Life and Achievement Henry Polic II - Research Paper Example

Henry Polic II (1945 Introduction Henry Polic II (20thFebruary 1945 – 11thAugust ) was an American screen, stage,voice actor, as well as a stage/theatre director. He was a familiar face from his numerous television, film and stage roles amongst his audiences, and was best known on Webster as Jerry Silver and was also known for Batman animated series. As an actor he had several acting credits attached to his name, of which included credits in theatre, TV series and film. In addition, Henry Polic featured in more than 70 local as well as regional production and several global premiere productions (thebusinessofacting 1). Furthermore, Henry taught acting before the camera at Emerson College and held classes in performing and acting at the Dramatic arts Academy of America of which were both in Los Angeles. Background Born in 1945, in Pittsburgh, Henry Polic went to Florida State University and attained his masters degree in acting. After graduation, he was enlisted and stationed at Kansas Fort Riley, and later connected with the Tent Theatre of Missouri, and Miami’s Player’s Theatre, to mention but a few (Barnes 1). The early 1970s saw Henry Polic move to Los Angeles where he made his debut in TV as the Nottingham Sheriff in 1975 and also in the When Things Were Rotten comedy, which featured Richard Gautier. Henry Polic was a well-known game-show player, featuring frequently on the Pyramid of $25,000 and its eventual manifestation, the Pyramid of $100,000, of which Polic together with Dick Clark hosted. Furthermore, Henry was a host of a game-show as well and also running the 1986 ABC’s Double Talk. Apart from being a popular game show host, Henry Polic acted as Dracula briefly in NBCs 1970s series Monster Squad and featured as a guest in numerous shows, including Mork & Mindy, Alice, Eight Is Enough, Sheena, Murder, She Wrote, as well as Saved by the Bell (Barnes 1). Besides Polic’s work on Batman, he gave his voice to the Smurfs series and other various series. On Webster, Henry Polic acted as Jerry Silver, a confidant as well as the secretary to Katherine (Susan Clark), which had 54 episodes of the entire series, and ran from 1983-1989 on ABC as well as in syndicate. Historical Context In the 1980s, Henry Polic II was frequently viewed as a popular guest player on numerous game shows. His most regular guest slots were on the several manifestations of Pyramids, as he featured many times on the Pyramid of the $25,000 and the Dick Clark as well as the John Davidson-hosted versions of the Pyramid of the $100,000 for producer Bob Stewart. Henry Polic also did countless other work, as well as hosting the 1986 game show Double Talk, the 1988 pilot revival eye Q, and duty sharing announcements with Dean Goss and Johnny Gilbert on the $100,000 Pyramid. Polic’s specialties included regional and foreign accents, baritone singing and ballroom dancing. From the beginning of the 1990s up to his death, Henry Polic was possibly best known in Batman as the first accented British voice of the Scarecrow: The Animated Series. Initially, he had a deep, angry voice tone, but eventually made his voice higher to suit the role. While working at Florida’s State University Henry Polic guest stared in the Theatre’s Production School in a Christmas Carol production, whereby in 1996, he acted as Scrooge. Besides Henry Polic’s game show, he also hosted Double Talk from 1986 to 1987. Veteran actor Henry Polic II acted as the Nottingham Sheriff in the Mel Brooks series, and also when Things Were Rotten as well as Jerry Silver in Webster, died at 68 years, after a long illness with cancer (Barnes 1). Henry Polic also had film credits which included, the 1978 Joan Rivers, the 1977 Beau Geste Last Remake, the 1980 Oh, God! Book II, then the 2000 Bring Him Home and lastly the 2001 All You Need. Henry Polic appeared in over 70 local and regional productions, including the global premiere of Sister Act musical Broadway hit, whereby he initiated the Monsignor Howard role. Other theatrical credits in which Polic also starred were 1776 productions of Civic Light Long Beach, West’s Never Gonna Dance Music Theatre, Putting It Together, Is This Your Life, and the global production premiere of several other acts(broadwayworld 1).Henry Polic’s stage directing credits include Fools for the Actors Cooperative in Hollywood as well as the Ventura Rubicon Theatre; Jim Geoghan’s world premiere of Two Gentlemen of Corona; Nebraska’s world production premiere production; both the New York as well as Los Angeles Brine County Wedding productions; and a record breaking box office Dracula production. Polic was an event host and celebrity auctioneer, who over