Take a closer look at some of Hollywood's top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

Child Stars, Then and Now

Take a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

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When I reflect back on what led me to pursue my interest in the entertainment industry, there are several key indicators that it was in my blood from an early age.

In first grade, the musical director for a Christmas production coaxed me to fill in last minute when the kid who was scheduled to sing the Silent Night, Holy Night solo chickened out at the last minute.

By age eight, I was performing magic tricks for my family and friends in my grandparents basement.

My family moved to Las Vegas the same year.

Later, I joined the drama club in junior high and performed in two short skits in a production put on for the community.

At thirteen, I began attending a magic club where a semi-professional magician helped kids learn to perform short routines on a small stage.

I fell in love with movies after my mom started leaving me and my brother at the theater for double features while she dropped quarters at the Showboat Hotel. This is when the magic truly took hold, watching such mature themed films as The Satanic Rites of Dracula, The Legend of Hell House, The Land that Time Forgot and The Man With the Golden Gun.

My first "television appearance" came in 1977 after myself and some friends had collected donations for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. We were ushered on stage and I was standing next to my childhood icon as the closing credits rolled.

Finally, on a short visit back to Utah in 1982, my cousin and I were hired as extras on The Capture of Grizzly Adams, but I still didn't realize this would lead to acting as a career path.

No, it wasn't until after we'd moved to San Diego, where I finished high school, and then several more years living in Phoeniz, AZ before I finally had the epiphany that I wanted to be an actor.

I signed with my first agent in 1988, Kriti's Modeling and talent agency in Scottsdale, Az, who cast me as an extra in three films and encouraged me to audition for theater.

After my first audition, I was cast as Roy Selridge in a summer stock production of Biloxi Blues.

I relocated back to Salt Lake in 1989, winning the role of Master of Ceremonies in a Broadway musical revue.

I then started a five year run with Pages Lane Theatre in Centerville, UT., performing in family themed theater and musical productions including The Unsinkable Molly Brown, You Can't Take it With You and The Miracle Worker.

In the ensuing years, I have studied acting for the camera, accents and dialects, acting theory and an introduction to Shakespeare under Frank Gerrish's Fastudio workshop.

I have now been professionally represented for 30 years, working in dozens of commercials, industrial and print jobs, including my first feature film, Nightfall, and the USA Original Movie, UnaBomber: The True Story in 1996 and working on over 100 movie and television sets, appearing in 50 theatrical productions, writing and directing the original short film, Invisible, and directing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, for the Midvale Main Street Theater.

I still have a deep fascination with magic, and continue to work as an actor as frequently as possible.

Shift - Rob Archuleta - Knock on Wood Productions - An ensemble cast make up this feature length character study of homicide detectives working on a 24 hour stakeout of a date rapist.

Never-Ready Batteries - Detective #1 - JimmyJohn Productions - Short satire of the Ever-Ready battery commercials, where bungling detectives lose their man due to inferior technology.

Tired Of Waiting - Hollywood Film Producer - Majestic World

Nightfall - Det. Charlie Weller - Nightfall 1 Prod.

The Work And The Story - Security Guard - Nathan Jones - In an uncredited role that was cut from the film, he played a stuttering security guard who refuses to apprehend a man trying to turn himself in for a dubious crime.

Watertight - Chicken Man - 48 Hour Film Project/Salt Lake City - In this short, shot in 48 hours, he was covered in chicken feathers and wearing a beak, slumped over the steering wheel of a pick-up truck at a red light in a small town.

HottieBoombaLottie - Bald Man - Black Sheep Productions - A brief but funny cameo as a bald man, humiliated by two teens in a bowling alley bathroom stall.

Big Nova Gold - Roquefort - Chuck Waagen - In this surreal character study of a hack writer, his character in this independent feature film could be described as a &quot;literary hit man&quot;, in a script reminiscent of &quot;Naked Lunch&quot;.

Slide - The Orangeman - Shades of Gray Productions - Featured on You-Tube this gruesome short film was shot for a competition on the Thriller Network but was rejected due to its graphic depiction of a sex predator/serial killer.

Ten Letters - Bartender - University if Utah - Shot on 35mm through a Kodak Scholarship.

Other works

Mike Hardy

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