Latest / Next Act with Jeff Ornstein / Jim Grimshaw - Professional Actor, Writer, Director & Retired U.S. Army Special Operations Officer

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Jim Grimshaw - Professional Actor, Writer, Director & Retired U.S. Army Special Operations Officer · Next Act with Jeff Ornstein

0:02
Jeff Ornstein: Hi everyone and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
0:05
Jeff Ornstein: I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness.
0:10
Jeff Ornstein: Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy.
0:20
Jeff Ornstein: We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead.
0:26
Jeff Ornstein: So the best is yet to come.
0:29
Jeff Ornstein: Jim Grunshaw is a talented storyteller whose career spans acting, writing, directing, voiceover, filmmaking, and nearly 23 years of military service.
0:39
Jeff Ornstein: From Army special operations to Hollywood sets, Jim brings a unique perspective on leadership, resilience, and the art of storytelling.
0:47
Jeff Ornstein: Beyond entertainment, Jim's military background and recognition as a member of the U.S.
0:51
Jeff Ornstein: Army Rangers Hall of Fame and Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame highlight a life dedicated to leadership, courage, and service.
1:00
Jeff Ornstein: His unique journey bridges two demanding worlds, special operations, and creative performance.
1:06
Jeff Ornstein: Jim, we are delighted to have you on today.
1:09
Jeff Ornstein: How are you doing?
1:10
Jim Grimshaw: Well, I'm doing fine.
1:11
Jim Grimshaw: I'm glad to be here.
1:12
Jim Grimshaw: I appreciate the opportunity.
1:14
Jeff Ornstein: Oh, it's our pleasure.
1:15
Jeff Ornstein: So you sort of epitomize what this podcast is all about, the next act.
1:20
Jeff Ornstein: So you had this very impressive career in the military, and then after 23 years, you segued into the theatrical industry.
1:30
Jim Grimshaw: How did that happen?
1:31
Jim Grimshaw: Well, first of all, as a teenager growing up, I was as an only child, and my parents gave me a 10-inch RCA television.
1:42
Jim Grimshaw: It was the second television a family owned.
1:44
Jim Grimshaw: I sit in my bedroom, and of course, I watched all the programs of the day: Maverick, Sugarfoot, Cheyenne, all that business.
1:52
Jim Grimshaw: So I was always interested in acting.
1:54
Jim Grimshaw: My mother put me in every skit and play and dance that you can imagine, and high school plays and best actor award in high school and all that kind of good stuff.
2:04
Jim Grimshaw: So it was one of those burning desires that I had to be an actor.
2:09
Jim Grimshaw: But when I graduated from high school, I didn't have the money to go to college.
2:13
Jim Grimshaw: I was on the National Honor Society, but I took a business curriculum, so I couldn't pass the SATs and go to some magical college.
2:23
Jim Grimshaw: My father was a very World War II Navy veteran.
2:27
Jim Grimshaw: He was a pragmatic guy.
2:29
Jim Grimshaw: Both my parents were products of the depression and so forth.
2:33
Jim Grimshaw: And so he always wanted me to be in the military.
2:36
Jim Grimshaw: And he said, son, if you're going to be in the military, you should be an officer.
2:39
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Oh, okay, that he wanted me to go to Naval Academy.
2:44
Jim Grimshaw: But I didn't make that.
2:45
Jim Grimshaw: So when I started working for a corporation right out of high school, I never got over that idea of saying, hey, I want to give up being an actor.
2:53
Jim Grimshaw: But I never really thought I was going to have a chance to pursue it because I worked 29 months for 3M companies, to be fair about it.
3:01
Jim Grimshaw: And when the Berlin Wall went up, they were going to start drafting 19-year-olds.
3:04
Jim Grimshaw: So I decided it was time to go in.
3:06
Jim Grimshaw: Didn't know what I want to be.
3:08
Jim Grimshaw: So until I walked in at recruiting, and there's a long story behind that.
3:11
Jim Grimshaw: I probably don't want to get into it, but I walked into the Army recruiting office and I saw this life-sized picture of this Army Buck Sergeant, 82nd Airborne Division guy leaping out of an airplane with parachutes opening and so forth.
3:26
Jeff Ornstein: I'm like, that's it.
3:27
Jim Grimshaw: I gotta do that.
3:28
Jim Grimshaw: So that's what I did.
3:29
Jim Grimshaw: That's how I started out.
3:30
Jim Grimshaw: I was sort of a glorified clerk, and I saw a new office and I worked in an office and what have you.
3:37
Jim Grimshaw: And my first experience in the Army, I was carrying a 19.5-pound Browning automatic rifle, BAR.
3:44
Jim Grimshaw: I was a private.
3:45
Jim Grimshaw: I made PFC, and this call from my platoon sergeant said first sergeant wants to see you.
3:52
Jim Grimshaw: And in those days when the first sergeant wanted to see you, it meant you screwed up.
3:56
Jim Grimshaw: Now I didn't know what he did wrong.
3:58
Jim Grimshaw: I went down there and he goes like, Grim, I'm losing my company clerk.
4:01
Jim Grimshaw: I see by your record that you can type 60 words a minute and that you work and that you work in an office.
4:08
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Well, first sergeant, I didn't join the army to sit behind a desk.
4:12
Jim Grimshaw: And he said, Grim, if you stay in the army, log it up, you're gonna sit behind a desk.
4:16
Jim Grimshaw: Trust me.
4:18
Jim Grimshaw: So I made the decision to do the best decision probably I made in my life.
4:23
Jim Grimshaw: And then a few months later it went by.
4:25
Jim Grimshaw: We passed various inspections, everything was cleared away in the office, and my first sergeant said, You're either going to go to West Pike or you're gonna go to Officer Kennedy at school.
4:33
Jim Grimshaw: I said, First sergeant, I can't do chemistry, I can't do advanced mathematics.
4:37
Jim Grimshaw: I'm an artist.
4:38
Jim Grimshaw: I painted pictures in high school, I acted in plays and so forth.
4:42
Jim Grimshaw: And so I went to Officer Kennedy School at Fort Benning.
4:46
Jim Grimshaw: Another great decision in my life.