the year helped raise over $2 million for charities such as the Foundation Concern for Cancer Research, Adam Walsh Foundation, the Diabetes Association of American and the Foundation for Leukemia. Polic taught an acting class for the camera at Los Angeles Emerson College Center and he also taught an acting course in performing at the Academy of American Dramatic Arts. Henry Polic was also a member of The Fund Actors from 1973 and an organization’s member of the western council, which recognized him with the emeritus status. In addition, a scholarship memorial fund was founded in Henry Polic’s name within the State of Florida which provides finances in helping produce annual new works for the Schools of Theatre. Why do people have different opinions? Henry Polic II is a common face among audiences from his various movie, television as well as stage roles, and is also known for his acclaimed work as a theatre director. Henry Polic was passionate about his work in the theatre and some of his acting credits included regular series roles in the Webster comedies as well as the classic TV series. In addition, he has had many guest star roles such as the episodes of Sheena, She Spies, Cosby, news radio, and Profiler.Apart from acting credits Henry Polic has film credits too, which include All you need, Beau Geste Last Remake, the trail of the old, Bring Him Home, Oh God, Book II, Drum, and Rabbit test a comedy by Joan River. It can be said that opinions varied amongst Polic’s audiences, in that, the general consensus was that Henry Polic was an exceptional actor according to most movie critics, and he was also quite diverse in the roles he played. He was also selective in the movies and TV series he chose. He was a gifted and talented actor. However, he also made some bad choice movies that had critics’ criticize him on the poor choice of movie scripts, whereas the general viewer audience felt that he needed to take on more leading roles, and yet, on the other hand, the reason why Polic failed to get more leading roles in acting was because people thought he was not that good an actor. All in all, it is evident that Henry Polic was an actor who cut across both children and adults alike. People opinions by source and by opinion Henry Polic believed that the movies and TV series he made would speak for themselves, in terms of providing quality as well as reaching out to the opinionated audiences or people that watched his movies. His aim was to make good movies and TV series that resulted in similar opinions of most audience viewers. Below is a detailed list of Henry Polic’s most famous works, of which most people’s opinions were similar. •Credits - Stage Appearances Room Service, 1987 A Christmas Carol Scrooge, Theatre School, Florida State University, 1996 Polic also featured in The Last Pad; Boys in the Band, Boysin the Band; a Broadway production; the fantastic; Man of La Mancha; Pal Joey and 1776, Is This Your Life? Tamarind Theatre (filmreference 1). •Credits - Stage Directing Wedding of Brine Country, 1996 •Film Appearances Captain, Beau Geste Last Remake, 1977 Scavenger Hunt, Naked policeman, 1979 (Himself) Oh, God! Psychiatrist 5, Book II,1980 (imdb 1) Tarlow Stephen, Double Trouble, 1992 Bring Him Home, 2000 All You Need Mr. Etheridge, 2001 Valette, 2002 Button the King, 2002 •Television Appearances- Series (TV debut) Nottingham Sheriff, and When Things Were Rotten,1975 Regular, Summer and Fall Bert Show, 1976 Yo Yogi, 1991 The Monster Squad, Count Dracula, 1976-1977 (123movies 1) Jerry Silver, Webster, 1983-1987 (filmreference 1) Combustion, 2004 Morton and Hayes, 1991 Voice of, The All-New Scooby as well as Scrappy-Doo Show, 1983, (animated). Talk showHost, Double Talk/Celebrity Double Talk, 1986 The kids show for Tom and Jerry 1990 Sub announcer, The Pyramid of $100,000, syndicated, 1992 Potsworth and Company, 1990 (123movies 1) Hollywood Chaos, 1989 Super password, 1994 Body Language, 1984 Alice, 1977 (imdb 1) •Miniseries Mark Steiner, Scruples, 1981 •Movies I Yabba-Dabba Do, voice, 1993 (animation) Doc Thompson, Animal Planet, the Old Drum trail, 2000 •Pilots Hecks Angels, 1976 McNamaras Band, Schnell, 1977 •Specials Surviving the 1970s and Maybe Bump into Happiness, 1978 Voices of the Wolf Leader and Tracker, Christmas Special of The Smurfs (animated), 1986 The Yellow Ribbon Party of Bob Hope, 1991 •Episodic Man, The Bionic Woman, 1976 The Failure, Walter, 1977 The Jewel Thief,1978 "War between the Bradford’s," Eight Is Enough, 1978 Dr. Phillips, 1979 Hooray for Bulgaria,1979 Donald, The Incredible Hulk, 1980 Pierre, "The Caller/ Convenience Marriage/No Girls/Prosecution Witness," The Boat of Love, 1980 (filmreference 1) Redding Jay, " Airline Bag of