Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Larger than life: Herschel Sparber

Actor remembers local beginnings

His stage career began at Montalvo in community theater

By Sarah Quelland

Standing a towering 6 feet, 9 inches tall, actor and former Los Gatan Herschel Sparber is hard to miss. His height makes him a natural choice when directors need an actor to play a role almost larger than life.

But Sparber is a fine actor in his own right, even without his size to back him. He's been in two Tony award-winning Broadway plays and has a score of stage, television and film credits to his name. Originally from Nashville, Sparber moved to Los Gatos in 1977, where he got his start in acting.

"The first community theater I did was at Montalvo," he says. From there he helped found Theater West, a theater company housed in the auditorium space of the Old Town shopping center. The group put on a full season every year for four years before disbanding in the early 1980s.

While in Los Gatos, Sparber dedicated much time to acting and producing and was involved in several local productions, including Theater West's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Stalag 17 and Room Service.

Los Gatos resident Larry Sher is a good friend of Sparber's who years ago worked on several productions with him.

Sher describes Sparber as a "pretty nice, easygoing guy--a big teddy bear." He says he thinks of Sparber as an unlikely success story and calls his friend's achievements amazing.

"The man was in two Tony award-winning plays on Broadway back to back," he says with a mixture of pride and awe.

Sparber's biggest successes began when he moved from Los Gatos back to Nashville and then on to New York, where he lived for about seven years.

He was cast as Big Six in the Broadway production of City of Angels through what he terms a "cattle call." A bit unorthodox, at the audition he sang "Rubber Duckie" from Sesame Street. The ironic sight of such an imposing figure singing Ernie's classic children's ode apparently worked.

"They liked it. They cast me. And that was that," he sums up.

Following that run, he got a role as Big Julie in Broadway's Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane. Following his measured success on Broadway, which he says is the most lucrative work he's done to date, Sparber moved to Los Angeles to further pursue his acting career. He has since had a number of small cinematic roles and made several TV appearances, including a recurring role as Jaresh-Inyo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

There's an obvious theme to the characters Sparber plays, evidenced by names like Big Six and Big Julie. He worked with Nathan Lane again in The Birdcage, where he had about 30 seconds of screen time as "Big Guy in Park." He has also played Big Shelley in Bloodhounds on Broadway, Tall Thug on an episode of Saved by the Bell and the kidnapper in Sidney Sheldon's made-for-TV movie Windmills of the Gods. NYPD Blue, Players and The Equalizer are a few of the TV dramas on which he has also appeared.

Although he's worked on films with stars such as Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Matt Dillon, Steve Buscemi and Madonna, Sparber considers himself "entry-level."

"I haven't gotten the real meaty roles yet," he says.

While waiting for his big break, Sparber does voice-overs for cartoons; his credits include A Goofy Movie, Felix the Cat and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also worked on the upcoming animated feature tentatively titled The Search for El Dorado with Edward James Olmos and Kenneth Branagh, scheduled for a 1999 release.

Sparber can also be seen in the upcoming movies Dish Dogs with Matthew Lillard and Sean Astin and Scarred City with Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri and Tia Carrere, both of which are currently in production.

Just this spring, Sparber revived his role as Big Six in the recent American Musical Theater of San Jose's production of City of Angels, which garnered high praise for its hearty dose of song, rich character development and film noir atmosphere.

"It was a really nice homecoming," he says, adding, however, that he does not plan on moving back to the South Bay. "I can't make a living there," he says.

Sparber has strong words of advice that border on discouragement for aspiring actors. "It's a stupid career choice," he states dryly. "I was in this business for 10 years before I made a penny.

"If you can't take rejection, you don't belong in the business. For every job that I get, I get rejected 10 times," he adds. "Unless it's something that you absolutely have to do, don't get into this business. I act because that's what I do. I would do it even if they didn't pay me."

When asked what he finds most rewarding about acting, Sparber replies: "All I can answer that with is clichés. I love to act, and that's why I do what I do."

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