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In the movie “My Favorite Year,” Peter O”™Toole plays an Errol Flynn-like character who, as the curtain is about to rise on a live performance, bellows, “I”™m not an actor ”“ I”™m a movie star.”
Judie Galvin is something of the opposite, a woman whose thespian history might be summed up: “I”™m an actor ”“ I”™m not a movie star.”
Which is not to say Galvin can”™t be seen in the movies ”¦ and on the stage and on TV. She”™s in Stephen Spielberg”™s “War of the Worlds.” She”™s on set with Tony and Carmella Soprano while they dine against character on sushi: “The food is real, but it gets a little hard by the end of the day,” she says of the day-long shoot for “The Sopranos.” She”™s in the jury box on “Law and Order”; it makes no difference if it”™s a “Special Victims Unit” case or if “Criminal Intent” is at the root of the mayhem ”“ she”™s done both. And while the children on “All My Children” have been misbehaving for decades, at least the soap opera had the good sense to hire Galvin to class up the shenanigans. Her stage credits include the Off-Broadway production of “Grandma Sylvia”™s Funeral” and the New York Dinner Theater production of “The Godfather”™s Meshuggener Wedding,” for which she has reprised the role of Sadie Goldberg “hundreds of times.”
Also on the big screen, she has nonspeaking roles in “The Manchurian Candidate” remake with Denzel Washington; in “The Interpreter” with Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman; and as a bus passenger in Oliver Stone”™s “World Trade Center.”
Galvin is sales and marketing manager for Bistro Z at the Doubletree Hotel on South Broadway in Tarrytown. If it was the goal of hotel management to fill Galvin”™s slot with the sort of professional presence you might expect at “21” or Elaine”™s, they have succeeded. It is no small trick to be both classy and warm; Galvin”™s got it.
Galvin has the look of an actor. Maybe you can chalk it up to sturdy upbringing and good posture, or maybe it”™s the result of entertaining that dates to childhood, but she stands out in a crowd: tall and raven-haired and possessing an engaging storytelling style. She knows how to stand, how to gesture, how to smile (radiantly). And having stood out, with all sorts of inside skinny on entertainment, Galvin could well be the ideal person to bump into at the new piano bar in the Doubletree atrium ”“ one of her projects ”“ swinging into action in January on Friday and Saturday nights. With the enthusiasm of Doubletree General Manager Rich Friedman behind the idea, there exists the possibility of more piano nights per week on the horizon.
Acting, like many crafts, can look easy in the hands of a pro. A conversation with Galvin demonstrates what goes on subcutaneously. For example: With gigantic people-eating monsters on her tail, Judie Galvin broke down in tears. Not a meltdown; she still had to keep moving, lugging a torn red suitcase that held everything she had left in this crazy alien-infested world. Beside her, Tom Cruise was likewise battling for his life. After “War of the Worlds” director Spielberg yelled “cut,” Galvin received high praise indeed from perhaps the planet”™s top marquee draw.
“I decided as an actor I would cry,” Galvin said. “I was being chased by monsters. All I had was in this red suitcase. Who wouldn”™t cry? Afterward, Tom Cruise came up to me and said, ”˜Are you all right?”™ Then he said, ”˜Wow, you were great; I really thought you were crying.”™”
Galvin says of acting, “You don”™t find it, it finds you,” and that appears very much to be the case with Galvin. While she cites her Hebrew school turn at age 7 as her first fling with the greasepaint, she already had the bug by that point: “As a 4- or 5-year-old girl, I would sit on the edge of my bed and pray to be a Mouseketeer. I was always singing and dancing.”
Her acting genes were thoroughly authenticated in high school in New Haven, Conn., where her turn as Maggie in “Rally ”™Round the Flag Boys” is one for the ages. Suffering a 104-degeee fever and strep throat, the Galvin family doctor made the time-honored and now-extinct house call to administer a healing syringe to the young thespian. “I delivered the opening line and when I sat down, I jumped right back up.” She gestures to her backside. “Because that”™s where I got the shot.”
Under Galvin”™s guidance, Bistro Z has begun Club Bistro Z for singles of a certain age. That age? “If you can remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan,” says Galvin, 59, who explains, “My feeling is as a generation we were nesting too much.” Her first dance party was Nov. 16 and 100 people showed up. Her next Club Bistro Z shindig is Jan 11, 6:30-9 p.m.
In her current position at Bistro Z, Galvin says, “I take all of the things I love: being creative, writing, my passion for people ”¦ and put them all together. My passion for acting is the same as my passion for Bistro Z. One of the things I”™ve learned is you have to be passionate about all you do.”
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