Jim O'Rear is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, and director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

.

Primarily known for his work in the horror and science fiction film genres, O'Rear has worked as an actor, stuntman, screenwriter, producer, and director for over 25 years.

Biography

O’Rear began his professional career in the entertainment industry on tour as “The Youngest Professional Magician,” working on stage with the talents of David Copperfield (illusionist)

David Copperfield (illusionist)

David Copperfield is an Emmy Award-winning American illusionist, and was described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's network specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards and won a total of 21 Emmys...

, Harry Blackstone, Jr.

Harry Blackstone, Jr.

Harry Blackstone, Jr. was an American stage magician, author, and television performer.-Career and life:Blackstone was born in Three Rivers, Michigan, the son of noted stage magician Harry Blackstone, Sr. .As an infant, he was used as a prop in his father's act...

, and The Great Tomsoni and opening for musical acts such as Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...

 and John Anderson

John Anderson (musician)

John David Anderson is an American country music artist with a successful career that has lasted more than 30 years...

. O'Rear became very well respected as a magician and was one of the youngest people to ever be accepted into the Society of American Magicians

Society of American Magicians

The Society of American Magicians is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and to maintain and improve ethical standards in the field of...

 when he was only 12 years old. People seemed to be fascinated with the way O'Rear could manipulate objects with his small hands in the same manner as the adult magicians of his time.

O'Rear’s background in stage magic led him to other theatrical interests. He developed a love for stage acting and went to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 where he was trained at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts

American Academy of Dramatic Arts

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...

. After some very successful theatrical runs in dramas, comedies, and musicals, O'Rear was offered roles in films and television where he has worked steadily as an actor, stuntman, and special make-up effects artist on such projects as Day of the Dead, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series and completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The...

, The Vampyre Wars, Lethal Weapon 3

Lethal Weapon 3

Lethal Weapon 3 is a 1992 American action film directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo and Stuart Wilson. It is a sequel to Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2, and it is part of the Lethal Weapon film series.The movie is set in 1992, six years after...

, Creature Feature, Hayride Slaughter, Cop & ½, Psycho Beach Party

Psycho Beach Party

Psycho Beach Party is a 2000 Comedy horror film based on the off-Broadway play of the same name, directed by Robert Lee King. Charles Busch wrote both the original play and the screenplay...

, Evita, Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors (musical)

Little Shop of Horrors is a rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...

, No Retreat No Surrender 3, Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Mortal Kombat: Konquest is an American martial arts television series that aired for one season from 1998 to 1999, and was based on the popular Mortal Kombat fighting game series. The program was filmed at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.-Storyline:"In each of us there burns a soul...

, and many more with prominent actors including Martin Sheen

Martin Sheen

Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

, Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...

, Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

, Amanda Plummer, Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...

, Robert Englund

Robert Englund

Robert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...

, Jon Voight

Jon Voight

Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....

, Chris Sarandon

Chris Sarandon

Chris Sarandon is an American actor who was married to actress Susan Sarandon between 1968 and 1979. He is best known for playing Prince Humperdinck in the film The Princess Bride, the vampire Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night and Detective Mike Norris in the first entry of the Child's Play series,...

, and others.

O'Rear had always been interested in writing and wanted to see some of his own ideas hit the silver screen, so he successfully moved into the area of screenwriting where he wrote and sold a number of horror-related screenplays, including The House Of Pain, Hayride Slaughter, Hayride Slaughter 2, The Deadly Obligation, Vampyre Tales, Wolfsbayne, Scream Farm, and The Deepening (featuring Gunnar Hansen

Gunnar Hansen

Gunnar Milton Hansen is an Icelandic-born actor and author best known for playing Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .- Early life:Hansen was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and moved to the United States when he was five...

 and Scream Queen Debbie Rochon

Debbie Rochon

Debbie Rochon is a Canadian B-movie actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in Troma films.-Biography:...

).

In addition to screenplay writing, O'Rear has also contributed many articles to national publications, such as Scary Monsters Magazine, Haunted Attraction Magazine, Comics Interview, and Underground Entertainment, and has been recognized in Fangoria

Fangoria (magazine)

Fangoria is an internationally-distributed US film fan magazine specializing in the genres of horror, slasher, splatter and exploitation films, in regular publication since 1979.-Planning:...

, Alternative Cinema, Fright Times, and Femme Fatale Magazine. O'Rear was also “immortalized” as a comic book character opposite Thor

Thor (Marvel Comics)

Thor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby....

 in an issue of Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 What The--?!

What The--?!

