- Born
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Graduate of The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts on an ITT International Fellowship in the Fulbright Competition, Tom is a first-rate chameleon character actor playing everything from white collar professionals to starring as Brian David Mitchell in the CBS television movie "The Elizabeth Smart Story," to receiving glowing notices for his comedic work as a dweeb/nerd/gofer in "Winning Isn't Everything" at New York's Hudson Guild Theatre directed by legendary comedic director George Abbot, to playing southern white trash Alfredo Sawyer in "Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw 3." High profile roles include, but are not limited to, the scruffy "George Gabby" Hayes-like Sgt. Pepper in "Dances With Wolves," the straight-laced National Security Officer Jack Doherty in "Air force One," and the black stovepipe-hatted Mosely Baker in "The Alamo." He's also created a whole host of other memorable, idiosyncratic characterizations, albeit in, perhaps, lesser known films: Assistant Coach to James Earl Jones in "Best of the Best," Rabbitt in "Prison" starring Viggo Mortensen, etc., etc.... Tom has had the pleasure of working with directors and producers more than once including three films with Kevin Costner, three films with John Lee Hancock (including John Lee's first film "Hard Time Romance" starring alongside Tom's friend Leon Rippy), three films with Michael Bay, several projects with Alex Graves, Kevin Falls, the late Jeff Burr, Michael Pressman, Frank Von Zerneck & Bob Sertner, Jeff Morton, Renny Harlin, Peter Segal and Michael Ewing. Television audiences have seen him in a whole host of projects doing a variety of roles including as Rory Carmichael, the condemned Alabama death row inmate in the pilot episode of "The Beast" directed by Mimi Leder, as the recurring character Charles Frost on "West Wing," and as the recurring character Dr. Elliot Langley on "Journeyman." A cellist, guitarist and country/folk singer-songwriter, Tom wrote and sang an album of his tunes that was released in 1971 on RCA Records - "Porchlight On In Oregon." Subsequent independently released albums include "Still Waters (A Collection of Years)," "House at the end of the Block," & "Watershed of an Earlier Heart: Songs of the Oregon Troubadour." (Three of these titles can presently be found on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Pandora and Tidal.) He received scholarships to Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, NYU Tisch School of the Arts where he received an MFA, and Perry-Mansfield School of Drama and Dance. After spending12 years in New York studying, honing his craft and acting in five Broadway plays, many off-Broadway & off-off Broadway & regional theatre ones too (including his being a Resident Member of The American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut) he made his way out to LaLa Land. He's never, to this date, owned a house...but he has recently purchased his first piece of real estate - a burial plot up amidst the greenery and among the trees of and in his native Oregon.- IMDb Mini Biography By: T
- SpousesAnna(1993 - ?) (divorced, 1 child)Kate(1973 - ?) (divorced)
- First Chair Cellist in the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra while attending his first two years at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
- Acting teachers include Mira Rostova, Wynn Handman, Peter Kass, Martin Landau, Olympia Dukakis, John Fernald (former Director of RADA) & Norman Ayrton (LAMDA).
- While working on a TV project in Houston, Everett befriended a lady from Tyler, Texas and asked her to send him some cassettes of her just speaking; from that tape he developed the east Texas accent he employed in films such as Dances with Wolves (1990) and Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990).
- Acted in two films about the iconic Texas fort, The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987) and The Alamo (2004).
- As of 2022, has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Goodbye Girl (1977), Dances with Wolves (1990) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Of those, Dances with Wolves (1990) is a winner in the category.
- Many, many, many American teachers of the fine art of acting are, in my opinion, "generalists," regurgitating the Method in various guises, and fancy reputations of particular teachers and/or schools can be very misleading and a waste of time and money. If an individual or a school either doesn't encourage you or shine such a bright light of wisdom to guide your path, you really are wasting your time. To the young actor I say either hitch your wagon to a nourisher OR a person who is so bright you just have to keep staying on your toes to catch even the slightest whiff of his/her brilliance; the brilliant teachers are very far and few between! My teacher Mira Rostova (Montgomery Clift's teacher) was one of the "brilliants" and Norman Ayrton at LAMDA was another. My nourishers have included Stanley Gould (I)', Marie Donet, and Jacques Burdick (all at Adelphi University back in l966-67 when the theatre itself was in an old dilapidated but cozy quonset hut, but the whole department had energy and love) - also Martin Landau at The Actors Studio. Bottomline, it all depends how you get along with your teachers and how much they believe in you; on the other hand, if you happen to be under the tutelage of a far-and-few- between-genius, that is a thing of total beauty as long as you don't expect much coddling. Finally, it's better to be in a Kia Rio with gas than in a Mercedes on empty; so don't be enamored of the fancy reputation of a school or an individual, and should you wake up and find you're with neither a nourisher or a "brilliant," leave immediately and keep looking.
- I truly believe that MFA and BFA programs should have their version of the Dale Carnegie Course for actors in their programs. Talent is talent and business is business, and many actors don't necessarily have the most well developed social skills. Thank God that a number of drama programs are now incorporating "the business of acting" into their curriculum.
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