Retired Businessman Turned Actor Takes Up Residence at Cedar Crest
By Jeff Ostroth
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
If you’re a loyal fan of the soap opera As the World Turns, you may recall a story line several years ago involving a guerrilla leader named Artemio from the mythical country of Montego.
“That was a major role in the series—for about two weeks,” says the actor Ed Thom, who recently moved to Cedar Crest, a 62-plus community in Pompton Plains, from Hackensack, NJ. And while some performers might have been disappointed with such a short-lived part, Ed has always been grateful for the opportunities he’s had to perform on stage, on TV, and even as an announcer on radio and TV commercials.
After all, acting was not a career for Ed—at least, not before he retired.
‘Serious Amateur’
“I was what I call a ‘serious amateur,’” says Ed, who was in the export business. “I never had any dreams or desire to become a professional, but I wanted to become good at it.”
So Ed took classes at a theater in Englewood, NJ, where he lived with his wife and two children. He also went to HB Studios in New York, “just to take some classes on acting, develop my voice, do a little singing, and learn my way around the stage.”
Armed with some training and natural talent, Ed performed in his spare time. “I did a lot of community theater, worked in dinner theaters, those sorts of things while I was still a businessman,” he says. Ed figures he appeared in 60-70 different shows and hundreds of amateur performances.
A Second Career
Ed finally sold his business and retired. At that point, “I decided to see what I could do with my acting,” he says. “I went around on auditions in New York, and I was very lucky that I got some jobs almost immediately in soap operas and also in radio commercials and TV voiceovers.”