User talk:Daniel Keough

Daniel Keough is an actor, and in the past, has been a dancer, singer, and male model. In addition to performing, he has also written and directed plays and designed and built sets for many theater productions. He lives in Los Angeles, in the Cahuenga Pass area of the Hollywood Hills.

Biography

Early life

Daniel Edward Keough, was born in a working-class neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago, on January 28th,1940, the second, in what would become a family of four children, with an older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother. His father, Edward Michael, the son of Irish immigrants, was an electrician, and his mother, Eleanor, a homemaker, was second and third generation Swedish, Norwegian, and Irish. He attended 1st grade at Saint Ferdinand parochial school, then transferred to Mary Lyon public school, from where he graduated. From there, he went on to attend and graduate from Steinmetz High School, class of January, “58”. He got a job and worked for a half year, then in the fall of 1958,  enrolled at Wright Jr. College (a community college on the northwest side of the city). He attended for one year. That summer, he took an acting class at Columbia College, and after the first session, was hooked on the challenge of learning the craft of acting. So the following fall, instead of returning to Wright, he enrolled as a full-time student at the Goodman Theater, School of Drama, the Theater Arts wing of the Chicago Art Institute. After the first year, when a good paying summer job he was planning on fell through, he knew he wouldn’t be able to procure enough funds to return to drama school, so with all considerations, he decided the best thing to do at that time, was to fulfill his military service obligation. Thus, he volunteered for the draft and served two years active duty in the U.S. Army. Upon his separation from active duty, he moved to New York City to resume his studies, registering for classes at the HB Studio, studying first with Herbert Berghof, then with Uta Hagen. He also trained in dance and voice. After three and a half years of living in Manhattan, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he presently resides.

Military

Although the United States was not involved in any military actions in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the government still maintained a military draft. Not wanting to wait until his number came up, Daniel volunteered for the draft, so that he would be inducted in the next month’s quota from his draft board. He did his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and his second eight weeks ( advanced individual training), at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a rocket- launcher crewman. He was then among a small group of soldiers, selected to continue for another seventeen weeks of training at Fort Sill, to attend nuclear warhead school and the corresponding training program. After a security clearance for access to classified material, he, along with seventeen other enlisted men and two officers, were formed into the 24th, U.S.A. Missile Detachment. Upon completion of the program, they were assigned, as a NATO support unit, to the 82nd, Mountain Division of the West German Army (the Bundeswehr), in Landsberg, Germany. They shipped out as a self- contained unit for Germany, and were billeted in there own building on the West German Army base, as the guest NATO nation; but shared all other facilities with the German soldiers as well as going to the field and performing maneuvers with them. After two years of active duty and four years in the reserve, he was honorably discharge with a rank of Specialist 4th Class (E-4), and an MOS as a Nuclear Warhead Technician.

Career

While living in New York, with the exception of working in summer stock each summer, and the occasional one or two day gig in the city, the main focus of his time was on his training to develop into a competitive triple- threat performer. After working survival jobs to make the rent and other living expenses, and enough to pay for classes, the rest of his time was dedicated to training. It made more sense to him than making rounds, which seemed like an exercise in futility. So he worked at various survival jobs that he could fit into his studies and classes, and didn’t care to interrupt that process. It all paid off when he relocated to Los Angeles. Within the first month he arrived, he landed his first dance audition, and continued working as a dancer in various theatrical venues for the first year and a half. He also started singing at the, Horn, a popular nightclub in Santa Monica (although no longer there, it was to singers, what the, Improv, is to comedians). He then got into modeling, doing print work for fashion and product, runway shows, and also starting shooting a lot of television commercials. For lack of time and financial need, he stopped working professionally as a dancer, and eventually, discontinued going to dance class. He did however, continued to study acting and voice. Within a few more years, he started getting some opportunities to audition for television work, and hence, started doing parts on episodic TV shows. Every year when Stella Adler would come to Los Angeles to conduct her summer sessions, he would study with her. Over the years, he has been a member of three different theatre companies, and remains active with one of them, Theatre West. He has acted in projects with all of them and also directed projects and productions at Theatre West. When he was in his mid thirties, he had the resources to explore another life-long interest…aviation. After his first few flying lessons, all of his artistic interests were pushed aside by his endeavor to become the best possible pilot for his own safety and longevity as an aviator. So, the next two years were completely focused on flight training, earning Commercial, Instrument, and Multi-engine ratings, and a secure confidence level at the controls of an airplane. With a desire to log as much flight time as possible, he started hanging out more at Santa Monica airport than he was putting in time trying to get work as an actor. Eventually though, the acting bug started biting again and he put his work pursuits back on track. Fortunately, when he returned to the market place, he became busier than he had ever been. Over the years, he has remained active in artistic projects in one way or another, and is always on the lookout for something new and interesting.