The Outlaw Emmett Deemus

For a long time, Larry lived in San Francisco and commuted to Hollywood by plane, car and sometimes a motorcycle for auditions and parts. When he finally moved to Hollywood, within the first 2 weeks he was landed a guest star role as Charlie Butz in Clint Eastwood’s feature, “Escape from Alcatraz”. He immediately used the “Alcatraz” money to write, direct, and produce “Solly’s Diner”, a film short in which he starred as “Sometimes Jones”, a funny, homeless-and-quick-witted young man. The film earned an Academy Award “Oscar” nomination, was distributed worldwide, and was invited (along with Larry) to the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.

This inspired Larry to make other film shorts he wrote, directed, and acted in (with other actor friends - 25 in all – see: www.youtube.com) using the money he earned from acting. It was in these shorts that he started thinking about developing an old, crazy wannabe outlaw biker he named, “Emmett Deemus”: basically Don Quixote on a bicycle.

After co-starring in a comic play at LATC as a Roadwise hobo” and getting rave reviews, he was inspired to put his “roadwise hobo” Emmett Deemus on stage. Larry wrote and produced a comic, one-man show, “Emmett Sez”, in which he played Emmett as a homeless beggar, poet, wanna-be-outlaw-biker whose insanity led him to ride off on parked Harley Motorcycles. It opened at the Met Theatre in Hollywood to rave reviews in The L.A. Times (“Hankin has crafted a Don Quixote for modern times”), plus The L.A. Weekly and Daily News.

He has since continued to explore “Emmett” in a series of film shorts shown at film festivals throughout the USA, an AFI Spirit Award in 2008, and in several shorts featured on ifilm.com, Youtube, and in a soon-to-be-released Webisode: “The Adventures of Emmett Deemus”. Larry’s Hollyshorts Festival entry: “The OutLaw Emmett Deemus”, is actually the introduction to Emmett’s 1st full-length feature screenplay: “The Outlaw Emmett Deemus”. At the moment, Larry’s just finishing editing another Emmett Comedy film short.
 

PAUL WILLSON played “Paul” in many episodes of Cheers, and before that was a regular on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, the groundbreaking series on Showtime. In addition to hundreds of TV guest appearances, including on Ally McBeal, X-Files, Star Trek Voyager, The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, he has acted in such films as The Goodbye Girl, Protocol, Problem Child 2, Office Space (as corporate executioner “Bob Porter”) and the very independent Barstow 2008, for which he was named Best Actor at the 2001 Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. He also played a slim, young drunk in the 1979 Oscar-nominated short, Solly’s Diner, directed by Larry Hankin.

Edie McClurg’s face, voice, and talent make her one of the most recognizable actress/comediennes on TV and in Films. The following are just a few of Edie's most recent accomplishments: David Spade's nasty neighbor in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), Dana Carvey's mother in Sony Pictures' The Master of Disguise (2002), Jane Kaczmarek's friend in "Malcolm in the Middle" (2000) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000), Several John Hughes films: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1986), She's Having a Baby (1988), Curly Sue (1990).
She's acted for Robert Redford in A River Runs Through It (1992), for Oliver Stone in Natural Born Killers (1994), for Diane Keaton in Hanging Up (2000).

Several animation roles for TV and in features: The Little Mermaid (1989), The Rugrats Movie (1998), A Bug's Life (1998), Pixar's Cars (2006).
 

Stephan Szpak-Fleet is a writer, director, producer, artist, digital media expert, graphic designer, photographer, and so on.

He has directed eleven short films including the award winning My Silent Sadness and, most recently, The Outlaw Emmett Deemus starring Larry Hankin, Edie McClurg, and Paul Willson. He just wrapped producing Player, an independent feature film hitting the market in early 09.

Stephan’s industry credits include working for the network television show Ghost Whisperer as Director of Digital media (where he produced the TV Guide Award winning webisode series Ghost Whisperer: The Other Side, DVD extra features, and more), being a Development Executive for Sander/Moses Productions, and, currently, working on the Visual FX team for the new NBC rendition of Knight Rider.

Stephan holds a BA in theater from UCLA and an MFA in film from USC. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, and now resides in Los Angeles with his wife, comic book writer, Becca Smith and two cats, Jack and Duke.

For more info, visit his website at www.raisethesteaks.com