4:49
Jim Grimshaw: And then Ranger School.
4:51
Jim Grimshaw: And before I went to Ranger School, I had five days off.
4:53
Jim Grimshaw: And I went back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to see my first sergeant because he was like he was a great mentor.
4:59
Jim Grimshaw: So I went in there and he hugged me.
5:01
Jim Grimshaw: I got to tell a story.
5:02
Jim Grimshaw: I put my toes in the door jam of his office and I stood there for a minute.
5:07
Jim Grimshaw: He had his back, he was sitting down.
5:09
Jim Grimshaw: And he had a favorite profanity, which I won't go into.
5:12
Jim Grimshaw: He'd always start this thing off with.
5:14
Jim Grimshaw: So I went like his profanity.
5:16
Jim Grimshaw: I said, It's a sad day in this man's army when an officer walks into a room and an NCO doesn't stand up at attention.
5:24
Jim Grimshaw: He ran his profanity past me real fast, jumped up and grabbed me, says, hugged me like a son.
5:31
Jim Grimshaw: And he said, Where are you going to be assigned to?
5:32
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Well, they're trying to make a leg out of me, meaning non-airborne soldier.
5:36
Jim Grimshaw: He said, Well, we can't have that.
5:38
Jim Grimshaw: The first sergeant called the chief of infantry branch.
5:41
Jim Grimshaw: And he said, Sir, do you remember when you were down here as a deputy battle group commander before you went up there and made full colonel?
5:48
Jim Grimshaw: You sent this guy Grimshaw to OCS.
5:51
Jim Grimshaw: You approved it.
5:51
Jim Grimshaw: And now you can't bring him back here to the 82nd.
5:54
Jim Grimshaw: Boom.
5:55
Jim Grimshaw: Orders that day changed back to the 82nd.
5:58
Jim Grimshaw: By the time I reported in regular school, I had a set of mortars dated the same day.
6:03
Jim Grimshaw: So went to the 82nd and it goes on.
6:06
Jim Grimshaw: And eventually I went into special forces.
6:08
Jim Grimshaw: Obviously, I can't tell every story that's going to be in a book and so forth.
6:12
Jim Grimshaw: But that was the beginning of it.
6:14
Jim Grimshaw: And part of it is that one of my trips during my vacation time before I went in the Army, I was driving back from Georgia for where my relatives are, and where I live now, and back to Pennsylvania where I was born and raised.
6:29
Jim Grimshaw: And it was late at night in Bunker Fable, North Carolina.
6:32
Jim Grimshaw: Went past one of his favorite restaurants I used to see.
6:35
Jim Grimshaw: Under the street light, there's this guy standing at Savannah Clothes.
6:38
Jim Grimshaw: It's late at night.
6:39
Jim Grimshaw: He's hit drinking.
6:40
Jim Grimshaw: I'm in my little sports car.
6:41
Jim Grimshaw: I got to have some company because I'm going to drive all night.
6:44
Jim Grimshaw: So I say to this guy, hop in, let's go.
6:46
Jim Grimshaw: He says, I'm going to Maryland or wherever.
6:48
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Great, because that's I'm going to Pennsylvania.
6:51
Jim Grimshaw: And I asked him, I said, Who are you?
6:53
Jim Grimshaw: What do you do?
6:53
Jim Grimshaw: He says, Well, I'm in the army.
6:55
Jim Grimshaw: I'm in this special type of unit, you know, and we jump out of airplanes and we blow up things and we repel out of helicopters.
7:03
Jim Grimshaw: We do all this stuff.
7:04
Jim Grimshaw: I'm like, whoa, dude, this is the kind of stuff that I want to do.
7:08
Jim Grimshaw: And we wrote to each other over the course of about a year and a half.
7:11
Jim Grimshaw: And I think that was the first time that the sea was planted that I wanted to be in Special Forces.
7:15
Jim Grimshaw: The next time around was an OCS.
7:18
Jim Grimshaw: I met my Ranger buddy John Harrelson.
7:21
Jim Grimshaw: I have to mention his name because he's a big part of my life.
7:24
Jim Grimshaw: He and I were OCS together, and he was an enlisted man in Special Forces and had served in Laos before he went to came to OCS.
7:33
Jim Grimshaw: He and I went to Ranger School.
7:34
Jim Grimshaw: Ranger buddies.
7:36
Jim Grimshaw: I don't know if you know about Ranger Buddies.
7:37
Jim Grimshaw: Ranger buddies, they get each other through Ranger School.
7:41
Jim Grimshaw: They're inseparable.
7:42
Jim Grimshaw: And in our case, John had the great field craft abilities, and I was really young, and I could do more pull-ups and push-ups, and I could run faster, and I could draw him through the finish line, but he could get me to the right navigational stake at night.
7:58
Jim Grimshaw: We did all sorts of magical things together in ranger school, and we both graduated and got our coveted ranger tabs.
8:05
Jim Grimshaw: And lo and behold, he goes back to special forces.
8:09
Jim Grimshaw: I go back to the 82nd.
8:10
Jim Grimshaw: So now we are Bachelor Lieutenants at Fort Bragg living in a house together.
8:16
Jim Grimshaw: And so we are still good friends today.
8:18
Jim Grimshaw: We have intertwined, and see Ranger buddies don't normally do normally you go to school and you're tight, and maybe you serve together here and there, but sort of separated over the years.
8:27
Jim Grimshaw: In our case, we have been together all these years.
8:30
Jim Grimshaw: And we live just about four hours away from each other right now.
8:33
Jim Grimshaw: I have to mention his name because he and his wife are dearest friends.
8:37
Jim Grimshaw: But these are the kind of relationships you do establish when you go into the service.
8:42
Jim Grimshaw: So now, how do I get how do I get into filmmaking?
8:46
Jim Grimshaw: Okay, real fast.
8:48
Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, so 23 years of military service, which is highly organized, I would imagine, is my impression.
8:54
Jeff Ornstein: A lot of coordination.
8:56
Jeff Ornstein: And after 23 years, your old theater bug bit you again?
9:00
Jim Grimshaw: So fast forward, I'm now serving in the first two years of the All-Volunteer Army in the Midwestern Regional Recruiting Command for the U.S.
