2012 - 01/2012 Meeting

Page Created: 02/16/12. Last Updated: 08/04/12.

DAVID ORANGE

Official Site: http://davidorange.net/

Books:

The Powder Merchant

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: January 14, 2012.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River.

Official Attendance: 14.

Meeting Program: Talk by Actor / Science Fiction Writer.

Notes:

Newsletter Account:

The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County's first General Meeting of 2012 was held on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center. Actor and author David Orange gave a wonderful presentation to a woefully light audience.

In order to accommodate our guest's schedule, we started the meeting early (7:00 PM) and ended it early (around 9:15 PM) . We showed two episodes of STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES before the meeting and screened STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY after our speaker left.

David Orange is an accidental actor. He was never interested in acting and did not see a stage play until he was 23. He was a jock who attended college on a football scholarship. He was good enough to try out for the Washington Redskins, but not good enough to make the team. The experience was enough to qualify him as a college football coach.

A casting director saw him at the University of Tucson and suggested he audition as an extra in JUDGE ROY BEAN because he had the look of a cowboy. Mr Orange landed the role, had one line, and talked sports for hours with Paul Neuman. (Eva Gardner and Jacqueline Bisset were also in the film.)

This chance encounter led to hundreds of commercials (he was the Selsen Blue man for years), television (DAYS OF OUR LIVES and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS), stage (Torch Song Trilogy, original cast) and cinema (The Sleepy Klingon in STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY).

Mr Orange really did not have a chance to interact with any of the big guns of the STAR TREK movie. His scene was the first one shot, so he was not on the set of THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY long. He did wind up eating lunch with supermodel Iman because neither of them knew anyone. They were walking across the Paramount lot with Iman's husband, David Bowie, when a bus stopped and an excited crowd of Japanese tourists poured out, pointing and screaming. Our guest stepped aside to give them a better shot at Iman and Bowie, but the tourists ignored the superstar duo. They all wanted pictures of him (David was in full makeup at the time).

This is not to say he did not have a William Shatner story, however. The two of them were among a batch of early risers who would jog in a park before dawn. One morning the two of them rounded a bend and discovered a trio of large coyotes on the trail a short distance away. The dialogue went something like: "You go first. No, you go first."

David Orange has three separate channels for his literary output. One is as a non-fiction writer for an upscale wine publication, TASTED MAGAZINE. A second is writing screenplays. He and his script writing team have produced three scripts. One has been optioned. The third is writing thrillers.

THE POWDER MERCHANTS is a near-future thriller in which a woman police detective matches wits with a brilliant millionaire who is determined to become the first person uploaded into cyberspace. The novel had a small print run from a traditional publisher. Mr Orange bought back the book and successfully re-issued it as an e-book. (Psst. Did you hear a Klingon's written a book?")

Our guest gave a terrific presentation. Too bad more of you were not there.