See This LT Grad at the La Grange Theatre on the Big Screen

You have probably seen Michael Hitchcock, a 1976 graduate of Lyons Township High School, on television or in movies. Hitchcock is a character actor who was “Dalton Rumba” from the first season of Glee and can currently been seen in  the movie “Super 8” as Deputy Rosko; Bridesmaids as Don Cholodecki; and the third season of United States of Tara as Ted Mayo.

That’s just his current acting jobs. Hitchcock is also a writer. He just started his new writing job June 27th as one of the new writers for the hit show Glee.

I had the pleasure of talking to Hitchcock about two weeks ago as he was gearing up for his first day as a Glee staff writer. He’s had a lot of success in both writing and acting, but he has worked non-stop to get to this point in his career.

After graduating from LT, Hitchcock went on to receive his Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He then went to work for Embassy Home Entertainment, a company owned by Norman Lear. While there, he bought movies for the company, but that was only a day job for Hitchcock. At night he was working on his writing.

Hitchcock also started performing at The Groundlings Theatre—an improvisation and sketch comedy theatre similar to Second City whose alumni include: Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow, and Pee Wee Herman just to name a few.

It was around this time that he sold his first drama, Where the Day Takes You that was the feature film debut of Will Smith. The film tells the story of teenage runaways trying to survive on the streets of Los Angeles and was nominated for the Critics Award at the Deauville Film Festival and won the Golden Space Needle Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Hitchcock also performed both writing and producing duties on the long-running Fox late night comedy series MAD TV. The show was nominated three times by the Writers Guild of America for Outstanding Writing of a Comedy/Variety Series while Hitchcock was there.

When I talked to Hitchcock it was like talking to a long lost friend. I really wanted to explore his years at LT and find out if those years helped him decide on his career.

“Absolutely, I had so many teachers that inspired me,” Hitchcock said. “Miss Mavros, Mr. Thompson, Miss Morrison, Mr. Albright and Mr. Drake. They all inspired me. Miss Mavros taught me to interpret poetry and Mr. Thompson—I was afraid of Mr. Thompson.” 

Of course, I asked if he participated in any plays while at LT and I chuckled as he told me, “I was Jesus in Godspell at the Reber Center and I was one of the writers, along with Carol Figler, for The Corral Show both my junior and senior years. It was quite a privilege.”

In addition to writing and acting Hitchcock was on the Speech Team, worked on the Lion newspaper and was in band.

When asked about fond memories of LT, Hitchcock took a few seconds to think.

“The overwhelmingness of LT," he decided. "It was two campuses and as a freshman and sophomore at South Campus it was stressful, but once I made it to North Campus I found it to be more relaxed. The teachers really cared about us and I believe they still do.”

It was evident as he spoke that he enjoyed his years at LT and appreciates them.

“I didn’t realize what a great experience I had until many years later when I was able to look back at growing up in Western Springs and attending LT,” Hitchcock said. “I remember working at Stange’s Pharmacy. Mr. Stange always tried to hire as many kids as possible. It was a great community.”

Living in the Los Angeles area is a far cry from the La Grange area. Hitchcock's dad still lives in La Grange Park and his brother lives in Chicago.

So, where does a talented hollywood writer and actor go when he's in town?

“The Western Springs Theatre and the Spaghetti Bowl, which I noticed has a new name when I was back in May," he said. "The Western Springs Theatre was great and my experiences there might have even helped me land my role in Waiting for Guffman which was about community theater.That was the first film I did with director Christopher Guest. When I auditioned for the film I talked a little about my community theater experience at Western Springs Theatre."

Hitchcock has played a wide variety of characters on TV and in films. When asked about his favorite character, there was a long pause before he finally answered; “I guess it would be Hamilton Swan in ‘Best of Show’, because he was so uptight he was fun to play.”

If you haven’t seen this Christopher Guest comedy about a dog show and the owners of the dogs, consider renting it. Hitchcock is hysterical as a high-strung dog owner who feuds loudly with his wife while at the show. He was quick to point out, “I don’t consider myself just a character actor. I’m a multi-tasker and while I love the character acting I enjoy writing just as much.”

While researching Hitchcock I discovered he’s on Twitter and started following his tweets. A recent tweet was rather intriguing to me, it said, “Still pissed that our high school marching band had to play the ‘Hawaii Five 0’ theme for four years because our teacher thought it was cool.”

When asked about it, Hitchcock replied, “That’s true, Mr. Hilgendorf loved that song and we played it all four years.”

Now that Hitchcock is a writer for Glee—a musical show set in a high school for those who don't know—is there a chance some of Hitchcock's LT experiences could end up written in?

“You never know, I have some ideas but I can’t share them with you, of course.” Hitchcock said with a laugh. 

When we discussed his recent hiring by Glee as a staff writer, it was apparent that Hitchcock was honored. He explained, “The first two season of Glee were written entirely by three writers; that is almost unheard of and is quite an accomplishment. For them to ask me to join the staff really means a lot and I’m excited about starting my freshman year at William McKinley High.”

Season three of “Glee” will be on Fox Television starting sometime in the fall.