What The--?! was a Marvel Comics comic book series parodying the Marvel Universe, similar in vein to the 1960s series Not Brand Echh. It was billed as, "The Marvel mag of mirth and mayhem!" The series ran for 26 issues from August 1988 through Winter 1993, with issue #26 being a "Fall Special"...

 and appears as himself (along with Ken Foree

Ken Foree

Kentotis Alvin "Ken" Foree is an American actor probably most famous as the hero Peter in Dawn of the Dead and Kenan & Kel as Roger, Kenan's dad.- Early life and career :Foree was born in Indianapolis, Indiana...

, Brinke Stevens

Brinke Stevens

Brinke Stevens is an American actress, model and writer.-Life and career:Born in San Diego, California, Stevens has studied several foreign languages, including Esperanto, and gained a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master of Science in Marine...

, Tom Savini

Tom Savini

Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...

, Debbie Rochon

Debbie Rochon

Debbie Rochon is a Canadian B-movie actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in Troma films.-Biography:...

, and James Gunn (filmmaker)) in the new fictional horror novel, Bad Moon Rising the third installment of Jonathan Mayberry’s Ghost Road Blues trilogy and Zombie: C.S.U.. O'Rear also has two of his own books in stores with a third coming out soon. Currently available is the horror novel MORTUARY OF MADNESS and from Schiffer Publishing is a paranormal book, titled TENNESSEE GHOSTS, covering the history behind many actual hauntings in the state of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

.

Today

O'Rear continues to work as an actor, stuntman, and screenwriter on several films per year, recently appearing opposite Andrew Divoff

Andrew Divoff

Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuelan film and television actor, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the two first Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.- Early life :Divoff was...

 (Lost

Lost (TV series)

Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...

, Air Force One

Air Force One (film)

Air Force One is a 1997 American action-thriller film written by Andrew W. Marlowe and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It stars Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Glenn Close, and also features Xander Berkeley, William H. Macy, Dean Stockwell and Paul Guilfoyle...

), Tom Savini

Tom Savini

Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...

 (Planet Terror

Planet Terror

Planet Terror is a 2007 American action horror film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, about a group of people attempting to survive an onslaught of zombie-like creatures as they feud with a military unit, including a go-go dancer searching for a way to use her "useless talents." The film, a...

, From Dusk Till Dawn

From Dusk Till Dawn

From Dusk till Dawn is a 1996 horror film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. The movie stars Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and Juliette Lewis.-Plot:...

), and Jason Carter

Jason Carter (actor)

Jason Brian Carter is an English actor, best known for his role as Ranger Marcus Cole on the science fiction television series Babylon 5....

 (Babylon 5

Babylon 5

Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...

, Angel

Angel (TV series)

Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...

) in The Dead Matter, starring as Kane Hodder

Kane Hodder

Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...

's brother in OLD HABITS DIE HARD, acting in a new Manson-based movie with Linnea Quigley

Linnea Quigley

Linnea Barbara Quigley is an American scream queen, B movie actress, and film producer.-Early life:Quigley was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy and W. Heath Quigley, a chiropractor and psychologist. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s to pursue her dreams of acting...

 titled Miss Maniac, making a cameo in Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

's horror film Dark Harvest 3, acting opposite Kevin Sorbo

Kevin Sorbo

Kevin David Sorbo is an American actor best known for the roles of Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Captain Dylan Hunt in Andromeda and Kull in Kull the Conqueror.-Early life:...

 (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is a television series, filmed in New Zealand and the United States. It was produced from 1995, and was very loosely based on the tales of the classical Greek culture hero Heracles...

), John Billingsley

John Billingsley

John Billingsley is an American actor, known for his role as Doctor Phlox on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.-Career:...

 (Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...

), and Bonita Friedericy

Bonita Friedericy

Bonita Friedericy is an American actress. She currently can be seen in the television series Chuck as NSA Director Diane Beckman. She has also appeared on Malcolm in the Middle, Veronica Mars, Star Trek: Enterprise, Bones, The Nine, The West Wing, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in the film...

 (Chuck (TV series)

Chuck (TV series)

Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...

) in FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, playing a zombie slayer in Eat The Living, portraying an alien bounty hunter in It Came From Trafalgar (with Reggie Bannister

Reggie Bannister

Reginald Horace "Reggie" Bannister is an American musician, actor, producer, writer, and activist. He is often referred to as "The Hardest Working Man in Horror".-Biography:...

, Butch Patrick

Butch Patrick

Butch Patrick is a former American child actor. He is widely known for his role on the TV show The Munsters where he played Eddie Munster, the son of Herman and Lily Munster...

, Linnea Quigley

Linnea Quigley

Linnea Barbara Quigley is an American scream queen, B movie actress, and film producer.-Early life:Quigley was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy and W. Heath Quigley, a chiropractor and psychologist. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s to pursue her dreams of acting...

