Chad Allen (actor)

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Chad Allen
Chadallen.jpg
Born Chad Allen Lazzari
(1974-06-05) June 5, 1974 (age 49)
Cerritos, California, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1981–2015

Chad Allen (born June 5, 1974) is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor at the age of seven, Allen is a three-time Young Artist Award winner and GLAAD Media Award honoree. He was a teen idol during the late 1980s as David Witherspoon on the NBC family drama Our House and as Zach Nichols on the NBC sitcom My Two Dads[1][2] before transitioning to an adult career as Matthew Cooper on the CBS western drama Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman.[3] He announced his retirement from acting in April 2015.

Early life

Allen was born Chad Allen Lazzari in Cerritos, California, and grew up in Artesia. He has a twin sister named Charity and a brother named Steve Lazzari who works for Union Pacific Railroad. Allen is of predominantly Italian origin, with a "dose" of German origin.[4] He was raised within a "strict" Roman Catholic household and regards himself as being a "deeply spiritual person" because of his upbringing.[4][5] Allen attended St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California.

Early career

Allen guest-starred on several prime time series including an early episode of Airwolf for which he was nominated as 'Best Young Actor: Guest in a Series' at the 6th Youth in Film Awards and St. Elsewhere, in which he played autistic child Tommy Westphall[6] (1983–88). The series final episode, "The Last One", ends with the indication that all of its storylines occurred in Tommy's imagination.[7] In 1983, he appeared on Cutter to Houston, playing "a kid who got hurt and had to be given mouth-to-mouth and carried to the waiting chopper by Dr. Hal Wexler (Alec Baldwin)". "I thought it was the greatest job I had ever gotten," he later stated.[8] Allen's first regular role was as David Witherspoon on Our House (1986–88). In 1989-90, he had a recurring role as Zach in My Two Dads. Allen's next contract role was Matthew Cooper in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman alongside Jane Seymour (1993–98).

Outing and activism

In 1996, at age 21, Allen was outed as gay when the U.S. tabloid The Globe published photos of him kissing another man in a hot tub at a party.[4][9] The photos were sold by someone who claimed to be a friend of the couple.[10] Allen has since become an activist for the LGBT community in addition to his continuing acting and producing career.[3] On January 17, 2006, Allen appeared on CNN's Larry King Live with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom to represent his viewpoint in a debate over same-sex marriage. Allen thanked Newsom for his attempts to legalize same-sex marriage in the city.[11] Allen has been featured in The Advocate magazine multiple times[3][4][5][12] and has appeared on three of its covers.[4][13][14]

Further career

Starting with Third Man Out (2005), Allen stars as Donald Strachey, a gay private detective in a monogamous relationship, in a series of television movies for the here! network based on novels by Richard Stevenson. The sequel, Shock to the System (2006), was followed by On the Other Hand, Death (2008) and Ice Blues (2008). Allen noted that Strachey is the first gay character he had ever played outside of theater and that, though his career is "different" since coming out, he finds it "more interesting and fun for me than it has ever been."[12]

When Allen was cast as real-life Christian missionary Nate Saint in the docudrama End of the Spear (2006) some conservative Christians lashed out at producers for casting an openly gay man in the role.[5][15]

In 2007, Allen starred in the film Save Me.[16] Developed and produced by Allen, the film was directed by Robert Cary and written by Robert Desiderio.[3] Save Me, a film exploring the ex-gay movement, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was later picked up for distribution by independent studio Fine Line Features.

From June through August 2008, Allen appeared with Valerie Harper in Looped, a play based on the life of Tallulah Bankhead, at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California.

Starting September 23, 2008, Allen portrayed the love interest of Dr. Kyle Julian for five episodes of the prime time SOAPnet serial General Hospital: Night Shift, a spin-off of the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital.[9][17][18]

Personal life

In November 2006, The Los Angeles Daily News wrote in passing that Allen's real-life boyfriend, Jeremy Glazer, was also in the film Save Me.[19] In a September 2008 interview with Out.com, Allen stated that he was currently in a three-year relationship and had been sober for eight years.[9] In October 2008, AfterElton.com stated his boyfriend to be Glazer.[20] In May 2009, Allen was the recipient of a GLAAD Media Award: the Davidson/Valentini Award. In his acceptance speech he said he had met Glazer, his partner, exactly four years earlier.[21]

In April 2015, Allen announced in a video his retirement from acting, saying that he plans to become a clinical psychologist. "It's been an exciting journey...working on the shows that I got to work on over the years. I am incredibly grateful today, I have been and always will be," adding "My life has taken me on a very different trajectory and after 30-plus years as an actor, I made a decision a couple of years ago to begin letting that side of my life go and I've been focusing on my education."

