He lost his temper and found ‘Fame’

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 19

He lost his temper and found ‘Fame’

By

Joanne Wills

in Hollywood

It was as dramatic as anything that “Fame’s” millions of fans will see and it brought instant fame to an unknown 20-year-old student.

Gene Anthony Ray got the part of Leroy by gatecrashing an audition and was given the role in spite of never having appeared on a professional stage.

Today, looking off-screen every inch as mean and moody as he does in the toprated series, Ray admits that there is a great deal of himself in Leroy.

“The character fits me very comfortably,” he says. “Playing Leroy is no sweat. “The guy’s so much like me that it’s just like slipping into a pair of comfortable old jeans.” Yet Ray says he could probably still have been an unknown, struggling actor and dancer if he had not lost his temper on that fateful day. Ray was a student at New York’s school of Performing Arts when he overheard that a television company was planning a show about the college. “At that, I lost my cool! I was in the school, working my guts out to get a break in showbusiness and yet, I was probably the last person in New York state to hear the news! ‘I shot off right away to crash in for an audition. “Apart from not having been invited to audition I committed a major crime. Discipline at the school is just as tough as it’s shown on the show. “Skipping classes without permission is like breaking every one of the Ten Commandments 10 times over.” Ray had missed the original audition and instead he gatecrashed the “call-back” for the dancers who had passed the first tests. “Luckily, somebody there took pity on me. They let me go through my paces after everybody else had finished.”

His performance stunned the television bosses who watched it, and he was

unanimously accepted by the auditioning panel. “I think it was probably one of my best performances because all my pentup anger, frustration, despair and ambition was let loose.”

Gene Anthony Ray had taught himself to dance almost as soon as he learned to walk.

“It’s as if dancing’s in my blood, my genes and my soul,” he says. “As a kid the moment I heard music on the radio, or even somebody whistling a catchy tune, I’d start to dance. “I’d dance from when I got out of bed in the morning until I dropped off to sleep at night. If my folks had let me I’d have danced round the table at mealtimes, too.

“By the time I was eight, I had won so many local talent shows that I was banned from entering any more! Dancing came to me as easily as breathing.” Ray came across another problem as he grew into his teen-age years. Living in a pretty tough neighbourhood, the only dancing that real macho men did was disco dancing. Anything else was out.

But fame, when it came, also brought problems for Gene Anthony Ray. The pressures of being a hero to millions of youngsters became immense, and he was accused of behaving like a prima donna.

Few of his critics realised, however, that he had also been coping with demanding personal problems. His new luxury home had been attacked and virtually destroyed by arsonists. He was victim of a hate campaign by some members of the public, and his mother was arrested on serious drugs charges. Suddenly,- Ray disappeared from the “Fame” studio without telling anyone why, or where he had gone. He came close to being sacked from the series, but was able to sort out his problems and return to the show. “I’m grateful to ‘Fame.’ It gave me the chance to try for success. It’s turned me into a star, and I’m learning something new about the business all the time.” Repeat episodes of “Fame” are screened on Saturday afternoons. Features International.