, Brinke Stevens

Brinke Stevens

Brinke Stevens is an American actress, model and writer.-Life and career:Born in San Diego, California, Stevens has studied several foreign languages, including Esperanto, and gained a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master of Science in Marine...

, and Gunnar Hansen

Gunnar Hansen

Gunnar Milton Hansen is an Icelandic-born actor and author best known for playing Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .- Early life:Hansen was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and moved to the United States when he was five...

), appearing with Tiffany Shepis

Tiffany Shepis

- External links :...

, Gunnar Hansen

Gunnar Hansen

Gunnar Milton Hansen is an Icelandic-born actor and author best known for playing Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .- Early life:Hansen was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, and moved to the United States when he was five...

, Edwin Neal

Edwin Neal

Edwin Neal is an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as the Hitchhiker in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or his role as Lord Zedd in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. He has been a top voice talent and actor for years appearing on screen and off in such diverse projects as The Lord of the...

, and John Dugan in Shudder, pulling double duty as the star and martial arts stunt coordinator on Operation Eternal Darkness, appearing with Lynn Lowry

Lynn Lowry

-Early life:Lowry was born in East St. Louis, Illinois and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.-Movie career:Her first film appearance was I Drink Your Blood in 1970. She appeared in two key 1970s horror films, George A...

 in Philosophy In The Bedroom (written by the Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...

), and is in development deals for three more of his screenplays. He portrays a wacky magician named Adam Cadabra in the horror/comedy film Beverly Lane, which is the directorial debut of the screenwriter Joshua Hull, the film is currently shooting in Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

.

Partial filmography

• The Zombie Movie
• Dark Woods
• Resurrection
• Monster Cruise
• Beverly Lane
• Mountain Mafia
• Dead Start
• Wishing You Were Mine
• Old Habits Die Hard
• Hell House
• Thong Girl 4
• The Devil's Playground
• The Dead Matter
• Chainsaw Cheerleaders
• Dog
• Scream Farm
• Shudder
• Torture Room
• It Came from Trafalgar
• Thong Girl 3: Revenge Of The Dark Widow
• The Deepening
• Dorm of the Dead
• Vampyre Tales
• Wolfsbayne
• Red Lips: Eat the Living
• Dark Harvest 3 aka Skarecrow
• Reunion
• Dead End
• Hayride Slaughter II
• Miss Maniac
  • aka Charlie and Sadie
• Hayride Slaughter
• Blue Valley Songbird
• Gone Fishin'
  Gone Fishin' (film)
  Gone Fishin' is a 1997 American comedy film starring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover as two bumbling fishing enthusiasts. Nick Brimble, Rosanna Arquette, Lynn Whitfield, and Willie Nelson costar.-Plot synopsis:...
  
  
• The Vampyre Wars
• The Break
• seaQuest DSV
  SeaQuest DSV
  seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...
  
  
• Thunder in Paradise
• Cop & ½ (Uncredited)
• Street Knight
• Lethal Weapon 3
  Lethal Weapon 3
  Lethal Weapon 3 is a 1992 American action film directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo and Stuart Wilson. It is a sequel to Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2, and it is part of the Lethal Weapon film series.The movie is set in 1992, six years after...
  
   (Uncredited)
• No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (Uncredited)
• Cyborg
  Cyborg (film)
  Cyborg is a 1989 American martial-arts science fiction film directed by Albert Pyun. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Gibson Rickenbacker, a mercenary who battles a group of murderous marauders led by Fender Tremolo along the East coast of the United States in a post-apocalyptic future.-Plot:A...
  
  
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series and completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The...
  
   (Uncredited)
• Cocoon
  Cocoon (film)
  The score for Cocoon was composed and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released twice, through Polydor Records in 1985 and a reprint through P.E.G. in 1997 and features eleven tracks of score and a vocal track performed by Michael Sembello...
  
   (Uncredited)
• Summer Rental
  Summer Rental
  Summer Rental is a 1985 comedy film directed by Carl Reiner, starring John Candy. The screenplay is written by Mark Reisman and Jeremy Stevens. The original music score is composed by Alan Silvestri. It was filmed in St. Pete Beach near St. Petersburg, Florida. Several area landmarks can be seen...
  
   (Uncredited)
• Invasion U.S.A.
  Invasion U.S.A. (1985 film)
  Invasion U.S.A. is a 1985 action film made by Cannon Films and starring Chuck Norris. It was directed by Joseph Zito. Both Chuck Norris and his brother, Aaron, were involved in the writing. It was made in Fort Pierce, Florida. Miami landmarks, such as Dadeland Mall and Miracle Mile, can also be...
  
   (Uncredited)
• Day of the Dead (Uncredited)

External links

• MySpace