El Centro native wraps up a 42-year career in Hollywood

BURBANK, Calif. — October 14 is the day Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center of Los Angeles honors its survivors.

Among those survivors is Fred Judkins an El Centro native, who not only will celebrate beating leukemia 20 years ago, but also what he says is a “hail and farewell’ to 42 years working in Hollywood.

Judkins started working to realize his Hollywood dreams in El Centro in the mid-1960s. He raised money first selling the Post-Press on Main Street at age 7, and by age 12, he had his own route. The money he saved went into movie-making: By age 18, he had made enough of them to launch the Valley’s first student film festival in 1971.

Following high school, Judkins attends San Diego State University film school, from which he graduate with honors in 1976. His production of “Just Last Summer” was underwritten by El Centro business owners Bud and Norma Gene Sager.

The success of this 90-minute drama led Fred to 20th Century Fox, editing and directing soundtracks for movies and TV, garnering nine Emmy nominations, with one win for the computerized soundscape of ABC TV’s “The Day After.”

After treatments for cancer and aspergillosis in 1998, Judkins bounced by from muscular entropy by performing in Irish and English dance troupes. This led him to develop the My Fair Lady Ball, an easily interactive dance party, which he has hosted in Los Angeles and Portland.

Judkins used his six months in the cancer ward to write comedies for the Rainwater Music Co., eventually producing six titles that are performed by choirs around the world. He said these “laughter-filled musicals” teach relevant lessons from the Bible stories of Samson, Paul, the Nativity and the Great Commission.

In a career that has seen him work “for all the studios,” Judkins has been involved in projects for Sidney Poitier in Hollywood, from Arkansas Gov. David Pryor in Little Rock, Steve Martin in New York, Whoopi Goldberg in Florida and Mel Gibson in London.

With box-office champions like “Twins,” “Hook” and “Out of Africa” on his resume, Judkins opened a new digital sound-editing department for Disney in 1992, an opportunity that allowed him to rub shoulders with the likes of Dolly Parton, Eddie Murphy, Ellen Degeneres and Leonard Nimoy.

Newly retired, Judkins credits his success to “life experience gained at the Post-Press” and the El Centro teachers who encouraged him.

COURTESY PHOTO Fred Judkins with TV and radio announcer Gary Owens, best-remembered for his work on the comedy variety show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”

COURTESY PHOTO Fred Judkins at Paramount Studios.

PHOTO El Centro native and Central Union graduate Fred Judkins at the 1984 Emmy Awards. COURTESY

COURTESY PHOTO Fred Judkins in performance with a “Fair Lady.”