February 2000

Harvey Cocks

Born in Glen Cove, Long Island, Harvey Cocks moved a great deal with his family, as his father was a troubleshooter for the movie industry. They finally ended up in Fort Wayne, where Cocks attended South Side High School, taking a job at Lincoln Life upon graduation.

Soon, however, he hopped a bus to New York, "without my father's blessing," and not only did he land an audition his first day in the Big Apple, (for LITTLE MEN), amazingly, he was cast.

The eighteen-year-old's next professional challenge was deciding which of his next two offers to accept: a production starring Helen Hayes, or LIFE WITH FATHER. "I was beside myself," Cocks exclaims. "I didn't know what to do." Hayes met with him at a restaurant and advised him that LIFE WITH FATHER would be a better experience for him in the long run.

He also had a near-miss working opposite Marlon Brando in a play, but Brando pulled out at the last minute. Nevertheless, he studied with some theatrical powerhouses, including Gertrude Lawrence and Elia Kazan.

Cocks spent 30 years on Broadway as an actor, director, and producer, and appearing in such television shows as "Robert Montgomery Presents," "Studio One," and a musical series on CBS called "Places, Please." While in New York, he played Mickey Mouse at Macy's, and he also discovered the actress Sandy Dennis, who went on to star in the films "Up the Down Staircase" and "Splendor in the Grass" as well as TV's "Guiding Light."

He returned home to Fort Wayne in 1969 with his wife and children when his father fell ill. Not ready to give up his theatre career, Cocks had no intention of staying, although his wife had already retired from show business and was ready to settle down.

As it turned out, Cocks grew to love the city, and when the Youtheatre approached him to direct, he jumped at the chance. "I'd done a lot of work with children," he explains. "When I was in LIFE WITH FATHER we did a photo shoot in a Bronx orphanage. These little kids were so wonderful that I'd go up on Sundays and just play with them and do little creative, dramatic stuff. When I had my summer theatre [in New Hampshire] I added a children's series to it. [Becoming director of the Fort Wayne Youtheatre] was a natural thing."

Besides teaching Youtheatre classes and directing most of their shows (he is assisted by Dianne Giannakeff, who is directing their next production, CHARLOTTE'S WEB), Cocks finds the time to direct at the Arena Dinner Theatre, where he is a board member, and to perform in a variety of community roles. Most recently he played Grandfather in IPFW's holiday production of YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. Last season he won an Anthony Award for his portrayal of Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Civic. And he will soon reprise his role as Andy in LOVE LETTERS with Melissa Long at First Presbyterian Theater.

In spite of his Broadway, television, and film accomplishments, he is most proud of a benefit show he wrote, produced, and directed to raise money for Fort Wayne after the Flood of '82. "[Lincoln Life CEO] Ian Roland called me and asked me," he recalls. "[It was completed in] nine days. I was up the last two days; I didn't sleep. We brought in soap opera stars and movie stars. We made almost $400,000 in two and a half hours."

The pressure took its toll, however, and the mild-mannered director even had Roland running as a gofer. "I said to him, 'We have one director, and you're looking at him. When I want you to jump, you're gonna jump.' He said, 'Hey, you could take over Lincoln Life.'

"I said, 'No.'"

With nearly a lifetime of theatrical experience, certainly not every performance went off without a hitch.

Once during a performance of DESPERATE MEASURES, he says, "The gangster turned to shoot me. Well the gun didn’t go off, so he threw it at me. Stunned me, hit me in the head, and then he came up and choked me to death and threw me down the stairs! That’s quick thinking, but I told him later, ‘Don’t get so carried away, for God’s sakes. I thought I really was going to die!’"

During a performance of LIFE WITH FATHER, the double doors he was supposed to open came off their track. "I'm just sort of standing there," he says. "It's Saturday night, standing room only, and Mother and Father are looking at me, ready to choke to death. But what finally broke us all up was that suddenly, just like that, there are stage hands lifting this thing up and suddenly the doors come in all by themselves. I had laryngitis from trying not to laugh."

But one of his favorite onstage disaster stories didn't even happen to him. "My wife was in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES with Carol Channing, who, as you know, is blind as a bat. And [Channing] cartwheeled right into the orchestra pit. They had to take the trumpet player to the hospital. Carol crawled up onstage and finished the show.

"I guess all actors have stories."