Peter Gallagher

CONNECTICUT ACTOR GETS CANDID ABOUT ACTING

If you’ve been watching movies or television shows in the last 40 years, you can’t help but have seen Peter Gallagher at least a few times. Whether acting opposite Sandra Bullock in 1995’s “While You Were Sleeping” (he was the one who was sleeping), schmearing on the cool as hippie dad Sandy Cohen in TV’s “The O.C.” in the mid-aughts, or co-starring with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie,” Gallagher has been a perennial presence in movies, television and on Broadway (Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing,” “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “Guys and Dolls”).

Gallagher, who divides his time between New Milford and Los Angeles, has two children ascending in show business. So don’t be surprised if you keep seeing a Gallagher on the screen for the next 40 years.

Q. When did you first get the acting bug?

A. It all began with Dean Martin. I used to do impressions when I was little. We always watched “The Lawrence Welk Show,” which was followed by Dean Martin. I was crazy about him and I thought my impressions were fantastic and I thought I could make a career out of that. But it didn’t happen so fast.

Q. Your first big break?

A. Our high school drama teacher was casting “The Fantasticks” and he was looking for someone who could do a cockney accent. I can do a really good one, so I got the part and it was my first taste of being on the stage and I was hooked. But I wasn’t sure I could make a career of it.

Q. Is it true that you graduated from Tufts University with a degree in economics?

A. True. The one thing I learned from my major was that I wasn’t very interested in business. Right after graduation I headed to New York City. I knew absolutely no one, had no agent, and just started going to open calls. My first audition was for Grease. They wanted me to do a ’50s song, so I chose “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” [by Paul Anka]. The casting director said it was beautiful and that’s all I needed to hear. I thought I was definitely on my way.

Danielle Levitt/NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Peter Gallagher is known for his roles on “The O.C.,” “Grace and Frankie” and (pictured here as Mitch) “Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.”