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1981 Simon & Simon Boy Episode: "A Recipe for Disaster"
1983 to 1988 St. Elsewhere Tommy Westphall 11 episodes
1984 Airwolf Ho Minh Truong Episode: "Daddy's Gone a Hunt'n"
1984 The New Leave It to Beaver Doug Williams 2 episodes
1985 Matt Houston Patrick Episode: "The Nightmare Man"
1985 Not My Kid Bobby Television movie
1985 The Bad Seed Mark Daigler
1985 Hotel Bobby Cowley Episode: "Sleeping Dogs"
1985 A Death in California Glenn 2 episodes
1985 Code of Vengeance A.J. Flowers Episode: "Code of Vengeance"
1985 Punky Brewster Conrad
Brian		 2 episodes
1985 to 1986 Webster Rob Whitaker 4 episodes
1986 Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! Charlie Brown (Voice) Television special
1986 Help Wanted: Kids Coop
1986 TerrorVision Sherman Putterman
1986 to 1988 Our House David Witherspoon 46 episodes
1987 Tales from the Darkside Sandy Episode: "The Milkman Cometh"
1988 Straight Up Ben Unknown episodes
1988 Highway to Heaven Ricky Diller Episode: "The Whole Nine Yards"
1988 Hunter Danny Sanderson Episode: "Heir of Neglect"
1989 to 1990 My Two Dads Zach Nichols 21 episodes
1990 Camp Cucamonga Frankie Calloway Television movie
1990 Star Trek: The Next Generation Jono/Jeremiah Rossa Episode: "Suddenly Human"
1991 The Wonder Years Brad Patterson Episode: "The Yearbook"
1991 DEA Michael Stadler 2 episodes
1991 Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story William Flynn Television movie
1992 ABC Weekend Special Sean Episode: "Choose Your Own Adventure: The Case of the Silk King"
1993 Praying Mantis Bobby McAndrews
1993 In the Heat of the Night Matt Skinner Episode: "Every Man's Family"
1993-1998 Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman Matthew Cooper 147 episodes
1998 The Love Boat: The Next Wave Pete Dougherty Episode: "How Long Has This Been Going On?"
1999 Total Recall 2070 Eddie Miller Episode: "First Wave"
1999, 2004 NYPD Blue Tommy Ibarra
Kyle Tanner		 2 episodes
2001 What Matters Most Lucas Warner
2001 A Mother's Testimony Kenny Carlson
2001 Do You Wanna Know a Secret? Brad Adams/Bradley Clayton
2002 Sexy Voice 1
2002 Getting Out Steve
2003 Paris Jason Bartok
2004 Downtown: A Street Tale Hunter
2005 Cold Case Monty Fineman 1985 Episode: "Kensington"
2005 Third Man Out Donald Strachey
2005 Charmed Emrick Episode: "Hulkus Pocus"
2005 End of the Spear Nate Saint/Steve Saint
2006 The Pool 2 Mark Casati
2006 Criminal Minds Jackson Cally Episode: "The Tribe"
2006 Shock to the System Donald Strachey
2007 Save Me Mark
2007 Terra Terrian Scientist Voice
2008 On the Other Hand, Death Donald Strachey
2008 Ice Blues Donald Strachey
2008 CSI: Miami Barry/Stan Carlyle Episode: "Bombshell"
2008 General Hospital: Night Shift Eric Whitlow 5 episodes
2009 Hollywood, je t'aime Ross
2009 Fright Flick Brock
2010 Spork Loogie
2010 Dexter Lance Robinson Episode: "Everything is Illumenated"
2010 For Better or for Worse
2012 Hollywood to Dollywood Himself

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Vary, Adam B."His grown-up Christmas list." The Advocate Issue 903. November 25, 2003.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 The Advocate, October 09, 2001, Issue #848 - 2001, "CHAD ALLEN: his own story ". Interviewed by Bruce Vilanch, ("Basically, I had been raised on the set and at the church - strict Catholic upbringing there. We're Italian, with a dose of German blood, ..."), Retrieved on August 08, 2010.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Advocate, March 14, 2006, Issue #958 - 2006, "Chad Allen's not sorry". Interviewed by Beth Schwartzapfel, ("I'm deeply spiritual person. I grew up a Catholic boy."), Retrieved on August 08, 2010.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ When I Knew (2005), ISBN 0-06-057146-2 - page 112
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Branco, Nelson. "Allen's Anatomy." Out.com Retrieved September 29, 2008. Archived 5 March 2010 at WebCite
  10. ↑ Chawla, Sarika. "True Detective." IN Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved April 20, 2008.
  11. ↑ "Debate Over Gay Marriage," Larry King Live transcript. CNN.com January 17, 2006
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Vary, Adam B. "Chad's on the case." The Advocate. Issue 945, August 30, 2005.
  13. ↑ The Advocate Issue 945 cover August 30, 2005
  14. ↑ The Advocate Issue 903 cover November 25, 2003.
  15. ↑ Moring, Mark. "Christian Studio Explains Hiring of Gay Actor." ChristianToday.com January 26, 2006.
  16. ↑ Save Me (2007) official site Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  17. ↑ Coleridge, Daniel R. "Night Shift: Meet Kyle's New BF!" SOAPnet.com August 20, 2008.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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