Ken was very involved in high school theater productions and community theater in St. Louis. He worked as a background extra in nearly every movie or TV show filmed in St. Louis, including “Escape from New York,” his first feature film. Because Ken was heavyset, he was asked to serve as John Candy’s stand-in in the John Hughes movie "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" with Steve Martin. As Candy’s stand-in, Ken helped with the lighting setup and camera focus. Ken and John discussed making movies and the home video rental business in John’s trailer.
Years later, after Ken’s bankruptcy and divorce led him to Los Angeles to have his family’s story turned into a movie, Ken tried to earn his Screen Actors Guild Card. He reached out to John Candy to ask for his mentorship. After over a year of sending emails and letters to Candy’s representatives with no reply, he changed his tactics. By thoroughly researching John’s background, he discovered that Candy was a part-owner of the Toronto Argonauts football team, and one of his partners was the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
Wayne met his wife, Janet Jones, when he was a celebrity judge on the TV show “Dance Fever,” where Janet was a dancer. Janet was from Bridgeton, Missouri, where Ken once owned one of his Video Library stores, and Janet’s mom was a regular customer. Janet signed autographs at his store when she starred in the movies “The Flamingo Kid” and “A Chorus Line.” Now, years later, Ken sent a letter to Janet’s mom, who gave it to Wayne, who then passed it on to John, and Candy contacted Ken soon after. Ken considers this a true example of Karma because later he married a woman named Darlene Lieblich, who was the Standards and Practices executive on “Dance Fever” when Wayne met Janet. More on this below.
John Candy agreed to mentor Ken in earning his SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card, and with his great advice, Ken got his SAG card on “The Flintstones” the same day John passed away. Ironically, Ken’s first SAG job was doubling for John in his last movie, “Wagons East.” One thing John Candy asked of Ken was to help others earn their SAG cards. Ken has helped many actors earn their SAG cards, and five of them earned their cards on his directorial debut, “Heart of the Beholder,” which is based on his family's true story.
Academy Award-winning mentor – Robert Wise: Ken found a producer in Los Angeles who optioned his family’s story, but failed to get any interest in Ken’s movie because it was too controversial. Ken was then referred by the National Coalition Against Censorship to Academy Award-winning Director Robert Wise for mentorship.
Mr. Wise directed movies such as “The Sound of Music,” “West Side Story,” the first “Star Trek” movie, and many more. Wise invited Ken to his Beverly Hills office for a chat, and Ken made an impression right away when he pointed to the picture on the wall of the robot from the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and said, “Gort, klaatu barada nikto.” Mr. Wise and his secretary laughed because people had been misquoting that phrase for decades. Ken was the first to get it right. Others had forgotten to say “Gort” first, which would get the robot’s attention, much like our “Alexa” devices today.
Mr. Wise read Ken’s screenplay, which was in poor shape. After six months of rewrites, Wise agreed it was ready for production. Then he said something that stunned Ken: Wise was determined that Ken should direct his own movie because if anyone else did and it turned out badly, it would devastate Ken. Also, if the film was successful, any opportunities that arose should go to Ken, not someone else.
Ken was landing work in commercials and industrial films, as well as SAG background extra and stand-in roles. On every shoot, he would ask the 1st assistant director to check with the director if Ken could sit out of the way and observe how to direct. Most said YES once they learned that Ken’s two mentors were John Candy and Robert Wise.
Ken was a stand-in on the movie “Stuart Saves His Family,” directed by Harold Ramis, a close friend of John Candy. For five days, Ken sat behind Ramis, taking notes. Occasionally, Harold would turn around and ask Ken if he had any questions. Ramis also talked to Ken about movies in general because they both were movie geeks. Harold Ramis’s personality and generosity were much larger than life. Ken learned more from Ramis in those five days than he would have in a year at film school. Harold Ramis was a great teacher and an overall great person. The world lost a truly warm-hearted and talented gentleman when he died.
After Ken directed a few short films, Mr. Wise felt he was ready to seek financing and produce his family’s movie. Meetings with studio development executives, arranged with Wise's help, turned out to be a waste of time. These twenty-something executives were afraid to take a risk on a movie that would likely upset the religious right. After a year of unsuccessful pitch meetings, Mr. Wise suggested a new approach to showcase Ken’s creativity and hopefully find a way to get his movie made.
