I’m way behind on Boardwalk Empire, having only seen four of the second season’s twelve episodes, which means I’ve been dodging spoilers like crazy since Sunday’s finale … and often not dodging them very well. I’ve already learned a couple of things I wish I hadn’t.

But one thing I didn’t mind knowing in advance was that I’d eventually see my high school pal Bill Forsythe—with whom I’d acted in Fiorello—in half a dozen episodes as a character named Manny Horvitz.

I haven’t spoken to Bill since he was costarring in the TV series John Doe a decade ago, which I told you about back in 2008. I wrote a sidebar to SCI FI magazine‘s piece on the show, though what tickled me most wasn’t the sidebar but the sidebar to the sidebar which used our high school yearbook photos.

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The Al Pacino thriller 88 Minutes opened today, and though I have not seen the film, the trailer is currently unavoidable. The fleeting face of one of the film’s stars reminded me of one of the many alternate lives I might have led, this particular one the parallel universe that would have been created had I made the decision to focus on becoming an actor instead of a writer.

Back in high school, I enjoyed both acting and writing, and attacked each with equal enthusiasm, though writing was always the first among equals. I was submitting (and getting rejected by) all of the science-fiction magazines then extant, while at the same time acting in school plays. As a result of the latter activity, I was picked to take part in a summer program offered by the New York City public school system—TAPAW, or the Teen Age Performing Arts Workshop. Kids were chosen from all of the city schools one summer to join together to put on the play Fiorello. I was cast as one of the political cronies who sing the songs “Politics and Poker” and “A Little Tin Box.” One of the others cast as a crony was a kid named Bill Forsythe, who I’d never met before, since he’d been attending a different school.

(You can see us both a little more clearly if you click through on the image above right. I’m the tallest person in the back row. William Forsythe is in the back row with his head turned to the right and his hair partially obscuring his face.)

The show was a success, and once the summer was over, Bill transferred to my high school, South Shore High School, for his senior year. After graduation, Bill took off and I didn’t hear of him again until almost a decade later, only as William Forsythe. If you recognize that name, you can already guess how and why. (more…)