9:10
Jim Grimshaw: Army Recruiting Command at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, just above Chicago.
9:15
Jim Grimshaw: Hated the assignment.
9:17
Jim Grimshaw: I didn't believe in the all-volunteer army.
9:19
Jim Grimshaw: I still believe in the draft, but frankly, for a lot of reasons.
9:22
Jim Grimshaw: But I'm standing in the officers club one night by myself.
9:27
Jim Grimshaw: We called the Rat Skeller Club.
9:29
Jim Grimshaw: It was downstairs in the bottom of the main club, and it was all my way home.
9:33
Jim Grimshaw: So I'm just there having a drink, and all of a sudden, this frenetic guy comes running in, and Ted Raymond is his name.
9:41
Jim Grimshaw: And Ted looks like the stereotypical vaudeville comedian, smoked a big cigar, had a big hooked nose, was bald, and he's jah, ha ja.
9:53
Jim Grimshaw: He's that kind of character, you know.
9:54
Jim Grimshaw: He comes roaring into the club.
9:56
Jim Grimshaw: There's just the two of us standing there.
9:58
Jim Grimshaw: And he's all out of sorts.
10:00
Jim Grimshaw: Give me a drink.
10:01
Jim Grimshaw: I need a drink.
10:02
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Ted, what's the problem?
10:04
Jim Grimshaw: And he goes, I convinced the post-theater director to do this two-man play and hold auditions.
10:12
Jim Grimshaw: And he says, he says, and I got one of the roles.
10:15
Jim Grimshaw: He said, but nobody showed up for the auditions.
10:19
Jim Grimshaw: He says, I've been working on this project for the he says, and I said, well, then Ted already had his actor's equity card from doing theater in Chicago.
10:27
Jim Grimshaw: I knew about that.
10:28
Jim Grimshaw: So I'm just standing there taking my drink very casually.
10:31
Jim Grimshaw: And I get that funny, he goes, Say, have you ever done any acting?
10:36
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Well, Ted, I haven't told anybody yet.
10:39
Jim Grimshaw: I said, but during the two years I worked for 3M Company, they still had the acting bug, and I did two years of community theater in Levittown, Pennsylvania.
10:49
Jim Grimshaw: Boom.
10:50
Jim Grimshaw: He says, You're going with me.
10:51
Jim Grimshaw: And we went down to see the post theater director.
10:54
Jim Grimshaw: We do this two-man play, and that's when the bug hit me.
10:57
Jim Grimshaw: So I go on a few more assignments and back to Fort Bragg.
11:02
Jim Grimshaw: I'm in Special Forces.
11:04
Jim Grimshaw: I'm kind of bored with my job a little bit.
11:06
Jim Grimshaw: I started doing Fort Bragg Playhouse, it was a big thing.
11:09
Jim Grimshaw: We did plays like Mr.
11:11
Jim Grimshaw: Roberts, for example.
11:13
Jim Grimshaw: We did it for Josh Logan, who co co-wrote the play.
11:16
Jim Grimshaw: Wow.
11:17
Jim Grimshaw: Yeah, oh yeah.
11:18
Jim Grimshaw: He came down here.
11:19
Jim Grimshaw: We did a 10 o'clock in the morning performance.
11:21
Jim Grimshaw: Lee Opp was the director at the playoffs at the time.
11:25
Jim Grimshaw: Magnificent guy.
11:26
Jim Grimshaw: He'd been at New Hope Playhouse in his career.
11:29
Jim Grimshaw: So now he's running this big playhouse for Fort Wright.
11:33
Jim Grimshaw: So we did things, oh, carousel, all sorts of all the good stuff.
11:38
Jim Grimshaw: And we did Most Happy Fella.
11:40
Jim Grimshaw: I don't know if you're familiar with that play or not.
11:42
Jim Grimshaw: Well, I get this call that says, we'd like you to come in and do this audition for the singing role.
11:49
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Well, they said, Well, we heard you down at the Fayetteville little theater in downtown Fayetteville.
11:55
Jim Grimshaw: You auditioned for a musical down there, but you had to turn it down.
11:58
Jim Grimshaw: My duties interfered.
12:00
Jim Grimshaw: So they said, Well, you can sing.
12:02
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Well, yeah, I can sing happy birthday or something like that.
12:05
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, So they hand me this most happy fella, it was written like an opera.
12:10
Jim Grimshaw: And so the lead singers, Bill Beck was a guy from Metropolitan Opera.
12:15
Jim Grimshaw: So I accept this challenge, and I have this major role.
12:19
Jim Grimshaw: And I'm in this little three-bedroom house off Fort Bright Boulevard.
12:27
Jim Grimshaw: And we go into this room and they hand me this musical score.
12:31
Jim Grimshaw: And I don't read music that well.
12:32
Jim Grimshaw: And we got a piano player out there.
12:34
Jim Grimshaw: Vicky Carter was the musical director.
12:37
Jim Grimshaw: And Bill Beck with this tremendous baritone voice.
12:42
Jim Grimshaw: And then the two sopratos are in there and the ingenue and what have you.
12:47
Jim Grimshaw: And then it comes my time to sing, and nothing comes out.
12:52
Jim Grimshaw: Absolutely nothing.
12:55
Jim Grimshaw: And I'm standing there and go, ah, you know.
12:58
Jim Grimshaw: I was so stage fright because I was intimidated by these magnificent, well-trained voices.
13:05
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, they all they had sang, sung, if you will, all their lives.
13:09
Jim Grimshaw: Anyway, we do this thing.
13:11
Jim Grimshaw: We do it two runs, two different runs, and we won like the Forces Command Theater Award for Musical Comedy that year.
13:19
Jim Grimshaw: And I can remember the critique of the judges.
13:22
Jim Grimshaw: I was okay the first time I did it, not too great.
13:24
Jim Grimshaw: The second time we did it, obviously I learned a few first time I signed with an orchestra.
13:29
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, that blows your mind.
13:31
Jim Grimshaw: I don't care who you are, especially if you're not trained.
13:34
Jim Grimshaw: And so, anyway, so now we do this whole thing, we win this award.
