Bob Elkins

In a career spanning four decades, actor Bob Elkins has played a range of diverse characters too numerous to remember, but too compelling to forget. Despite impossible deadlines, sleep-depriving rehearsal schedules and grueling projects that required him to endure hours in rain, snow and scorching heat, his toughest role may have been the one into which he was born and from which he eventually fled, hiding in the spotlight, seeking the approval of strangers. Bob Elkins spent his first five years of life in the tiny mountain town of Mt. Hope, West Virginia, the son of a struggling coal miner, and the only brother of two sisters. One of his earliest memories is that of a real-life drama: a nearby creek overflowing its banks, muddy floodwaters inundating the first floor of his two-story house. Oblivious to the danger at hand, young Bob rode his tricycle through the rapidly rising water in the downstairs hallway, his mother desperately yelling for him to come upstairs. He made it just in time, sadly watching the tricycle, his prized possession, get swept away. In search of better job opportunities and more stable living conditions, Bob's family moved from West Virginia to Muncie, Indiana, where his father went to work for a lawnmower company. The family's economic situation improved slightly, but emotionally, things deteriorated as a result of an invisible wall that his father was slowly and steadily beginning to build around himself. School was a constant struggle, as Bob had difficulty comprehending textbooks and what teachers were writing on the chalkboard. Little did he or anyone else realize it at the time, but he suffered from dyslexia, a learning disability that would not be identified until much later. When Bob was 12, his family moved to Covington, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio. It was in that year that a pivotal and tragic event occurred that haunts Bob even now. One day, without warning or explanation, his father simply walked away from home, never to be seen or heard from again. Understandably, Bob was devastated. Bob fell in love with films because they were an escape. He could escape the fact that his father was gone. He went to movie after movie after movie. He didn't realize it at the time, but he thinks those movies planted the first seed of his interest in acting. To support her fractured family, Bob's mother took a job as a maid, and his sisters went to work part-time. With grades suffering and, for all practical purposes, no parental supervision, Bob became friends with other teenagers who introduced him to crime. He got involved with a kid at school who was a bookie. He was a real genius at math. He figured out the odds. Bob was the front guy. He collected all the bets and paid the winners. He also took care of any disagreements. Non-violently, of course. Bob's career in illegal gambling came to an end when one of his sisters discovered the books he kept, and convinced him that what he was doing was wrong. Bob quit working for his bookie friend, but continued down an equally dangerous path, hanging out with a rough crowd, staying out late at night and stealing things, like boxes of cigarettes. On one occasion, the group stole a car and took it for a joyride. Bob's life of youthful crime came to an abrupt halt when one night, he and his buddies got caught breaking into a coal company office. A police officer arrested them and took them to the police station. He told them what would happen if they was sent to reform school. And that stopped his life of crime. Because of failing grades, Bob attended summer school for five years. He also worked odd jobs, and became involved in sports. At the age of 18, like many young men his age, he joined the U.S. Navy. It was a turning point in Bob's life, as the Navy gave 600 recruits an aptitude test, the top 5% of whom were selected to go to college at the government's expense. Bob was among the top 5%. Although he refused the Navy's offer of free college tuition, Bob accepted an alternate offer to attend military school. Quickly promoting him to the rank of Petty Officer, the Navy put Bob in charge of a division on a ship, a job that gave him a much-needed boost of self-confidence. The Navy taught him that he wasn't just some stupid kid. he spent four years with Uncle Sam. It was an experience that really turned his life around. While in the Navy, Bob learned that his earlier academic difficulties were the result of dyslexia. One of Bob's best friends in the Navy, gunnery officer Lt. Jack Russell, taught Bob to read more efficiently. It was another turning point in Bob's life, as he began reading more, and higher-quality books. After Bob was discharged from the Navy, a friend talked him into attending night school, which the government paid for. Bob studied liberal arts for a year-and-a-half before his life took yet another turn, when he noticed a newspaper ad for an acting school in Cincinnati. Bob was able to draw from his experience in the Navy for his first professional acting job, a small part as a shore patrol officer in a stage production of the comedy Mister Roberts. A year later, he found himself playing the lead role in that same play. From the beginning, Bob enjoyed glowing reviews, and earned praise from fellow actors and directors. One director encouraged him to move to New York or Hollywood, to pursue work on Broadway, or in movies. However, romance intervened, and at age 25 Bob got married, and chose to stay in the Cincinnati area. During the next few years, he and his wife had four children. Bob continued acting, appearing in dozens of plays and TV commercials. Like most professional actors, though, he was not able to earn a living doing what he most enjoyed, so he supported his family by working a series of day jobs. One of his jobs was that of a salesman for a Fortune 500 chemical company. Despite having failed chemistry in high school, Bob worked his way up to the position of assistant vice president of the company's industrial division. Bob's acting career received a sudden boost in 1980, when he auditioned for and won a part in the motion picture Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), starring _Sissy Spacek_ and _Tommy Lee Jones_. Bob as Bobby Day the DJ in Coal Miner's Daughter Bob's experience working on Coal Miner's Daughter taught him a lot about acting for motion pictures. Unfortunately, Bob's personal life was not going nearly as well as his professional life seemed to be. Shortly after filming Coal Miner's Daughter, his marriage ended in divorce. It was the second major traumatic event of his life, leaving him in a deep state of depression. Unable to get motivated, Bob passed up several professional opportunities during this period. Finally, facing a mid-life crisis, he gave up the more stable corporate life to pursue acting full time, moving with a friend to Orlando, Florida. Disappointed with the acting opportunities in Orlando, Bob returned to Cincinnati, where he remained for several years, working in theater and getting occasional movie and television roles, including one in which he co-starred with Sandy Dennis in Trouble With Mother. After Bob's children were grown, he decided to take another stab at Hollywood, this time hitting the road for Los Angeles. In L.A., Bob studied acting under such professionals as Dee Marcus and Jason Alexander (George on Seinfeld). He also did several plays, including Passion Fruit, and movies that included The Big Day, with Saundra Seacat. However, good acting jobs were few and far between, and like many actors in Hollywood, Bob ran out of money and decided to return home. It might have been the best decision he ever made. Back in Cincinnati, Bob immediately began getting work in a variety of motion pictures and television shows, including This Train with Soupy Sales, and Tattered Angel with Lynda Carter. More recently, he had a supporting role in the ABC television movie The Pennsylvania Miners' Story, in which he played the father of a trapped miner, and the acclaimed docu-drama James Cameron's Expedition: Bismarck on the Discovery Channel, in which he portrayed German Admiral Gunther Lutgens. In February of 2003, Bob was honored to win the Best Actor Award in the Dublin Film and Music Festival in Ireland, for his portrayal of a homeless man in the independent film Homefree (2002), written and directed by Greg Newberry. He also starred in several feature films including Act of Contrition (2019), and worked on projects with Carrie-Ellen Zappa, including teaching acting for Zappa Studios.