Caffeinated Clint
On “Kolchak:The Nightstalker”, Jack Grinnage played Ron Updyke, the fussy counterpart to Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin. In real life, the two were good friends and Jack spent several summers on Darren’s barge in France, even having a “Nightstalker” experience.
How did you get cast for the “Kolchak: The Nightstalker”?
I had an interview and there must have been five or six other people there. I read and they liked me. I had met Darren years before when I was up for a role with a play that Darren did on Broadway, and I had also played a hairdresser on “The Outsider” (a TV series with Darren). When I was on “The Outsider” he invited me to go to lunch. He wasn’t in on the interview at all, and they offered it me. I just did one episode of the “Nightstalker,” they liked the character and wanted to extend the role. Then I said I’m going to Europe, because I was going to take my grandmother to Europe, and I had planned to do this trip. So they offered me three, then seven episodes, then they offered me all the episodes and co-star billing. So my grandmother said “I’m not dead yet!” And that we’d go next year, which we did and I had more money to spend!
What did you think at the time about being on this very different show?
I had read that Chris Carter’s impetus to do “The X-Files” came from the “Nightstalker.” It was fun doing the show, I never had so much fun working on a show in my life! When you do episodic TV you usually don’t know the people, but when you know the people well it is so comfortable and easy. Carol Ann Susi (Monique Marmelstein) was cast from Darren’s meeting her in Hamburger Hamlet. I even had a parking place at Universal, I had a great time.
Darren was a fascinating and dear man, he was so kind and sweet to me and all of us. I went to Dijon, France with Darren and his wife Kathie on their barge and we went all through these canals to Paris. I spent a month with them there. Darren even got a captain’s license. We got stuck once, my friend Donna was on the barge and we threw ropes to Frenchmen and they pulled us through, and then we went through a tunnel and it took hours, the tunnel had bats and it was like something out of the “Nightstalker!” We went through 28 locks in one day.
You had a great rapport with Darren, did you do improv with him to make the characters come alive?
No, a lot of times the lines were changed, and it was so easy for me, knowing Darren and working with him. Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo) and Ruth McDevitt (Emily Cowles) were dreams. It didn’t seem pleasant for Darren when Cy Chermak (executive producer) took over. Cy called me and said I couldn’t play the character the way I played it. So I didn’t know what he was saying and I did exactly the same things and then next thing he said ‘that’s the right way to play it!’
Did you ever start laughing when Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo would argue?
There’s one funny scene in an episode, when someone says “something’s escaped from the zoo, there was a leopard and and a piecost!” and Darren says “What’s a pie cost?” And I have these little kids come up and ask the same question! We have a lot of fans at autograph shows. Scarlet Street is a magazine that has booked Carol Ann Susi and I into these shows.
How did you create the character of Ron?
It was there on the page, this nerdy person who thinks he’s bright and intelligent, and he’s filled with knowledge. And I have a friend who is like that. It’s just that Ron’s social skills are not there! Someone also wrote an email about this pipe I smoked and I didn’t remember. I drew on ‘30s and ‘40s movies for that kind of dialogue at the time.
Carol Ann remembers everyone that was on the show. And it was fun working with Keenan Wynn and those other character actors.
Were there further plans for Ron Updyke down the road?
They said eventually I would go on some things with Darren. There was an episode where I save Darren and kill the monster but the part got smaller and smaller. I just heard rumors that Cy Chermak didn’t care for my character or for Carol. The only thing an actor can count on is your billing and your salary. But it was good for my career, I don’t have to worry, I’m set!
Did you expect such a cult following?
I wasn’t aware of the following until I did the website (www.jackgrinnage.com). That’s when I started getting email about it. I was never told the show was cancelled, I got a card from someone that the show was cancelled, I had no idea. When I got all these presents from writers and producers at Christmas, I asked Darren what to do. Darren said don’t do anything because when your show is cancelled they won’t know who you are. But one time as I was leaving this writer’s guild event, Peter Bogdanovich asked me for my autograph. The acting world has been so good to me.
Why do you think the “Nightstalker” series is still so well-remembered and talked about?
I don’t know, maybe because it was short, and we were opposite “Policewoman”, which was very popular with general audience. I have no idea.
What do you think about the new “Kolchak: The Nightstalker” series that’s starting in the US in September?
I hope it’s a success. My agent called me and said there’s a part of a grandfather on the new “Nightstalker” but I didn’t get an interview. The producers called me to get in touch with Darren, and I asked them ‘Are you going to use me on the show?’ and there was this silence.
It’s a totally different concept. I really hope it’s a success because actors need to work and it’s their big break.
You were in “Rebel Without a Cause” with James Dean, what was that like?
I wasn’t introduced to James Dean. I did a wardrobe test with Jimmy and with all the rest, some of them knew Jimmy already. And I was really intimidated by him because I’d seen “East of Eden” and thought it was brilliant. In the test, I look at him, he looks at me, then we both look away. My first interview was with Nick Ray (director), they interviewed me and took a Polaroid, then I went to leave and I opened the closet door!
The next interview was at a soundstage that burned down at Warner Brothers, there was a script of a scene at a drive-in, I did a totally cold reading of Goon on drugs, flipping out, plus a little song at the end and I created the song and dance at the end. Everyone who read after me tried to do what I did. It was just a good day for me. I often wondered what was going on in the publicity department when Jimmy Dean died. Usually if a picture came out and the star died, the picture didn’t make any money.
Do you keep in contact with others from the “Nightstalker” show?
Tomorrow I’m taking Carol Ann Susi shopping (she doesn’t drive). My mother talked me into making fruitcakes so Carol is always entering preserves at the Pomona Fair and she wanted me to take my fruitcakes to the fair too!
What are you are working on now?
A friend of mine and I are going to write a TV series, Sue Turner-Cray (wife of musician Robert Cray) we are in gymnastics class together. She’s English and wrote a one-woman show, and she is directing Robert’s video. We wrote something a couple of months ago. I also did “Six Feet Under” awhile ago too.
– LISA D.CARROLL
