Ep. 18 - Pale Rider with Actor Jeffrey Weissman

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It’s westward ho! This week on Fabulous Film & Friends, as we discuss Clint Eastwood’s 1985 Guns, Gold, Ghosts and God spectacular Pale Rider, which was a return to form for Mr. Eastwood in the mid-80’s when the Western genre was considered on the way out. 

My guest is Jeffrey Weissman who acted in the film as Teddy Conway, one of the gentle, kind-hearted gold mining brothers in the story.

Mr. Weissman is the founder of the Bay Area Professional Actors Studio and a 48-year stage, film and television veteran, a multitalented, multi-hyphenate actor, teacher, writer, producer and all around great person. You may remember him from Twilight Zone: The Movie, Johnny Dangerously, in Back To The Future II and III as George McFly, guest starring roles on Diagnosis Murder, Scarecrow & Mrs King, as Screech's guru the High Geek on Saved By The Bell, on The Rocket Family Chronicles as well as day playing and voice over work on countless movies episodic shows, commercials and short films. 

I met him in 2005 on a Toyota commercial shoot filming locally. I was working as a production assistant helping sign in actors and what I recall is I recognized him from the Back To The Future series and I immediately started in with irritating  fanboy questions, the kind that one gets asked a million times,  and Jeffrey answered with grace, good humor and patience, when  he really didn’t have to.  And likely didn’t want to. 

Since that initial meeting, Jeffrey helped me with a DGA auditioning workshop and read two of my screenplays without charging a dime, offering very constructive feedback. And I’ve come to know Jeffrey as a true champion of the arts and artists, especially here in the Bay Area. 

Before we begin, the all-important synopsis:

The plot of Pale Rider entails an evil mining baron named Coy LaHood who unleashes a band of mounted thugs on an independent camp of California gold miners in the latter part of the 19th Century. The thugs trash the camp and kill the dog of young, 15 year old Megan Wheeler, daughter to a woman named Sarah, who herself is living under the protection of a miner named Hull Barrett. 

Hull and his companions are under constant pressure by LaHood and his repugnant son Joshua to pack up and leave their camp so LaHood can reap the treasures buried underneath their camp site. 

Shortly after the camp trashing incident, Megan prays over her dead dog’s grave, asking God for a miracle and as she does so, a mysterious figure simply known as “Preacher” shows up in town riding on a Pale Horse.  

Preacher immediately saves Hull from a brutal attack by LaHood’s goons and decisively evens the odds between the independents and the baron. 

Inspired by Preacher’s bravery, the miners decide to stand up to LaHood and refuse a payoff bribe that he offers as another tactic to get rid of them. 

But LaHood ups the ante and hires a shady and vicious Marshall named Stockburn, a figure from Preacher’s past no less, to end the conflict for once for all. 

So the burning question is:   What does Pale Rider mean both on an artistic and personal level to Jeffrey Weissman? 

Listen and find out!

Notes: 

Follow Jeffrey and his work on these site:

https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyWeissmanActor/
http://www.jeffreyweissman.com/
https://twitter.com/jefweissman