Chad Allen (actor)

For other use, see Chad Allen (baseball player)

Template:Infobox actor Chad Allen (born Chad A. Lazzari on 1974 June 5) is an American actor, best known for playing Deidre Hall's son, David Witherspoon on Our House and as Jane Seymour's son, Matthew Cooper on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

Biography

Early life

Allen was born and grew up in Long Beach, California. He is the youngest of four boys and also has a twin sister, Charity. He is of "almost completely Italian" descent.[1] Chad got his start in show business when his mother started entering him and his twin sister Charity in "twin contests" at fairs; they won quite a few times. People kept telling his mother how cute the twins looked together, and that she should try to get them into acting.

While Charity did not like show business at all, Chad was bitten by the "acting bug." It was soon decided that Chad Lazzari sounded like a name for a dark-haired Italian, not a blond, blue-eyed boy. Chad dropped his last name and started his acting career simply as "Chad Allen." His first job was in a McDonald's television commercial at age four. His first dramatic work came at age six, in a pilot for a television series that never went into production, Cutter to Houston.

Early career

Chad's first big break in a television series happened when he was eight and joined the cast of St. Elsewhere in the recurring role of Tommy Westphall, an autistic boy. He played that character literally until the very end, when he was the last actor on-screen in the final scene of the final episode in 1988. During that period, he worked continuously (and sometimes simultaneously) on a succession of other successful TV shows: Webster (1985-1986), Our House (1986-1988) and My Two Dads (1989-1990). He also voiced Charlie Brown in "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown" along with Jeremy Miller.

Chad filled his "spare time" by guest-starring in several other television shows, such as Airwolf, Hunter, The Wonder Years, Star Trek: The Next Generation, In the Heat of the Night, Highway to Heaven, Simon and Simon, and appeared in ten television movies. He also appeared in several stage productions, as a guest on TV game shows and in a series of public service anti-drug programs.

During these years, he became a relatively popular teen idol, thanks to, as he later said, "a mega publicist, who put out an image of me that seemed ideal." He couldn't go anywhere in public without being pursued by his numerous fans. As Chad later put it, "It was difficult going to the malls, or trying to do the things I wanted to do. I felt bad in that the teen magazines portrayed me as a perfect teenager." Elsewhere he commented, "I was in teen magazines all the time and in reality, what was I? A 13-year-old who's as messed up as every other 13-year-old across the country."

By the time My Two Dads ended in 1990, Chad was unsure about continuing to pursue acting. He was 16 years old, and even though he had gone to a normal primary school, he hadn't been to a regular school since age 12, instead being taught by private tutors on the set. He felt he was missing out on a normal life. "I left the business, went back to high school, joined the swim team, became vice-president of my class, did everything. I tried to be a normal teenager." He now describes it as "probably one of the best decisions I ever made", even though his fame initially made life difficult for him in school. "In high school I was sneered at a lot. I was the teen magazine guy, half the kids followed me around like disciples and the other half were going to kick my (explicit word)."

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

After high school, Chad was accepted to New York University. However, he decided to put off college when he was offered the part of Matthew Cooper on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, alongside Jane Seymour & Joe Lando. With this new role he became one of the few former child stars to successfully continue his acting career as an adult.

When Dr. Quinn was canceled after its sixth season, Chad said, "When we shut down I wasn't so sure that we were going to come back, I wasn't so sure I was wanting to come back. In six years, we had done ten months out of every year -- which is a lot of work -- in a remote location with a lot of dirt. But over the course of our hiatus everybody had been planning on it. They'd been writing scripts and stuff. So it was just a surprise. I'll miss the people. It was a fun part for me. I had a great...time. We put so much into it for so long, and to not have the opportunity, as actors, to say good-bye to each other has been really gut wrenching. And to not be able to say good-bye to the fans has been hard, too."

Despite being busy on Dr. Quinn, Chad helped co-found The Creative Outlet Theater Company in 1995, and has appeared in several theater productions there during summer breaks. He considers theater to be "my first love, without a doubt". Chad has continued focusing his career on the theater since the end of Dr. Quinn, appearing in theatrical productions of *Change at Babylon in Los Angeles, California, Temporary Help in Seattle and Westport, Connecticut, and Sons of Lincoln also in Los Angeles.

Coming out as gay

In the 2001 October 9, issue of The Advocate, Chad first announced he was gay, after The Globe had published compromising photographs of Allen in a hot tub with another man in 1996.[2][3] He also acknowledged past problems with drugs and alcohol. Chad has also spoken to a number of groups and at events about gay rights issues including taking part in a forum on Larry King Live concerning gay marriage. He has also lent his support to a large number of charities over the years, including the American Diabetes Association, The March of Dimes, Project Angel Food, the Autistic Children's Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, AIDS Project Arizona, and AIDS Project Los Angeles.

In 2001, the same year as he came out in The Advocate, Chad proved wrong all the critics who said he would have a hard time finding work as an actor. Three movies followed that year - A Mother’s Testimony (co-starring with Kate Jackson), the horror movie Do You Wanna Know a Secret, and the critically acclaimed independent movie What Matters Most. The latter one earned Chad several nominations in the best actor category. In addition to the movies he made that year, he also stepped back on stage in two theatre productions; Mike Ambrose's play Dearboy’s War – which addressed the treatment of gay soldiers and the meaning of freedom and the controversial Corpus Christi in which he starred and produced for its Los Angeles premiere. Chad also landed the starring role of missionary Nate Saint in the 2006 docudrama End of the Spear, despite his sexual orientation. The movie was well-received by the Christian community (to whom the film was primarily marketed), with little backlash in regards to Allen's personal life. He was commended by many Christians to have done a great job in the movie.

Allen has also starred as gay private investigator Donald Strachey in a series of television films for the LGBT television network here!

External links

• Chad Allen at the Internet Movie Database
• Chad Allen Online: The Official Fan site
• Mythgarden: Production company

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Allen (actor) Chad Allen (actor)

LGBT