Michael Dolan
Encyclopedia
Michael Dolan, born June 21, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
, USA, is an American
theatre
and film
actor
, director
and educator
.
(1971), entitled Summer of '76. He dropped out of high school when he was 17 and moved to New York
to become an actor. His professional career commenced in 1985, at age 20, with an off-broadway
stage debut in the Albert Innaurato
play Coming of Age in Soho and a pair of TV appearances. This was followed in 1987 with roles in the films Light of Day
with Michael J. Fox
and the ensemble cast Hamburger Hill
.
On Broadway
Dolan appeared in the stage productions of Breaking the Code
(1987–88) and A Few Good Men (1989–91).
In 1988 Michael Dolan won the role of Pvt. James J. Hennesey in the film version of Neil Simon
's Biloxi Blues
with Matthew Broderick
and the role of Scott Thorson
in the Canada-US made-for-TV movie biography Liberace: Behind the Music
. Among his other film credits are Necessary Roughness
(1991), The Turning
(1992), Courage Under Fire
(1996) and Lolita
(1997); on TV three episodes of I'll Fly Away
(1992), one episode of The Outer Limits
(1995), and two episodes of Law & Order
(1993–1995).
Dolan appears in the 1999 TNT Network made-for-cable movie The Hunley
telling the tale of the H. L. Hunley
, a submarine
of the Confederate States of America
. He is featured in Geoff Marslett’s rotoscoped 2010 sci-fi romantic comedy film Mars as ESA Commander David Jones.
. "My short film was very successful with Sundance, over 50 festivals and many European sales and a two-year run on Bravo," he said in a recent interview".
Using the moniker of "Mike Dolan," his feature film directorial debut was in 2010 with Dance with the One, shot in Austin, Texas
, with a primarily local cast, crew and soundtrack. "I wanted to spend more time writing so I accepted a three year fellowship to the Michener Center for Writers
at the University of Texas in 2004. There I became involved in the development of several feature projects including Dance With The One", says Dolan. "When the University of Texas Film Institute decided to make Dance they asked me to pitch to direct it".
Michael Dolan's accreditation includes BA
at Empire State College
, MS
at City College of New York
and MFA
at the University of Texas. Dolan has been on the staff at St. Stephen's Episcopal School since 2007.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
, USA, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
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...
, 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:...
and educator
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
.
Acting career
Michael Dolan's interest in cinema traces back to age 10 when he filmed a remake of Summer of '42Summer of '42
Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming-of-age drama film based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of how Raucher, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island, off the coast of New England, embarked on a one-sided romance with a woman, Dorothy,...
(1971), entitled Summer of '76. He dropped out of high school when he was 17 and moved to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to become an actor. His professional career commenced in 1985, at age 20, with an off-broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
stage debut in the Albert Innaurato
Albert Innaurato
Albert Innaurato is an American playwright, theatre director, and writer.Innaurato was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1947. After graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Innaurato attended the Yale School of Drama...
play Coming of Age in Soho and a pair of TV appearances. This was followed in 1987 with roles in the films Light of Day
Light of Day
The soundtrack to the film was released in 1987. As a single, "Light of Day" reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received additional album-oriented rock airplay due to the connection of Joan Jett and Bruce Springsteen....
with Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...
and the ensemble cast Hamburger Hill
Hamburger Hill
Hamburger Hill is a 1987 American war film about the actual assault of the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division 'Screaming Eagles', on a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and bunkers, of the North Vietnamese Army on Ap Bia...
.
On Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
Dolan appeared in the stage productions of Breaking the Code
Breaking the Code
Breaking the Code is a 1986 play by Hugh Whitemore about British mathematician Alan Turing, who was a key player in the breaking of the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II...
(1987–88) and A Few Good Men (1989–91).
In 1988 Michael Dolan won the role of Pvt. James J. Hennesey in the film version of Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
's Biloxi Blues
Biloxi Blues (film)
Biloxi Blues is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Matthew Broderick. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his semi-autobiographical 1985 play of the same title.-Plot:...
with Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
and the role of Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson became famous for his relationship with and lawsuit against entertainer Liberace and his testimony against gangster Eddie Nash.-Relationship with Liberace:...
in the Canada-US made-for-TV movie biography Liberace: Behind the Music
Liberace: Behind the Music
Liberace: Behind the Music is a 1988 Kushner-Locke Company television production. It is an "unofficial" biopic drama on the life and death of Wladziu Valentino Liberace, who went from a humble working-class background to become a famous American pianist and vocalist...
. Among his other film credits are Necessary Roughness
Necessary Roughness (film)
Necessary Roughness is a 1991 comedy film starring Scott Bakula and Sinbad. The film was directed by Stan Dragoti, who has also directed the movies Mr. Mom, She's Out of Control, and The Man With One Red Shoe. In addition to Bakula and Sinbad, Necessary Roughness has an additional cast of Héctor...
(1991), The Turning
The Turning (film)
The Turning is a 1992 American drama film directed by L.A. Puopolo.Filmed entirely on location in Pocahontas, Virginia.This film is adapted from the stage play Home Fires Burning.-Synopsis:...
(1992), Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire is a 1996 film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. It is one of the first films to depict the 1991 Gulf War.-Plot:...
(1996) and Lolita
Lolita (1997 film)
Lolita is a 1997 French-American drama film directed by Adrian Lyne. It is the second screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze,...
(1997); on TV three episodes of I'll Fly Away
I'll Fly Away (TV series)
I'll Fly Away is a television series set during the late 1950s and early 1960s, in an unspecified Southern U.S. state. It aired on NBC from 1991 to 1993 and starred Regina Taylor as Lilly Harper, a black housekeeper for district attorney Forrest Bedford and his family...
(1992), one episode of The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1995 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that originally aired on Showtime,the Sci Fi Channel and in syndication between 1995 and 2002...
(1995), and two episodes of Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
(1993–1995).
Dolan appears in the 1999 TNT Network made-for-cable movie The Hunley
The Hunley
The Hunley is a 1999 television movie directed by John Gray and starring Armand Assante, Donald Sutherland, Alex Jennings, Michael Dolan and Christopher Bauer. The film is based on the true story of the H. L. Hunley submarine and the Action of 17 February 1864....
telling the tale of the H. L. Hunley
H. L. Hunley (submarine)
H. L. Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War, but a large role in the history of naval warfare. The Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare...
, a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. He is featured in Geoff Marslett’s rotoscoped 2010 sci-fi romantic comedy film Mars as ESA Commander David Jones.
Subsequent careers
Dolan wrote and directed the 1997 film Arrow Shot that premiered at the Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. "My short film was very successful with Sundance, over 50 festivals and many European sales and a two-year run on Bravo," he said in a recent interview".
Using the moniker of "Mike Dolan," his feature film directorial debut was in 2010 with Dance with the One, shot in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, with a primarily local cast, crew and soundtrack. "I wanted to spend more time writing so I accepted a three year fellowship to the Michener Center for Writers
Michener Center for Writers
The Michener Center for Writers is an interdisciplinary Masters of Fine Arts program in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin.-History:...
at the University of Texas in 2004. There I became involved in the development of several feature projects including Dance With The One", says Dolan. "When the University of Texas Film Institute decided to make Dance they asked me to pitch to direct it".
Michael Dolan's accreditation includes BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
at Empire State College
Empire State College
Empire State College, one of the thirteen arts and science colleges of the State University of New York, is a multi-site institution offering associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees. It is primarily oriented towards the adult learner...
, MS
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
at City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
and MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
at the University of Texas. Dolan has been on the staff at St. Stephen's Episcopal School since 2007.