From Acting to Art History
by Jon Lackman | 1 July 2010 | Uncategorized
The 63-year-old actor Peter Weller, known best as RoboCop, recently completed Syracuse University’s MA program in Renaissance art (two-thirds of which is conducted in Italy) and he is now at work on a PhD at UCLA. He recently discussed his life in a commencement address at the City University of New York:
I was inspired to return to grad school by … Dr. Maria Conelli, present director of the American Museum of Folk Art … In the midst of my master’s degree in Florence, when they informed my that I had to audit extra classes and, thus, back-pack my way at 7 a.m., with hundreds of adolescents, through the throngs of jaded tourists and mosquitoes, two miles to school every morning, and then spend the afternoon reading medieval Italian with other cranky grad students in moldy archives, I considered putting out a contract on Maria Conelli … However, both my late mother, Dorothy, and my wife, Sheri said 1) “You don’t quit” and 2) “A little humility is good for you.” … As recently as a month ago, I thought, “why the hell am I doing this?” during a PhD written exam on Roman Triumphal arches. Four hours in a locked room pounding out words on monuments most of the world has never seen and never will … I stood on the Ponte Vecchio and yelled into the river Arno, as well as whatever river gods would hear me, “why in hell am I doing this?!!” My mother immediately barked back at me, “Why NOT?… what else you got to do?”
By the way, two of my three personal recommendations to Syracuse were written by Woody Allen and Gore Vidal. Woody handwrote, in Venice, on Hotel Gritti Palace stationery, “Peter Weller is my friend, a fellow actor, writer, director, musician and a credit to his race.” As if I was a good “white guy.” Gore Vidal was less oblique: Vidal, typing on a an old Remington wrote, “ I’ve known Weller a long time. He is an extraordinary student… of exactly WHAT… I have no idea.” However, my third recommendation was written by the ex-mayor Richard Riordan of Los Angeles. Mayor Riordan was the first to point out to me that education is the ONLY portal to the road of solution regarding the police stations, hospitals and death that await our youth if they feel the only alternative is “the street” … [But as] the great grand-daddy of all educators, John Dewey said, “education is not the preparation for life; Education IS life.” … I conclude with George Bernard Shaw who said a good life is nothing but a series of INSPIRED follies; the problem, however, is to find them to do.
It is wonderful to hear of Weller’s journey and the women who have inspired him to follow his passion. We could all take a lesson from his dedication to art and step out of our comfortable surroundings and dig a little deeper into our own dreams and see them through to the end. Thank you for sharing this.
I think the Shaw quote should be a “series” of inspired follies, not a “serious.”
But otherwise, thanks!!
Thanks, fixed it.