He lived in an oversized cowshed that was converted into a home for his three sisters, brother, parents and himself. No running water, no electricity, no gas. Just living off what nature gave them.
And he says his life was hugely blessed because of that.
Actor Dennis Weaver has, indeed, seemingly lived a blessed life–a career in acting that has spanned more than 50 years, a marriage for as long as that, three sons he is proud of and a strong hope to leave the planet in good condition for future generations.
Many people may know him as Sam McCloud from the “McCloud” television series, or as Chester from TV’s “Gunsmoke,” or even as the Great Western Bank spokesman–a man you can trust.
Chronicling his life and his work is Weaver’s autobiography, “All The World’s a Stage,” to be published by Hampton Roads in October.
“It is, it truly is,” laughs Weaver, tall and slender, who just turned 77. “And we’re all playing different parts, in this huge drama. I call it, this great soap opera of God’s. It’s important that we think of it in those terms, and not take it too seriously.”
As to why he wrote the book, Weaver says, “I thought I had something important to say.” Again laughing, he adds, “People may differ with me.”
“I also wanted to leave something to my kids and my grandchildren about the kind of life I experienced when I was young,” he says, on a more serious note. “I thought it was important that they had some kind of documentation about what went on in the days of the Depression, and the days in the War (W.W.II).”
Weaver, who served in the Naval Air Core in W.W.II, says his book is in three parts.
“I hesitate to call it an autobiography,” he explains, “because there’s so much of my life that isn’t in the book.”
The three parts, however, chronicle three very important aspects of Weaver’s life growing up during the Depression and his early days in show biz– “How I got started, the pitfalls, the obstacles, and the barriers you have to overcome” — his philosophy about life and spirituality, and his current endeavor to help build a “sustainable future.”
The formation of an environmentalist
During the depression years, Weaver’s parents had bought a 10-acre piece of property 10 miles outside of Joplin, Missouri, where he was born.
“The purpose was to grow our food, so we would have something to sustain ourselves, to eat,” says Weaver, “and that was probably, as I look back on it, one of the greatest blessings I ever had because I got an opportunity to work with the soil, to grow things, and to see how nature worked.”
This love of nature has been with Weaver his whole life. And with the understanding that “most people grow up without any awareness, without any connection, really strong connection to nature,” Weaver has set out to educate, enjoin and encourage people to help build a sustainable economy, one that will help businesses, but also not harm the environment.
His Institute of Ecolonomics is based on this idea. “That’s what our entire mission is,” he explains, “to give a planet for future generations that is healthy and clean, and a place [where] they can live creative, productive lives.”
And this is where hydrogen comes in, he explains.
“Most every environmental problem we have, plus our own personal health, plus tax payer dollars to clean up messes, all that can be traced to our addiction to fossil fuels, to our addiction to oil, to gasoline. It’s the energy that we use to fuel our economy that is the problem,” says Weaver.
An energy source that is clean, inexhaustible, and economically feasible, Weaver believes, is hydrogen.
In an effort to raise awareness about the possibilities of hydrogen, this fall Weaver plans to drive a hydrogen-powered car from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., first stopping in Denver, Colo. to attend a worldwide hydrogen congress.
“Ecolonomics is a stool,” Weaver explains, as to the push for political involvement in the use of hydrogen energy, “and any stool that’s worth its salt must have three legs for it to work, and the three legs of ecolonomics are: education, business and government.”
Partners
By his side in all his work is Weaver’s wife, Gerry, who on this Friday afternoon, hovered in the background, occasionally interjecting comments about his singing and other abilities.
In addition to acting, she proudly claims that he has recorded several albums.
“I think of myself as a performer,” Weaver says demurely. He took up singing as a challenge, he says, as his “whole family is very musical. I had to become musical just to defend myself.”
Asked how he and Gerry met, Weaver, in his low-key humorous way, says, “Ah, it’s all in the book.”
Their meeting involved a sock hop, short skirt and red tights, and twirling. “I saw those red tights, and it was a done deal,” laughs Weaver, along with Gerry, and Julian Meyers, Weaver’s publicist, who faithfully sat by as the interview was conducted.
50 years in Hollywood
Weaver’s acting career began in a church Christmas program when he was 4 years old.
“I was supposed to recite Little Jack Horner,” recalls Weaver. “I did, I prepared for that. I got up and said, ‘Little Jack Horner sat in the corner eating his Christmas pie. He stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said, what a good boy I am.’
“The audience just roared, and I thought, ‘Boy, this feels pretty good. They’re giving me some kind of recognition here that I like.’ “
Weaver, who will celebrate his 50th anniversary in Hollywood next year, says the toughest part about being an actor is “getting a job.” It is also a career that involves heartbreak-on a continual basis.
“Every actor, I don’t care what level they get to, suffers some kind of heartbreak,” says Weaver. “If you can’t take the rejection, you should never try to be an actor. It’s part of the game, part of what it is.”
But, Weaver also says, “Life is short and unpredictable, and if you want to have a fulfilling life, you better just go for what you want to do, what you really think in your deepest part of you is what you’re here to do and to not let a lot of things stand in you way.”
And the final answer is …
Spiritual.
“I think that’s the real answer to all our problems,” says Weaver, who served as a lay minister at the Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades for 17 years. His home now is in Colorado, where he and Gerry moved to in 1990 because they were tired of “what was going on in L.A.–the traffic, drugs, crime smog.”
“Albert Schweitzer said, ‘The disastrous feature of our civilization is that we have developed more materially than we have spiritually,’ ” says Weaver.
“I think he means we have to come to that higher understanding that we’re all connected, that we’re all one, that we share each other’s pain, we share each other’s joy,” he explains. “And what is good for another is good for yourself, and what hurts another hurts yourself eventually, because we are truly connected. It appears we are not, but that’s the delusion we are living in, and we really cannot separate ourselves from each other or the Creator, we only imagine we can.”