13:38
Jim Grimshaw: I'm not winning anything as a singer, trust me.
13:41
Jim Grimshaw: But the judges have they have one of these little judges sitting up there.
13:46
Jim Grimshaw: He goes, I noticed when you slid up to the high D.
13:50
Jim Grimshaw: And I'm thinking I tell the guy, I said, You're lucky I got to the high D.
13:55
Jim Grimshaw: What are you talking about?
13:56
Jim Grimshaw: So that was part of my singing career.
13:59
Jim Grimshaw: But fast forward, I'm in Hawaii.
14:02
Jim Grimshaw: First year I'm in special operations.
14:05
Jim Grimshaw: Jump pay in Hawaii special operations.
14:08
Jim Grimshaw: It doesn't get much better than that.
14:10
Jim Grimshaw: And uh trust me, it doesn't.
14:13
Jim Grimshaw: And I decide I'm gonna do this play at Honolulu Community Theater, which is a big physical theater, big physical planet, and it's wealthy people in this thing, and a guy, a former is a is an actor or director.
14:29
Jim Grimshaw: So this is 1980.
14:33
Jim Grimshaw: And I'm doing a show called uh Separate Tables and a leading role, and my then wife comes backstage and says, The casting ladies from this television show called Magnum P.
14:50
Jim Grimshaw: I are in the audience, and they said they would like to talk to you after the show.
14:55
Jim Grimshaw: So I could hardly get through the second act.
14:57
Jim Grimshaw: And they said, Would you like to be an expert on Magnum P.I.
15:01
Jim Grimshaw: and then over the course of time we'll bring you in whenever you're right to read for an acting role.
15:08
Jim Grimshaw: And of course, not knowing the business at all, I go like, I'm right for everything.
15:13
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, what's your problem?
15:15
Jim Grimshaw: Bring me tomorrow.
15:16
Jim Grimshaw: I don't know about casting, I know about theater acting.
15:20
Jim Grimshaw: Well, on the job for me, and a lot, obviously a lot of failures.
15:24
Jim Grimshaw: But I don't know anything about television and film acting at all.
15:30
Jim Grimshaw: And so in the course of a year, I went as an extra.
15:36
Jim Grimshaw: I got to know people, I got to network with people, I got to know a second unit director.
15:41
Jim Grimshaw: My very first extra role, we're doing a long shot of a guard by the fence, and they hand me an M16 and said, Your guard was M16.
15:51
Jim Grimshaw: So I walk away from everybody and I take the M-16, I clear the weapon away from everybody, put the magazine back in, boom, we're ready to go.
16:00
Jim Grimshaw: The director says, You know something about weapons.
16:04
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Well, yeah, I'm in the army.
16:06
Jim Grimshaw: I didn't want to say, Yeah, I'm a special forces ranger and all that kind of stuff.
16:10
Jim Grimshaw: But this guy's name is Bruce Shirley.
16:12
Jim Grimshaw: Well, anyway, we got talking and I got them over the course of the year.
16:17
Jim Grimshaw: Year comes up, finally, I get this acting, I get this acting audition with playing an Air Force major, and Bruce calls me up and he says, This is confidential, but Universal just approved.
16:30
Jim Grimshaw: This is confidential.
16:31
Jim Grimshaw: Universal just approved a two-hour special from Magnum P.I.
16:36
Jim Grimshaw: He says, and it's all about these guys going back to Vietnam, and we need a military technical advisor.
16:42
Jim Grimshaw: He says, and I thought of you.
16:44
Jim Grimshaw: And he says, and you're coming down tomorrow to read for this other episode.
16:49
Jim Grimshaw: So I went down there the next day and he says, make sure you wear all your uniform and all your stuff.
16:54
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Okay.
16:56
Jim Grimshaw: So I went down there.
16:58
Jim Grimshaw: In a 10-minute period of time, I read for this one episode as an Air Force major.
17:04
Jim Grimshaw: Okay, boom.
17:05
Jim Grimshaw: Stood right there.
17:06
Jim Grimshaw: I interviewed to be the military tech advisor.
17:09
Jim Grimshaw: The next four years, I was Magnum PI's military tech advisor.
17:14
Jim Grimshaw: And I did the two-hour specials.
17:17
Jim Grimshaw: I even got called back after I retired and came back to Hawaii and did the uh two-hour special and as an actor.
17:24
Jim Grimshaw: But during that period of four years, depending on my duties, the wardrobe people would call me up and say, we need this and we need that.
17:32
Jim Grimshaw: Can you help me out?
17:33
Jim Grimshaw: And I do that.
17:34
Jim Grimshaw: I run down the studio and give them ribbons.
17:36
Jim Grimshaw: I used to walk down a hallway and where we were at SyncPAC headquarters.
17:40
Jim Grimshaw: We were in the same building as the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific Headquarters, Senior Marine Corps headquarters in the Pacific.
17:47
Jim Grimshaw: And I go out, I knew the headquarters commandant there, Lieutenant Colonel.
17:51
Jim Grimshaw: I walked in there one day.
17:52
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Lou, I need those ribbons on your chest.
17:55
Jim Grimshaw: And off I go to the studio, Navy's Marine Corps ribbons.
18:01
Jim Grimshaw: So I did things like that.
18:03
Jim Grimshaw: And other times when I couldn't make it, I would say to one of the Navy SEALs in the office, Why don't you go down there and make a hundred bucks?
18:12
Jim Grimshaw: Or my next door neighbor, who was one of my OCS classmates, he was the aviation guy for the Army.
18:18
Jim Grimshaw: And I would say, Moose, you're doing helicopter stuff down there, stuff like that.
18:23
Jim Grimshaw: I gotta tell you a story about the I'm the guy that made Tom Sellick a Navy SEAL.
18:30
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
18:30
Jim Grimshaw: When he started out, if you look at the early the early programs, he wore the Navy surface warfare badge.
18:38
Jim Grimshaw: Now, to the average viewer, they don't know what that is.
18:40
Jim Grimshaw: But we're all standing around one day and I said, Well, you're doing all the stuff going back to Vietnam.
18:45
Jim Grimshaw: You're on land, you're doing this, you're doing that.
