Eddie King

Eddie King, born Edwin Dee King January 12, 1954, in Nashville, TN, to parents Melvin King (1926-1999), a grocer and later stained glass artist, and Hazel Crye King (b.1919), renown painter and art teacher until her retirement at age 92. Both parents also taught Ballroom Dance. He first appeared on stage in 1962 at the age of 8, in the cast and as the understudy for Winthrop in The Music Man, staring Jack Irvin and Jana Perice from the original Broadway production, which played at the historic Theatre Nashville Belcourt Playhouse. In his youth Eddie studied ballet, jazz, and tap dance with Janet Clough and a host of other noted teachers; he studied specialized stage make-up with Irene Corey; and studied acting with Monty McMurray (who was Marilyn Monroe's double and toured the country appearing in stage plays before audiences who assumed that MM, as she was billed, was actually the real Marilyn). He also studied acting and voice with Mike Edwards, and Jack Eric Williams among others. He graduated high school from Peabody College Demonstration School (now University School of Nashville) and attended the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University before dropping out to pursue film and theatre opportunities. He later earned a B.A. in Mass Communications and Management and M.A. in Organizational Management. From his first play until in his late 20's he was active in community theatre, regional theatre and film and television production. Though his talents and interests leaned more toward technical production than acting and dancing, by age 28 he had amassed an impressive list of credits in over 120 productions, working in almost every department of the stage and screen industry. In his early 20's he became associated with the Ormond Organization, who at that time produced graphic evangelical feature films (he was there for his talents and skills and not for any shared religious perspective). He occasionally acted, but mostly performed technical and special effects work for four of their feature films. He designed sets and lighting for dozens of plays, musicals, reviews, TV commercials and films. He served on theatre boards and was eventually named Managing Director of the Looby Theatre in Nashville,Tennessee where he brought together a number of theatre companies mounting up to 20 productions per year. He also managed the opening and inaugural season for Nashville's Riverfront Park entertainment venue where nationally televised concerts are taped regularly. Leaving theatre and turning toward advertising during the 1980's he was partner and creative director in three Advertising Agencies where he produced hundreds of commercials, which led him to an executive position with a chain of radio stations where he handled marketing, promotion, and legal liaison with the FCC and EEOC. That era ended with him moving back into freelance work writing articles, ads, commercials, documentaries, corporate scripts and film treatments. His story about friends violently disappearing from a reunion was written into a screen play by his good friend Tim Ormond and made into the feature film "Blood, Friends and Money." He shot footage for documentaries in Finland, Estonia and Russia soon after the end of the Soviet Era. In 1995 he returned to his business side, and with his soon-to-be wife (Jo Anne Nelson) who had been his business partner in most previous ventures, they built a company that manufactured picture frames and sold art and related services nationally, exclusively in the health care industry. Because of health care industry shifts and after a successful Kidney Transplant in 2008, he returned to the video production business under the name kingstudio.tv, where he remains active writing, producing and directing video, largely for health care entities, and developing independent media projects.