In the fall of 1961, Rick Bailey and I went off to Colgate University where we roomed together freshman year. Graduated 1965 with a B.A. in English and Fine Arts. Rick and I are still good friends after all these years.
Accepted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia for an MFA in painting with the proviso I spend a year at the New School in NYC expanding my portfolio. No problem getting into The New School. Unfortunately, they had no student deferments. Drafted December 1965 but through a quirk of fate wound up in the Illinois Army National Guard. After six months of active duty (Fort Campbell, KY and Fort Sill, OK), returned to Chicago where ironically I saw action in every riot between 1966-1970. Learned a lot about myself and human nature during this time. Always interesting to watch the city you were born in burn.
Spring 1970, I enrolled in Northwestern School of Speech (now Communications) in Radio/TV/Film. Tended bar to pay the bills (my father used to refer to me as the "best educated bartender in Chicago"). Took an MA in 1971 and a PhD in 1975, both in cinema studies. Dissertation: Sam Peckinpah and the American Western: A Study of an Auteur Filmmaker and the Genre in which He Works." Spent time in Mexico with Sam Peckinpah while researching the book, Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage (University of Texas Press, 1982 / revised ed. Limelight Editions / Amadeus Press, NYC 1998 -- still in print).
Met and married Sheila McHugh (1972). Moved to LA in 1975 after a screenplay I'd written was optioned briefly by 20th Century Fox. Five years later, I had a career as a writer and later as a producer and director. (For details, please feel free to check out the website I set up at: garnersimmons.com)
After teaching 4th grade for nearly 20 years, Sheila moved into administration. She is now Assistant Head of School for The Mirman School, K thru 8 for exceptionally gifted children (you need an IQ of 145 just to apply -- not a place I could have gone myself).
As it says in Ecclesiastes: "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... but time and chance come to every man." I've been a very lucky guy. Sheila and I will celebrate 40 years of marriage this April. Could not have done it without her.
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