18:48
Jim Grimshaw: Well, we thought surface meant land.
18:50
Jim Grimshaw: I said, no, surface means ocean.
18:52
Jim Grimshaw: I said, what you're really saying is that Tom is a Navy SEAL.
18:56
Jim Grimshaw: I said, now this would be great if you make him a Navy SEAL.
19:01
Jim Grimshaw: I would have preferred we changed the whole thing to make an Army Special Forces guy, but that obviously wasn't going to happen.
19:08
Jim Grimshaw: So Selic was like, that's a great idea.
19:11
Jim Grimshaw: So they had to run it by Don Belisario, the owner, creator of the show.
19:15
Jim Grimshaw: He was a former enlisted Marine in the Korean War, and he loved the idea.
19:21
Jim Grimshaw: So boom, that thing you know, all the promos, all everything else, Sellick's the rest of the time he was on air, he was a Navy SEAL.
19:30
Jim Grimshaw: But he was a picture recruiting poster for Navy SEALs.
19:34
Jim Grimshaw: So I said to one of my Navy SEAL buddies in my office, I said, I made Sellick a Navy SEAL.
19:40
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Why don't you make him an honorary Navy SEAL and put him in your association and have a little ceremony?
19:48
Jim Grimshaw: I said I can arrange the ceremony.
19:51
Jim Grimshaw: So Mike Trukowski says, This is a great idea, so they do it.
19:59
Jim Grimshaw: So Mike goes down there in his nice clean white uniform.
20:02
Jim Grimshaw: We're doing helicopter shots this one day.
20:05
Jim Grimshaw: And I got photographer arranged a whole nine yards.
20:09
Jim Grimshaw: Mike comes down there in his whites, and he's got this nice frame thing to make hand of Selleck and we take photos.
20:16
Jim Grimshaw: And I said to Mike very casually, I said, Where's your wife?
20:21
Jim Grimshaw: You didn't bring your wife to meet Tom Sellick?
20:24
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Mike, you're gonna be in big trouble.
20:29
Jeff Ornstein: Yo, a Magnum PI was a talk of the town when it was on TV.
20:32
Jeff Ornstein: That was the leading show for sure.
20:35
Jim Grimshaw: Oh yeah.
20:35
Jim Grimshaw: So anyway, we got home that night.
20:37
Jim Grimshaw: I pick up the phone, I call his house, and his wife answered the phone.
20:41
Jim Grimshaw: I said, I did my best Tom Thulley invitation with her.
20:46
Jim Grimshaw: Hi, CC, this is Tom.
20:47
Jim Grimshaw: I missed you down there today.
20:50
Jim Grimshaw: I wish I'd met you.
20:52
Jim Grimshaw: Jim Grimshaw, you're rotten SOB, you're worse than my sealed husband.
20:58
Jim Grimshaw: But I had a lot of fun with that show and got a lot of encouragement to go on and become an actor.
21:08
Jim Grimshaw: And that when I retired from the Army out of Hawaii, I went back to Fayetteville, kind of a lost ranger special forces thing, in a bad marriage, and all this kind of stuff.
21:18
Jim Grimshaw: I ruled out, I got turned down by the CIA, I applied for a GS-11 job, and so I get a call to go back to Magna PI.
21:27
Jim Grimshaw: I go back, I go out to Fort Shafter, I get on the phone, civilian personal office, and I call Japan.
21:33
Jim Grimshaw: I had a job in Japan.
21:35
Jim Grimshaw: I called the guy and I said, I'm going to turn down the job, the GS11 job.
21:40
Jim Grimshaw: And he said, Why?
21:41
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Well, he says, You realize how many colonels and generals are called out here?
21:45
Jim Grimshaw: By this time, I knew the Joint Chiefs of Staff exercise program front and back, all those almost five years I spent in Hawaii.
21:53
Jim Grimshaw: I had a great time.
21:54
Jim Grimshaw: And that's there's a whole lot of other stories there.
21:56
Jim Grimshaw: But so I turned on a job because I said all my life I don't want to work for the government anymore.
22:02
Jim Grimshaw: I have a burning desire to fulfill a teenage dream.
22:06
Jim Grimshaw: And I want to be an actor.
22:08
Jim Grimshaw: And I go, whoa.
22:10
Jim Grimshaw: Then I didn't work again for like five months.
22:14
Jim Grimshaw: Classic Murphy's Law.
22:16
Jim Grimshaw: Yeah.
22:17
Jim Grimshaw: And so it goes on.
22:18
Jim Grimshaw: And so then you get into all these things about you asked me the questionnaire about transitioning and so forth.
22:26
Jim Grimshaw: That transitioning going from the periods of unemployment.
22:30
Jim Grimshaw: Of course, I was in a bad marriage at the time.
22:32
Jim Grimshaw: So there's a lot of factors that go into this that maybe other people don't experience.
22:38
Jim Grimshaw: But I had to go through that and I did a lot of things for free.
22:42
Jim Grimshaw: Worked with a little theater a little bit, just said just to go for things, volunteer things.
22:47
Jim Grimshaw: But and then the at that point in time, the wife, I did a thing called North and South.
22:52
Jim Grimshaw: I was in the episode North and South run of episode three, North North and South Part One.
23:00
Jim Grimshaw: I did I did a scene, a big scene with Patrick Swayze and Robert Guillaume and Kirsty Alley and all that kind of good stuff.
23:09
Jim Grimshaw: And that's three days in Charleston with Kirsty Alley.
23:12
Jim Grimshaw: Are you kidding me?
23:13
Jim Grimshaw: And Robert Guillaume.
23:14
Jim Grimshaw: You know, Robert Guillaume was Benson at the time.
23:17
Jim Grimshaw: And so he had a terrific singing voice.
23:20
Jim Grimshaw: People don't realize what a good singer Robert Guillaume was.
23:23
Jim Grimshaw: But three days.
23:25
Jim Grimshaw: Now I don't know who Patrick Sweezy is, okay?
23:27
Jim Grimshaw: I'm an old guy.
23:28
Jim Grimshaw: You found out.
23:30
Jim Grimshaw: Here's a great story.
