Noonan!
One week ago about right now (it’s 10 a.m. Pacific, 12 p.m. Central) I finally arrived in Cedar Rapids after spending the night at DFW. My clothes were dirty and wrinkled, my eyes ached from having my contacts in for over 24 hours, and all I had had to eat was airport junk food (you never realize how hard it is to find vegetables and fruit in an airport until you become a health nut). When I walked out of the terminal and hugged my mom I said, “I’m so tired it makes me want to puke.” Seeing family and finally reaching home perked me up, and I took a little nap before my dad came home. He had no clue I was there, and I was sitting at the kitchen counter when he walked in from the garage. He did a double-take and had an amazed, surprised look on his face for about five minutes. It was worth the trouble, even though Dallas’ freak snow storm screwed me out of a night at home with friends and family.
Anyway, an odd thing happened when I was at DFW. When I got off my plane I went straight to the arrival/departure boards to search for the status of my Cedar Rapids flight. It was cancelled, of course, so I walked to the gate where a flight to Chicago was stationed. I was hoping to fly into the Windy City and catch the last flight into Eastern Iowa. At the counter I talked to a woman who began processing me a ticket for the waiting list. Standing next to her was a ground crew worker, who had on a heavy jacket and a dirty red hat. He looked me over and considered my shaggy hair (I haven’t cut it in forever, so it’s pretty long and wavy, just the way I want it).
“Fuck,” he said. “Are you a movie star?”
For a second I thought, “This guy has to be joking. There’s no way I look like a movie star.”
“No,” I said.
“Are you sure?” I nodded. He turned to the woman printing my ticket. “Don’t he remind you of someone? Don’t he remind you of the guy in ‘Caddyshack’?”
Apparently, he thought I had played the role of Danny Noonan, the main character and caddy in the movie. The woman glanced up from the antiquated computer system (I’m never flying American ever again, by the way) and studied my face and features. I was hoping she’d set him straight. “Caddyshack” was released in 1980, two years before I was born, and I guessed that the actor who played Noonan was probably pushing 50.
“Yeah,” she said.
“You weren’t in that movie, were you?” the man asked.
“Nope,” I said. “That movie was made a long time ago.”
When my ticket was printed I thanked the woman and the man said, “See you around, movie star” when I walked away into the nightmare of DFW.
Me, a movie star? I called my mom and she laughed, as did a friend of mine. My friend thought the same thing I did: “Doesn’t he know how old that movie is?” Who knows if the man genuinely thought I was in the movie or if he was just mocking me. Regardless, it made me feel good inside, and not for being mistaken for someone in a cult film. I have always admired the laid back, shaggy look of the late-1970s, which saturated “Caddyshack,” and tailored my look to it. Now I know I’ve succeeded.
The incident also made me curious about the real actor who played Danny Noonan. Who was he, where is he now, and has he kept the shaggy hair that connected us in one man’s eyes? His name is Michael O’Keefe, and I went to his Wikipedia profile and personal website to learn more about him. He played roles in “The Great Santini,” “Ghosts of Mississippi,” and appears regularly on TV shows like “CSI” and “Law and Order.” More recently he appeared in “Michael Clayton.” He is an acclaimed theatre actor, and stared in the Tony Award winning “Side Man.” He became a Zen Buddhist priest in 1996 and was married to Bonnie Raitt for eight years during the ‘90s. Currently he lives in Belfast and has been trying to bring Zen to the Northern Ireland capital for the past several years. He shares a birthday with my sister (April 24th) and will turn 53 next month (which made him 24 when “Caddyshack” was filmed in the fall of 1979). From the pictures I saw he looks relatively the same, but the shaggy hair he donned as a caddy is now cut short (though he still had it in a 1983 movie, “Nate and Hayes,” co-staring Tommy Lee Jones).
Noonan!
Anyway, an odd thing happened when I was at DFW. When I got off my plane I went straight to the arrival/departure boards to search for the status of my Cedar Rapids flight. It was cancelled, of course, so I walked to the gate where a flight to Chicago was stationed. I was hoping to fly into the Windy City and catch the last flight into Eastern Iowa. At the counter I talked to a woman who began processing me a ticket for the waiting list. Standing next to her was a ground crew worker, who had on a heavy jacket and a dirty red hat. He looked me over and considered my shaggy hair (I haven’t cut it in forever, so it’s pretty long and wavy, just the way I want it).
“Fuck,” he said. “Are you a movie star?”
For a second I thought, “This guy has to be joking. There’s no way I look like a movie star.”
“No,” I said.
“Are you sure?” I nodded. He turned to the woman printing my ticket. “Don’t he remind you of someone? Don’t he remind you of the guy in ‘Caddyshack’?”
Apparently, he thought I had played the role of Danny Noonan, the main character and caddy in the movie. The woman glanced up from the antiquated computer system (I’m never flying American ever again, by the way) and studied my face and features. I was hoping she’d set him straight. “Caddyshack” was released in 1980, two years before I was born, and I guessed that the actor who played Noonan was probably pushing 50.
“Yeah,” she said.
“You weren’t in that movie, were you?” the man asked.
“Nope,” I said. “That movie was made a long time ago.”
When my ticket was printed I thanked the woman and the man said, “See you around, movie star” when I walked away into the nightmare of DFW.
Me, a movie star? I called my mom and she laughed, as did a friend of mine. My friend thought the same thing I did: “Doesn’t he know how old that movie is?” Who knows if the man genuinely thought I was in the movie or if he was just mocking me. Regardless, it made me feel good inside, and not for being mistaken for someone in a cult film. I have always admired the laid back, shaggy look of the late-1970s, which saturated “Caddyshack,” and tailored my look to it. Now I know I’ve succeeded.
The incident also made me curious about the real actor who played Danny Noonan. Who was he, where is he now, and has he kept the shaggy hair that connected us in one man’s eyes? His name is Michael O’Keefe, and I went to his Wikipedia profile and personal website to learn more about him. He played roles in “The Great Santini,” “Ghosts of Mississippi,” and appears regularly on TV shows like “CSI” and “Law and Order.” More recently he appeared in “Michael Clayton.” He is an acclaimed theatre actor, and stared in the Tony Award winning “Side Man.” He became a Zen Buddhist priest in 1996 and was married to Bonnie Raitt for eight years during the ‘90s. Currently he lives in Belfast and has been trying to bring Zen to the Northern Ireland capital for the past several years. He shares a birthday with my sister (April 24th) and will turn 53 next month (which made him 24 when “Caddyshack” was filmed in the fall of 1979). From the pictures I saw he looks relatively the same, but the shaggy hair he donned as a caddy is now cut short (though he still had it in a 1983 movie, “Nate and Hayes,” co-staring Tommy Lee Jones).
Noonan!
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