Wesley Eure

Wesley Eure (born August 17, 1955 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American actor who appeared in the shows "Days of Our Lives" and "Land of the Lost". He has also been a singer, author, producer, director, charity fundraiser, and lecturer.

Early career

Eure's childhood was spent in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he dreamed of being in show business from the age of five, and starred as an oak tree in an elementary school play. He studied acting in the theatre arts department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and at summer workshops at Southern Illinois University and Northwestern University.

His first break came when he was working part-time at a Las Vegas hotel selling paintings. There he met Robert Goulet, who refused to purchase an original painted-on-velvet toreador, but did hire Eure as a production assistant for the Goulet-Carol Lawrence summer tour.

The tour terminated in New York City. After a few short months of auditions and odd jobs (including computerized astrology predictions), Eure became a cast member at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut.

Wesley joined such notables as Jane Alexander and Sada Thompson in "The Tempest", "Mourning Becomes Electra", "Merry Wives of Windsor", and "Twelfth Night", as well as many original works produced by the company.

At the Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania, he performed in "West Side Story" and then joined a musical comedy revue and traveled throughout the East Coast resort areas.

Television

After moving to Los Angeles, Eure was hired to star in Kaye Ballard's projected new series, "The Organic Vegetables", created and produced by the team who did "The Monkees". Subsequently, Eure was hired to replace David Cassidy on "The Partridge Family", but the show was canceled before the season started.

For eight years, he starred in NBC-TV's Emmy-winning "Days of Our Lives", playing the role of Michael Horton, Jr. He was nominated for Best Daytime Series Actor and is the recipient of Radio-TV Mirror Awards and Photoplay Awards. Eure co-produced, wrote and acted in Fox Television's hidden-camera shows "Totally Hidden Video" and "Payback". He also wrote and directed "Spy TV" for NBC. He was the host of Nickelodeon game show "Finders Keepers", and he also starred as Will Marshall in Sid and Marty Krofft's popular children's adventure series, "Land of the Lost", which led NBC's Saturday morning line-up for three years.

Eure is co-creator of PBS Kids’s Emmy-nominated animated series for preschoolers called "Dragon Tales", now in its sixth year. It is produced by The Children’s Television Workshop and Sony Pictures. In addition, he has another program, "Show and Tell Me", in development at PBS, based on his kid’s lecture series. His award-winning interactive “Anyone Can Write a Book” is a favorite with middle schools.

Eure also hosted an educational DVD called "Power Over Poison" to teach kids how to avoid poisons, produced by the PBS station in Pittsburgh.

Eure was a regular on such game shows as "Password" and "Match Game". Channel 9 TV in Australia hired Wesley to be the permanent host of their "Tonight Show", but lost a ten-month immigration battle with Actor's Equity in Australia.

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Wesley made his nightclub debut in his own major production act starring with Bill Cosby in the prestigious South Shore Room of Harrah's Lake Tahoe. "Variety" called his performance "one of the finest talents to be seen in years...an excellent debut." Wesley has starred on the stage in shows like "Bus Stop", "Butterflies Are Free", "Love Sex and the IRS", and the musical "I Love My Wife". The "Times Picayune" called Eure's performance in "Bus Stop" "extraordinary".

In Palm Springs, Eure directed a camp vampire musical called "Bite Me!" The show, written by Eure and his collaborator Rob Bower, was produced at the nightclub Heaven, playing to large enthusiastic crowds.

His company Games at Sea created, produced and directed on-board entertainment for cruise ships such as Crystal Cruises and Celebrity Cruise Line.

For several years, Eure’s "Blues Brothers 2000" live stage show at Universal Studios Hollywood was rated the number one tour show at the park.

Eure is currently co-producing, with his production company Cardboard Belt Productions, a new musical titled "Snapshots".

Film

Eure received top billing in Hanna-Barbera's comedy "C.H.O.M.P.S.", which also starred Valerie Bertinelli, Red Buttons, Jim Backus, Hermione Baddeley and Conrad Bain. He appeared as the fiendish murderer in "Tool Box Murders" and the nasty guy who gets eaten by snakes in "Jennifer".

Books

His children's novel "The Red Wings of Christmas", published by Pelican, has been called "the new American classic" by CNN, and was optioned by Disney for a full-length animated feature. The book was illustrated by Ron Palillo--Arnold Horshack on the 1970s TV series "Welcome Back, Kotter".

Wesley’s fifth book, "A Fish Out of Water", is his first pre-schooler book. The story of a bird and a fish that fall in love and make it work, it is used by schools to teach racial tolerance. The graduate art students at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina illustrate it. His new book, "The Whale That Ate the Storm", will soon be released.

Knightsbridge Publishing released two of his humor books, "Fun with Fax" and "On-the-Wall Off-the-Wall Office Humor".

Charity

For many years, Eure was the top fundraiser for the March of Dimes, and has also raised money through telethons and fund-raising campaigns for groups like the Variety Club and the Special Olympics. He helped start Project Angel Food, a non-profit organization that feeds homebound AIDS patients.

References

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