23:31
Jim Grimshaw: My 14-year-old daughter came down to live with me, and I said, Well, what?
23:36
Jim Grimshaw: You need to go to Savannah with me.
23:38
Jim Grimshaw: I'll drop you off at my aunt's and uncle's house.
23:41
Jim Grimshaw: I said, You stay with them for three days while I go to Charleston and film North and South.
23:46
Jim Grimshaw: I want you to get to know your great aunts of uncle, my mother's sisters.
23:51
Jim Grimshaw: She's 14 years old this time.
23:53
Jim Grimshaw: She knows who Patrick Swayze is.
23:55
Jim Grimshaw: I come back three days later, and I am hungover and I am tired.
24:01
Jim Grimshaw: And she says, What's the matter, Dad?
24:03
Jim Grimshaw: You look pretty bad.
24:04
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Well, I was partying downtown Charleston last night with a young star of the show named Patrick Swayze.
24:10
Jim Grimshaw: We were out dancing and we drink beer raising hell.
24:14
Jim Grimshaw: She goes, Patrick Swayze, Patrick Swayze, you've left me here with these old people.
24:18
Jim Grimshaw: And I could have been here with Patrick Swayze.
24:20
Jim Grimshaw: Are you kidding me?
24:22
Jeff Ornstein: And she never let me forget that.
24:24
Jeff Ornstein: So I gotta tell you, I'm very surprised.
24:27
Jeff Ornstein: You mean you have a sounds like a really strong theater background.
24:32
Jeff Ornstein: And what I was struck with when I was looking at some of your work, much of your work, there's a lot to look at.
24:37
Jeff Ornstein: You have a really, really perfected communicating on film without speaking.
24:44
Jeff Ornstein: I mean, you got a great look, look back, or uh wait you crinkle your lips and give a smirk or give a frown.
24:53
Jeff Ornstein: You really communicate quite a lot without even having to have dialogue.
24:57
Jeff Ornstein: And that's a a real skill on film.
25:00
Jeff Ornstein: And yet your background is theater, which is always bigger than life.
25:04
Jeff Ornstein: So, congratulations, really.
25:06
Jeff Ornstein: Did that come naturally?
25:07
Jeff Ornstein: Was that always how you were?
25:10
Jim Grimshaw: Well, I'll tell you, I don't know how it came.
25:12
Jim Grimshaw: I think it just again, it's working like watching guys like John Hilliman, uh, for example, who I thought was a great actor, and Tom.
25:20
Jim Grimshaw: Tom is a better actor than most people give him credit for.
25:23
Jim Grimshaw: And of course, the others that I've worked with along the way.
25:26
Jim Grimshaw: And then some workshops along the way doing different things, but paying attention while you're on the set and how other actors do things.
25:34
Jim Grimshaw: Robert DeVaul.
25:36
Jim Grimshaw: I was Robert DeVaul's stand-in and photo double and stunt double for the movie Days of Thunder.
25:42
Jim Grimshaw: And then I got an acting role in Days of Thunder.
25:45
Jim Grimshaw: I worked on that show for five months, and I was very happy because I made a lot of money on that show.
25:50
Jim Grimshaw: And watching Randy Quaid, there's another guy too.
25:53
Jim Grimshaw: He told you about making faces and reacting and doing this and doing that.
25:57
Jim Grimshaw: A lot of great stories about working on Days of Thunder.
26:00
Jim Grimshaw: But Duvall, I started out just being a regular stand-in, okay.
26:06
Jim Grimshaw: And then it was like I was making like $500 a week as a stand-in.
26:11
Jim Grimshaw: All right.
26:12
Jim Grimshaw: So then all of a sudden, Director Tony Scott was saying, and they said, Well, if you dress like Duvall and you go into hair makeup like Duvall, that's another $100 a day.
26:22
Jim Grimshaw: I was like, well, that's pretty cool.
26:24
Jim Grimshaw: And so the next thing you know, Tony Scott saying, Jimmy, I want you, I want wardrobe.
26:29
Jim Grimshaw: I'll get give Jimmy the jacket and the Denver hat that he's wearing.
26:33
Jim Grimshaw: And so the next thing, I'm doing all these setups, and I'm dressed like Duvall.
26:38
Jim Grimshaw: So now I'm making all this extra money, which is great, because I needed it, and then watching Duvall.
26:43
Jim Grimshaw: So after a while, it got to be where Tony Scott would say, Jimmy, do Duvall.
26:49
Jim Grimshaw: And I go up there and I would do I would do all these little body movements and these things that Duvall did.
26:55
Jim Grimshaw: And it would, Scott would just roll over in laughter.
26:58
Jim Grimshaw: So I did the stunt, and it was like standing behind a wall in Darlington Speedway while these nice the sag stunt guys from LA get paid great money, but they did a great stunt driving into the fit to the fit wall of the crash.
27:16
Jim Grimshaw: And of course, the stunt guys in LA, when they fell out of the way, they had mattresses to fall on.
27:21
Jim Grimshaw: I did not have one and or anything.
27:24
Jim Grimshaw: I just fell onto bare ground.
27:26
Jim Grimshaw: And so I did the stunt for DeVa.
27:28
Jim Grimshaw: I walked up to the casting guy, Craig Fincannon, local guy.
27:31
Jim Grimshaw: I knew up from Wilmington, with the buddies casting at a lot of shows.
27:36
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Craig, I said, stunt guys, they got paid a lot of money for that stunt.
27:41
Jim Grimshaw: I said, You think maybe I can give a little bump in pay here?
27:44
Jim Grimshaw: And he goes, I'll get back with you.
27:46
Jim Grimshaw: So two or three days went by, whatever.
27:48
Jim Grimshaw: He came up to me and he put his arm around me.
27:50
Jim Grimshaw: He says, Here's the deal.
27:51
Jim Grimshaw: He says, if I give you a bump of pay, it comes out of my pocket.
27:55
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
27:56
Jim Grimshaw: He says, but here's the good news.
27:59
Jim Grimshaw: Here's the good news.
28:01
Jim Grimshaw: We had a management meeting and they fired the actor who's on the show and who's going to become the hardiest car, pitch through chief.
