Page 18 - Flathead Beacon // 3.4.15

18 | MARCH 4, 2015
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“We were all in our 20s and we all thought we were pretty big stud athletes. Now we still keep dragging our butts out there even though we’re a little aged,” he said.
“I sure try to make it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed this year. I’m shooting a movie that will be taking us to some ex- otic locations this summer. I’m still hop- ing I’ll make it back.”
After five years in Seattle and six seasons at the Playhouse, Simmons pur- sued an even larger stage, driving cross- country to New York City where he tried catching a break on Broadway at age 28. As he told the University of Montana alumni magazine, The Montanan, “I had a Fiat convertible with everything I owned inside and $400 to my name.”
Simmons waited tables and took any part he could land in regional theaters in New York. The variety of skills he learned in Bigfork proved helpful, as Simmons’ wide range of abilities earned him roles in comedies, dramas and musicals.
But again, nothing came easy.
“He fought hard in New York,” Ague recalls. “It’s hard to hang on in that world. It was one of those things that didn’t come easy for J.K. It’s a battle. You have to just keep fighting, keep audition- ing and hope you get that right role that sets you up a level. He did all the right things. He kept fighting for it and getting little parts.”
His persistence paid off and Broad- way auditions slowly turned into roles. One performance in particular changed everything — a stellar turn as Benny Southstreet in the 1992 Broadway reviv- al of “Guys and Dolls.” In softball terms,
Simmons knocked it out of the park. The momentum carried him to an agent and from there he became a regu- lar on prominent Broadway stages be- fore he transitioned to television. He made brief appearances in shows like “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” “Spin
City” and “New York Undercover.” Again, his ability to play any and all types of characters stood out, and by the mid-1990s and early-2000s he had landed keys roles in the HBO series “Oz” and the hit shows “Law & Order” and “The Closer.” Around this same time he got his big break in movies thanks to standout performances such as J. Jonah
Jameson in the Spider-Man trilogy. Today he is regarded as one of the top character actors working in television and movies; “The man of a thousand
roles,” People magazine declared.
“He has all the great tools of a great actor,” said Stephen Kalm, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts
at UM.
“The Bigfork Summer Playhouse is
certainly a wonderful training ground for great actors,” Kalm added.
Since becoming a successful Hol- lywood actor, Simmons has remained tied to Montana, frequently returning to Missoula and Bigfork. He has helped support musical and theater programs and students and provided his talents to a variety of community projects.
His strong connection to Montana has a lot to do with his parents, who be- came well-respected community icons after moving there in the 1970s.
“His family comes first. Then his friends and then his work,” said Ague,
who remains a close friend to Simmons. “He’s always shined as a friend.”
Don Simmons passed away in Mis- soula in 2012 and Pat passed in 2014.
Their profound impact on his life could be felt during his Oscar speech.
“That was something that was very important to him and he shared that with the world,” said Ague, who is now the stage manager at the Playhouse and watched the Oscars alongside Don and Jude Thomson at a bar out of town dur- ing a recent talent-scouting trip for the upcoming season.
“That speech was totally JK. It showed how real he is.”
TALKING TO REPORTERS AFTER
winning the Oscar, Simmons was both humble and grateful. But the way he described it, his appreciation was not necessarily centered on the end result — achieving this great award — but instead his consciousness was focused else- where, like the theater by the bay.
“For me, the lean times were a won- derful, beautiful time of my life, strug- gling for many years in regional theater all over the country for not much mon- ey,” he told reporters backstage.
“I look back on those times with great fondness.”
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LEFT: Patrons of the Bigfork Summer Playhouse file out of the building in downtown Bigfork before its recent renovation.
BEACON FILE PHOTO
BELOW: J. K. Simmons conducts the Griz Marching Band during UM’s 2012 Homecoming football game. Simmons became the first University of Montana alum to win an Academy Award for acting. The 1978 music graduate won best supporting actor for his role in “Whiplash.”
COURTESY TODD GOODRICH, UM FILE PHOTO