April 2010
10 (or so) questions with... John Towey
By Steve Lange
Rochester Magazine [in nerdy voice]: You played Ossan, a Bajoran Vedek on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” Yet, your ceremonial chant in episode 2374 sure didn’t sound like the Bajoran chant in episode 2997. Um, hello? Do you really expect us to believe Bajoran chants changed that much between Stardate 1779.4 and 5943.7?
John Towey: Are you a big fan of the show?
RM [in normal, cool voice]: No. I made up those last few sentences.
JT: You made that up? You sounded like a Trekkie. I remember the audition for that. LeVar Burton directed it. It was getting close to the end of the year, I had made almost enough money for the Screen Actors Guild to be covered for my medical insurance for the upcoming year. I just needed a little bit to get over the hump. Then my wife would be covered, my son would be covered. That year I was having trouble for whatever reason and just didn’t quite have enough. I remember sitting in the waiting room to interview for that role and just meditating and having the script fully memorized because I needed that job for insurance reasons. I remember just being thrilled when I got it.
RM: Your parents were from Stewartville?
JT: My father, Robert Towey, was born in Stewartville. My mother, Helen Madden, was born on a farm outside of Rochester. My grandfather John H. Towey—I was named after him—started the Towey Funeral Home in Rochester in the late 1920s. My father and his brother, Dick Towey, became partners and ran it until about 1986 when my dad died and then it was taken over by the Macken Funeral Home.
RM: Did you do a lot of acting in Rochester?
JT: A bunch of us gutted a barn outside of Rochester, and it was called Rochester Summer Theater. I was in a number of plays there and directed a few plays there for a couple of summers between college. My dad had chairs because of the funeral home and we’d load 100 chairs into the back of a station wagon and set up for the audience. Jim Cavanaugh, a guy who helped build the Rochester Civic Theatre [and longtime RCT director], saw me there and ultimately directed me in a couple of plays in the old civic theater before they built the new one. He saw my enthusiasm for the game of theater.
RM: You spent two years acting at the Guthrie?
JT: Actually three years off and on, from ‘83 to ‘86.
RM: At some point you decided to make the move to L.A.
JT: Right. In 1990. While I was at the Guthrie, one of the gals that was at the company had a husband who was a director and writer in L.A. and he was writing a miniseries called “Amerika” with a ‘k’. He came to the Guthrie and auditioned a bunch of people and lo and behold I got a wonderful part. ... Then a woman who was a pretty big agent had seen the miniseries and knew my wife, Henrietta, who was in the business also. This agent said ‘If you come out to California I’ll represent you, because I saw you in the miniseries.’ I would never have come to California without any representation, because it’s pretty scary. I ended up getting two pretty nice little jobs, including “Murphy Brown.”
RM: OK. You have been in at least an episode of a who’s who of 1990’s series and sitcoms. “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper”; “X-Files”; “ER”; “L.A. Law.” Can those pay your bills?
JT: Yes. What pays the bills ultimately is the residuals. Once you’ve done five years of this stuff you get residuals each time it’s played. I haven’t worked in the business for about six years because I was taking care of my wife who had Alzheimer’s. Since I haven’t worked, now the residuals can’t pay the bills. But I play classical piano [check out www.John.Towey.net] and sing at 10 different venues in the L.A. area.
RM: So you’re done with TV acting?
JT: Actually, I have a job tomorrow. The first job I’ve had in the TV business in six years. I’m doing a show called “My Boys” as a guest-starring drunken professor. I developed a one-man show called “Travels with Charley,” an adaptation of the Steinbeck novel. The head writer for “My Boys” saw a video of the one-man show.
RM: Do you play a good drunk?
JT: Oh, yes. I’ve played a lot of drunks. I play a lot of drunks in my “Travels with Charley” show. Though I have not had a drink in nearly 30 years, because I drank too much 30 years ago.
RM: Last time you were in Rochester?
JT: It was back in July for my brother, Tom, who died of cancer. His memorial was held there.
RM: Any family in Rochester?
JT: I have a sister, Martha Towey, who lives just across the river from the Civic Auditorium. I have another sister, Margaret, who lives in Milwaukee. It was just the four of us, and now Tom is gone.
RM: Were you born here?
JT: I was born at St. Marys on February 13, 1940. Here’s some trivia: We lived next to the editor of the Rochester Post-Bulletin for many years up on Sixth Street Southwest. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th, 1953. Because he lived next door, my dad talked to the editor and my picture was on the front of the Rochester Post-Bulletin that day.
RM: That’s exactly the kind of trivia we like. What was the editor’s name?
JT: Branley. I can’t think what his first name was. [It was Ed Branley.]
RM: I’ll see if I can find that issue.
JT: I’d love to see that. Not sure you’ll be able to find that.
RM: Oh, I’ll find it. I’ll put it at the end of the story.