28:08
Jim Grimshaw: And they're trying to figure out who to hire as an actor going into this final phase in the movie.
28:17
Jim Grimshaw: And he says, and I said, Well, the guy you want to hire has been standing in front of your camera for the last five months.
28:24
Jim Grimshaw: That's the guy you want to hire.
28:26
Jim Grimshaw: And Tony Scott, you're right.
28:28
Jim Grimshaw: Just put sunglasses on and all this kind of stuff.
28:31
Jim Grimshaw: So now I'm an actor.
28:33
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
28:33
Jim Grimshaw: And I'm eating steak and lobster at Daytona Speedway on a Saturday afternoon.
28:39
Jim Grimshaw: Well, do I have to be a stand-in anymore?
28:42
Jim Grimshaw: No, take it easy, eat your steak and lobster.
28:44
Jim Grimshaw: And so I'm sitting there enjoying myself, and all of a sudden, golf cart come flying around.
28:51
Jim Grimshaw: Tony Scott wants you up front.
28:53
Jim Grimshaw: Hop in the golf court.
28:55
Jim Grimshaw: So off we go.
28:56
Jim Grimshaw: I get up there.
28:56
Jim Grimshaw: Tony says, Jimmy, he says, I've been looking at you through this camera for five months.
29:03
Jim Grimshaw: He said, I gotta have you standing there when I set up the shot for Duvall.
29:08
Jim Grimshaw: I said, Well, do I still get paid as a stand-in and all that kind of stuff?
29:12
Jim Grimshaw: He goes, I can pay you whatever you want like that.
29:14
Jim Grimshaw: And he told the guy who was replacing me as a stand-in, he says, We'll keep you on too, like that.
29:20
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, and a great group of guys.
29:22
Jim Grimshaw: And so now I am a stand-in and I'm doing this thing every day, dressed as DeVall, and I am actually on an actor's contract as well.
29:32
Jim Grimshaw: And we're already filming one little portion of one scene this week, and next week another little portion.
29:40
Jim Grimshaw: It went off for four weeks, and I'm going.
29:43
Jim Grimshaw: I hope this movie never ends.
29:47
Jeff Ornstein: Jim, the producers are going to kill me.
29:49
Jeff Ornstein: We are at 35 minutes and counting, and they got to pare this down to 20 minutes, and they're going to have to figure out which stories they're going to share because they're all fantastic.
29:58
Jeff Ornstein: So I got to wrap this up, but I want to give you a closing question.
30:02
Jeff Ornstein: Clearly, you had this the acting passion was always part of who you are, it was always part of your makeup.
30:08
Jeff Ornstein: And then you went on to a really illustrative career in the military, and then you brought a lot of those managerial and coordinating skills in back into your work in the theater.
30:20
Jeff Ornstein: So, and I saw so much of your work in front of the camera before I interviewed you, and it was very impressive.
30:28
Jeff Ornstein: I loved watching you.
30:29
Jeff Ornstein: I just thought you really embodied the characters beautifully.
30:33
Jeff Ornstein: So, is there a story that you want to tell either in front of the camera or behind the camera that's still sort of percolating in the back of your brain?
30:43
Jim Grimshaw: Well, that's a that that's a good one because uh if you want to be an actor, okay.
30:50
Jim Grimshaw: First of all, here's what I recommend to people real quick.
30:53
Jim Grimshaw: Start off young, do what you gotta do.
30:57
Jim Grimshaw: I would say get the schooling, but maybe get some practical schooling too, because the world is well, actors are a dime a dozen, let's face it.
31:05
Jim Grimshaw: You know that as well as I do.
31:07
Jim Grimshaw: If I can tell you a story, I'll tell you another Days of Thunder story.
31:10
Jim Grimshaw: And it's about, I would say, uh what would be improvisation, understanding what the mission is and what you got to do to get there, to get the job, and that's this.
31:22
Jim Grimshaw: My buddy and I, Les Pendleton, whom I met on King Con Lives, he was in the contract of making neon signs for movie sets.
31:32
Jim Grimshaw: And by this time, his business had sort of gone out the window.
31:36
Jim Grimshaw: Wilmington got very political.
31:38
Jim Grimshaw: So we're doing neon signs in Newburn, North Carolina on a December day.
31:43
Jim Grimshaw: It's very cold.
31:44
Jim Grimshaw: We couldn't do it.
31:45
Jim Grimshaw: And so we go back to his house and we're like freezing our butts off.
31:49
Jim Grimshaw: I get a phone call from my agent who says, Tony Scott didn't hire you on your initial audition as an actor.
31:58
Jim Grimshaw: He fixed somebody younger for the role.
32:00
Jim Grimshaw: He says, But he wants you to be DeVall Stand.
32:03
Jim Grimshaw: He likes you because you and DeVaul have the same stomach.
32:07
Jim Grimshaw: That's what he said.
32:09
unknown: Okay.
32:10
Jim Grimshaw: And he says, but they need you in Charlotte tonight, and it's 20 degrees, and it's starting to snow.
32:17
Jim Grimshaw: And my buddies, he needed me to stay in a business to help him out every day.
32:21
Jim Grimshaw: And I looked over at him, I said, Les.
32:23
Jim Grimshaw: He goes, he and I are in the movie business together.
32:26
Jim Grimshaw: And he goes, Jimmy, you gotta go.
32:28
Jim Grimshaw: You have to do it.
32:29
Jim Grimshaw: You must go.
32:30
Jim Grimshaw: This is an opportunity you can't miss.
32:32
Jim Grimshaw: So I said, okay.
32:34
Jim Grimshaw: So I went to my storage room.
32:36
Jim Grimshaw: I was I had moved out of my apartment, I was living with Les while we were doing these signs.
32:41
Jim Grimshaw: And I have my dog with me, Sugar Bear.
32:44
Jim Grimshaw: And so Sugar Bear and I, we hop in a car in a van.
32:47
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Man, I gotta do that.
32:49
Jim Grimshaw: I go, I'll get my cold weather clothing out.
32:51
Jim Grimshaw: Off we go to Charlotte.
32:53
Jim Grimshaw: It's snowy.
32:54
Jim Grimshaw: It's snowing.
