Tom O'Rion

Tom O'Rion was born Thomas Richard Ryan in Brooklyn, N.Y. His mother had been a coloratura soprano and his father a stand-up comedian before raising four children necessitated a career change for them. Their love for the performing arts was instilled in Tom, though he gravitated towards writing in his early years, studying Communication Arts at Fordham University. However, he had actor friends like Ed Dennehy, Brian's younger brother, and became fascinated by theater, studying with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof in New York City. Tom appeared in dozens of off-and off-off-Broadway plays in the 70's and 80's, and was a founding member of the Actors/Writers Company which produced original dramas and comedies on Manhattan Cable Television. He appeared in independent films as well as soap operas, notably "One Life to Live" but continued with his first love, the stage, playing Hoederer in :Dirty Hands" by Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jimmy Porter in John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger", which won him Best Actor in the 1975 Summer Festival at the Direct Theater on 46th St. O'Rion settled in Los Angeles in 1990 and did theater, network TV and indies, but mainly he wrote hour-long and feature-length scripts, and in 2003 began producing and directing them. One was a comedy of single men and women hooking up by chance in Elysian Park, called "L.A. Hetero", another an homage to the classic 50's western Shane, entitled "Ghost of a Hollywood Cowboy" and shot in Wyoming, while his most controversial picture was "Once in a Lifetime" about how the September 11, 2001 attacks affected three fictional Texas oil billionaires, who suffered tragic losses, but also profited handsomely in the aftermath. O'Rion worked in Europe briefly, then changed course completely and taught English and Acting in Asia for several years before going to Bollywood to act in Dhoom 3, starring Amir Khan, the biggest name in the largest film market in the world. He is back in Los Angeles, recently playing John Malkovich's brother in Charlie Day's "El Tonto", while keeping an eye out for a producer for two recently written screenplays, one showcasing voodoo, and both featuring strong women's roles.