year in Russia working on the film, which meant being out of the Hollywood scene and unavailable for other parts.
'It took a big hold on his career,' said John Tyson Sr. But he said he knew his son would bounce back.
'He's an intense person when he makes up his mind to do something.' John Tyson Sr. saw that same tenacity in his son's junior year in high school.
'I remember he went to the American Legion boys state, came back home and grabbed my lapel and said, 'I want to go to the Naval Academy. Get me an appointment.''
And that's just what John Tyson Sr. did. But his son's stay was short-lived. After a football injury at the U.S. Naval Academy sidelined Tyson his freshman year, he left Annapolis and came back home to recuperate.
'He was devastated when he came home,' recalled his father. 'His ambition was shattered.' Richard Tyson enrolled in classes at the University of South Alabama and stumbled upon the theater.
'He followed a little girl he was interested in into the playhouse out there and the director informed him that he couldn't come in unless he was seeking a part,' recalled John Tyson. 'Everything's a challenge to Richard so he asked, 'What's the lead?''
Richard Tyson tried out and got the lead in the play 'Butterflies are Free.'
'I thought, 'Oh my God, where is he going with this?' recalled Tyson Sr. It didn't take Richard Tyson long to realize he had found his niche - acting.
He left Mobile on a Greyhound Bus with $100 in his pocket in 1978, headed to Hollywood to star in movies.
'When 47 people come to see you go be in the movies, you better do it,' said Tyson, one of eight children, about his departure for Hollywood. As the bus headed out of the station, the younger Tyson was holding a thumbs up sign to his family and friends. Before they rounded the block, the want-to-be actor made a stark discovery. He had boarded the wrong bus, causing him to ask the bus driver to stop so he could walk back to the station and board the bus for Los Angeles. Still standing at the bus station, his family thought Richard Tyson had changed his mind. The embarrassed young man had to fess up that he got on the wrong bus.
Once in Los Angeles, he had just enough money to pay for a week's stay at the YMCA. The next day he bluffed his way into MGM Studios, walking past the security guard with a notebook and pen while pretending to take notes. He ended up in the office of a casting director, who told him to go to acting school and get some training. He started doing odd jobs waiting tables and running errands.
'He lived in a truck and even a sailboat, wherever he could,' said his father. 'When Richard makes up his mind to do something, it's going to be done. He's very tenacious.'
Realizing he needed training, he returned to Alabama to finish his education, later receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Alabama. From there, he went on to do graduate work at Cornell University, where he earned a master's degree. Although he wanted his son to become a lawyer, John Tyson Sr. gave his blessing when Richard decided to return to Hollywood. But he put his foot down when he called back home with a suggestion.
'After he got his first role out there he said, 'By the way, they think I ought to change my name,' John Tyson Sr. recalled. 'I said, 'That's fine, if you don't ever want to come home again.'
In 1986, Richard Tyson hitchhiked back to Los Angeles and continued his pursuit of a movie career. With two degrees and theater training under his belt, he went back to the casting director at MGM. Impressed that he had returned, she recommended an agent. He landed his first speaking role in a Mr. Pibb commercial. Within 30 days, he had a part in a pilot show on CBS and in less than a year he was acting in his first flick 'Three O'Clock High,' where he played Buddy Revell, a high school bully.
John Tyson Sr. wasn't surprised that one of his eight children turned to acting.
'His mother graduated from Agnes Scott with a major in music and theater arts,' he said of his wife, Grace Tyson. But the elder Tyson was surprised his son Richard was the one who became the actor.
Diana and Kenny Aubin, Richard Tyson's classmates at Davidson, predicted in high school that Richard Tyson would one day become an actor or a politician because he was always making promises he couldn't keep, they said.
'When he ran for student council at Davidson, he promised a smoking room. That never happened,' recalled Mrs. Aubin. 'Kenny told him he wasn't a good football player but he always acted like a good one.' She said Richard Tyson was one of those kind of people you would never forget from high school.
'You always knew he was there. He never sat quietly,' she said from her home in Mobile. 'He always had a story to tell, but he was never obnoxious.'
'He always said what he thought people wanted to hear and he always made it believable,' said Aubin. 'He was a good actor back then, like all the promises he made. Of course, there was no way he could have kept them.'
And he's still embellishing stories, said Mrs. Aubin, who made another prediction.
'I wouldn't be surprised if 15 years down the road he's in politics.' |