Maltese," Eight Is Enough, 1980 "Guinness on Tap," 1981 Bors, "The Perfect Volcano/Husband," 1981 Frederick, "The very rare of Wines," 1982 Francois, Burglars of Beauty, Lacey and Cagney, 1982 Randy Turner, "We Got Know When to Hold them, 1983 My Way, Ivo, E.R, 1984 (imdb 1) Gun Shy, 1983 E.R, Dr. Raja, 1984 Stern Roy, Hotel, Illusions,1985 Guest, The Pyramid of $100,000, 1985 Dupree Alan, "the Home Fires keep Burning," Murder, She Wrote, 1986 Bishop Arthur, "The Old Grand Lady," Murder, She Wrote, 1989 "Something New, Something Old," Brothers, syndicated, 1989 (nndb 1) City mayor’s voice, "For Who the Bells Klang: 2," (animation), Tale Spinsyndicated, 1990 Vincent Val, "Hair Today, and Gone Tomorrow," They were from out of Space, 1991 "Daffy Dicks," Maitred, Hayes and Morton, 1991(filmreference 1) Darkroom, 1982 The Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane’s voice, Fear Nothing, Batman (animation; also called Adventures of Batman and Robin as well as Batman: The Series Animation), 1992 The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice, Victory fear, Batman (animation; also called Adventures of Batman and Robinas well as Batman: The series animation), 1992 The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice, Dreams withinthe Darkness, Batman (animation), 1992 Mr. Bainbridge Saved by the Bell, 1992 The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice in,the holiday of Harley, Batman (animation), 1994 Detective school, 1979 (filmreference 1) The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voicein, the Locked up. (Batman animation series), 1994 Verne Jules, Eighty Arms Around the World, Mighty Max, 1994 Richard, The Crisis of Three Carat, Profiler, 1999 Fantasy Island, 1978 - 1981 Sheena, Wild Thing, syndicate, 2000 Rabbit test, 1978 (imdb 1) Superman, 1988 The odd new couple, 1982 Osborne Michael, She Spies, Gone Bad, syndicate, 2003 (filmreference 1) Henry Polic featured as first man, voice; Golden Palace; Yo! Yogi voice; (animation); and as voice of, SuperTed (animation). •Television Work Extra voice, in Scrappy as well as Scooby -Doo (animated), 1979 The Smurfs, additional voices (animation; also known as adventures of Smurf), 1981 Conclusion In summary, Henry Polic II, a television personality for close to forty years, died at 68 years. The actor began his career in 1975 with ABC, on which he acted as the Nottingham Sheriff. He later went on and acted as Dracula briefly in the 1970s series the Monster Squad and later on guest-starred in a dozen of shows, such as Mork and Mindy, Saved by the Bell, Alice, Eight Is Enough, Sheena, and Murder, She Wrote. Acting in various supporting roles, Henry Polic remained a popular face of TV for American generations from the 1970s through to his death (Pavlova 1). In addition, he went on to accomplish mainstream status for children as well as adults alike during his period as the main voice of Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow on Batman: The animation series. When it came to opinions, people’s opinions were very similar in that when it came to doing voice-overs Henry Polic II was exceptional and was generally considered an all-round good actor. Besides all these remarkable credentials, Henry Polic was a well-known contestant of the game show, having appeared on the Pyramid of $25 000 and later editions. Throughout his career, Henry Polic never restricted himself to one particular or specific public profile, and even though his roles were generally resigned to supporting roles, he rarely appeared in similar types of categories within TV and movies more than a dozen times. Regrettably, the actor’s life as well as career was short lived due to illness. It was cancer that ended Henry Polic’s. Henry Polic died at 68 years in Sherman Oaks, California, and was survived by his sister, a nephew and two nieces. Works Cited Barnes Mike. Actor Henry Polic II dies at 68. The Hollywood Reporter (THR), 2014. Hollywoodreporter.com Web. 23 April 2014. Broadwayworld.Veteran Actor Henry Polic II Dies at Age 68.broadwayworld.com.2013. Web 23 April 2014 Deadline Team.R.I.P Henry Polic. Deadline.com, 12 August 2013. Web. 23 April 2014. Film Reference. Henry Polic, II Biography (1945-)filmrefrence.com 2014. Web. 23 April 2014 Imdb. Henry Polic II (1945-2013).imdb.com 2014. Web. 23 April 2014. Pallova Victoria. Henry Polic II, TV Favorite to Generations Of Americans, Dies At 68. Contactmusic.com, 14 August. 2013. Web. 23 April 2014. Nndb. Henry Polic II.nndb.com 2014. Web. 23 April 2014. Thebusinessofacting. Henry Polic II Biography.thebusinessofacting.com/HenryPolicII.Bio.pdf 2013. Web.23 April 2014 123movies.tv. Polic II, Henry Biograph.123movies.tv, 2014. Web 23 April 2014 Read More