I was born April 20, 1953 in Whittier, California... early in the morning...
putting me right on the cusp of Aries/Tarus. I ended up with 4 older brothers,
one older and two younger sisters. My middle name "Quentin" derives comes
from the Latin word for five, as I was my parents 5th son. I was also their sixth
child, and might well have ended up with a middle name of "Sextus". The head-
aches that could have caused while I was growing up make me shudder still.
I attended the Saint Mary's Catholic School in Whittier's "Uptown" area for 1st
through 7th grades, having an interesting but thorough education from rather
strict nuns. In June of '66 my family moved to Placentia, Orange County, where
I then attended El Dorado High School. The school was under construction, and
offered only 7th through 10th grades, making it a surreal combination of both
middle school and high school. Planned to allow for construction and the growth
of Placentia, at the end of each of the following two years, the school added an
upper level class and dropped a lower level. So I had the strange honor to be
one of the few dozen people to have graduated from El Dorado twice... once
from the 8th grade in June of '67, and again 4 years later in June of 1971 as a
High School senior. I entered California State University, in the city of Fullerton
in September of 1971.
In the late 90s, I made and lost a "sure-thing" bet and as a result had to model
naked for a local art class at Fullerton Community College. I seemed that I had
a natural talent (pun intended), and art instructors were so pleased that they
passed my name to their peers. Within some few a few months I was being
asked to pose in my birthday suit all over the Southland. Go figure... being paid
to stand around naked. What a world!
In January of 2000 artist Karl Gnass, who was at the time acting as consultant
for a special film project at Sony Imageworks Studios, of Culver City, California,
gave me a call. He had gotten my number from the model office at Pasadena's
Art Center College of Design after he had made inquiries of them in a search for
a very specific type of model: one with some certain physical traits, as well as an
outgoing character and a good imagination. We spoke... he saw my web site and
hired me immediately. I was invited to a work with the Sony CGI animators so
they might use my body and my poses to create the character of The Mountain
Troll for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The troll holding Harry by the
foot was me posing while holding a stuffed toy monkey and swinging at it with a
yardstick. The troll shaking Harry off of his shoulders was me giving a "pig-back"
ride to that toy stuffed monkey. And no, I had no loincloth when posing.
This was revelation that I could use what God gave me to share to entertain or
amuse others. My epiphany: Art modeling had gave me the confidence to be just
myself, even without a stitch on, and in front of a group of strangers... making
a move to film and television as easy as fallen off a log. I have since become the
"go-to" guy for any project needing a totally unabashed male, and have proudly
shared my skin for many films and popular television programs. - Michael