32:54
Jim Grimshaw: I didn't have a heater core element in a car because I was too cheap to buy one.
32:58
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, who needs it in North Carolina in the wintertime along the coast?
33:02
Jim Grimshaw: So, anyway, catching up with me, I'm driving to Charlotte.
33:05
Jim Grimshaw: The windshield is icing up.
33:07
Jim Grimshaw: I try to rub off the ice.
33:09
Jim Grimshaw: I said, I gotta get there.
33:10
Jim Grimshaw: I got a disappointment with Craig Fukanna to be DeVall Standard.
33:14
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
33:14
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, this is the mission.
33:16
Jim Grimshaw: You're going for the job.
33:17
Jim Grimshaw: You don't know what the opportunities are.
33:19
Jim Grimshaw: So I reach down, I find a can of spray.
33:24
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
33:24
Jim Grimshaw: I reach out there, I get a nice little hole in the ice on the windshield.
33:28
Jim Grimshaw: I keep on driving for another hour.
33:30
Jim Grimshaw: I am in this 1985 Ford van, which has got him on his last legs.
33:35
Jim Grimshaw: And I got my dog with me.
33:37
Jim Grimshaw: I pull into Hilton Hotel parking lot.
33:40
Jim Grimshaw: I make the dog comfortable.
33:41
Jim Grimshaw: And I go in there and I meet Craig.
33:44
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Okay, I'm here.
33:46
Jim Grimshaw: And he says, Okay, says, we're going to interview you with Bobby.
33:50
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Okay, fine.
33:51
Jim Grimshaw: So we're there, and all of a sudden the elevator opens and Bobby DeVall walks out with his girlfriend.
33:57
Jim Grimshaw: And Craig says, Bobby, this is Jimmy.
33:59
Jim Grimshaw: He's going to be your standing.
34:00
Jim Grimshaw: Hey man, how are you?
34:01
Jim Grimshaw: Nice to meet you.
34:02
Jim Grimshaw: Blah, blah, blah.
34:02
Jim Grimshaw: He says, Robert DeVald says, We're late for dinner.
34:06
Jim Grimshaw: We got to go.
34:07
Jim Grimshaw: And off we go.
34:08
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, Jeez, Craig, I says, is that the interview?
34:11
Jim Grimshaw: He goes, That was the interview.
34:13
Jim Grimshaw: Get on the elevator.
34:15
Jim Grimshaw: We go on the elevator, we go to Penthouse.
34:17
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
34:18
Jim Grimshaw: And so nah, open the penthouse, go in, who do I meet?
34:22
Jim Grimshaw: I meet Larry Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, I got me Tom Cruise, Randy Quaid, and Nicole Kidman.
34:30
Jim Grimshaw: Hey, this is a new addition to the team, blah, blah, blah.
34:34
Jim Grimshaw: And I said, go down the elevator, Craig says, hang on, I'll get to your room.
34:39
Jim Grimshaw: And so it was like I took a step backwards by being a stand-in.
34:45
Jim Grimshaw: Okay, I call it a sidestep.
34:48
Jim Grimshaw: And I didn't get a role in the showing days of thunder.
34:51
Jim Grimshaw: But sometimes you got to do things that that may not seem like you're going forward.
34:57
Jim Grimshaw: And you have to take a step back or look at it and say, okay, fine.
35:02
Jim Grimshaw: I'll do this until I can do something better.
35:05
Jim Grimshaw: It was very fortunate for me.
35:07
Jim Grimshaw: And like I said, I told you the other story.
35:09
Jim Grimshaw: And the next thing, the next thing you're in Daytona, I mean you're making all this money.
35:14
Jim Grimshaw: The next thing you're an actor.
35:15
Jim Grimshaw: And after days of days of thunder, I never really had to go and work another type of job again.
35:25
Jim Grimshaw: I mean, I have my military pay, of course, but retirement pay.
35:30
Jim Grimshaw: But it was always to me, it was always about the mission.
35:34
Jim Grimshaw: Yeah, you go to an audition in Atlanta.
35:37
Jim Grimshaw: Most of them are last minute.
35:38
Jim Grimshaw: To be an actor in the South, okay, in my time, you had to have a headshot, you had to have hopefully a resume, and you also had to have a car.
35:48
Jim Grimshaw: And you had to have the ability.
35:51
Jim Grimshaw: Okay.
35:51
Jim Grimshaw: If you didn't have a car, most Atlanta-based actors were living outside of Atlanta.
35:56
Jim Grimshaw: Anyway, so there's a million stories to tell about going to Atlanta and so forth.
36:00
Jeff Ornstein: Now I loved hearing all of them, and I really enjoyed watching you perform, I have to say, in the clips I saw.
36:07
Jeff Ornstein: I thought, I really thought you really had a commanding presence in the roles.
36:11
Jeff Ornstein: And again, you didn't even have to open up your mouth.
36:13
Jeff Ornstein: And I think that's a pretty impressive tweet.
36:15
Jeff Ornstein: You gave him a wealth of stuff to share.
36:18
Jeff Ornstein: You were a terrific guest.
36:20
Jeff Ornstein: Thank you so much for sharing those stories.
36:22
Jeff Ornstein: And I think a lot of people are going to be inspired by this guy is in the military, special ops.
36:28
Jeff Ornstein: He's talking about Navy SEALs.
36:30
Jeff Ornstein: And next thing you know, he's on a Magnum PI and he's talking to Robert Duval.
36:35
Jeff Ornstein: I can do it.
36:35
Jeff Ornstein: And that's what the podcast's about giving people, every man, the idea that somebody else can do it, I can do it too.
36:42
Jeff Ornstein: And you did it.
36:43
Jeff Ornstein: You did a great job.
36:44
Jeff Ornstein: So thanks so much for coming on.
36:47
Jeff Ornstein: Thank you so much for having me.
36:49
Jeff Ornstein: I appreciate it.
36:49
Jeff Ornstein: It's my pleasure.
36:51
Jeff Ornstein: Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
36:54
Jeff Ornstein: Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.next actpodcast.com.
37:01
Jeff Ornstein: Keep chasing your next act.
37:03
Jeff Ornstein: The best is yet to come.