You may not know actor Muse Watson by his name, but you will instantly recognize him by his face. Such is the life of a character actor.
Muse Watson was born July 20, 1948 in Alexandria, Louisiana. His father was an accountant, by trade, but wanted his family out of the city and back to the rural life that he had known. So he saved his money and bought a small acreage outside of Alexandria. There Mr. Watson hoped to build a new house to replace the old farm house they found there.
However, not long after moving to the country his parents decided they couldn't live together. That's when Muse Watson, his mom and his three siblings all moved in with their paternal grandparents. And it was his grandfather, in particular, who had a great influence on him.
About that time, his father became very seriously ill because of his diabetes. So Muse and his siblings and mom moved back into the old farm house to take care of him. And they did so until he died a short time later. His death was not only a traumatic personal loss, but it left the family destitute and forced to remain in the rickety old farm house.
At the age of 13, with a medeocre academic record, Muse Watson found out he was dyslexic. The members of their home church, the Emmanuel Baptist Church, were especially supportive of him during this period.
Along the way Muse discovered he had a real love of music. So he joined both the school band at Bolton High School and their church's choir. He played the clarinet and soon became a member of the marching band. That experience resulted in his being given a partial scholarship to attend Louisiana Tech.
Unfortunately, his college career ended after just two years. He had developed an addiction to alcohol and that, combined with his low self-esteem, let to a low academic performance. The college told him to ship out.
Muse Watson may have been down, but he was not out. His sister, Lee Watson Morris, and her husband let him live with them in Kentucky. They loved on him and encouraged him to do something good with his life.In time he took another shot at college life, enrolling in historic Berea College. And it was there that a speech professor, Mr. Paul Power, invited him to audition for a part in an upcoming play. His role as Petrucio in "The Taming of the Shrew" drew enthusiastic review from the drama critics. He went on to do two highly successful outdoor drams directed by Paul Green. He had found his groove.
Muse Watson decided to jump from college to full-time theatrical work, traveling around the country doing dinner theater productions. He returned to college a few months later and resumed his acting career there. And he also fell in love with a young lady who, like him, had hopes of becoming a successful actress. She was soon killed in a car crash. That deep lose plunged him once again into a pattern of hard-drinking.
By this time he was working full-time in Oak Ridge, Tennessee as a purchasing agent for a manufacturer. He did very well in that job. So he was on to another job as an industrial salesman in Chattanooga, while also acting on the side. He even started a repertory comedy group, "Ragtime on the River," that specialized in performing various melodramas on a riverboat. He went on to teach acting at Georgia State. No, not that Georgia State. Georgia State Penitentiary. And his class of inmates even won a state-wide contest in 1982.
However, his personal life was still in turmoil. His drinking intensified and he got the first of many DUI's. Ironically, he was able to get a job as a driver for feature films. He was sort of a "gofer" who drove people associated with a movie wherever they need to go during the making of that film. He got to meet and to closely study the acting of stars like Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe.All was not well, though, as he descended deeper into alcoholism. He was fired from the set of "Steel Magnolias" for being so drunk he could not perform a precision driving stunt in the movie.
That is when a cast member intervened and sponsored him into Alcoholics Anonymous. It made a world of difference. He saved enough money to purchase trucks which he then leased to the movie companies. And he soon began getting TV roles and small parts in movies such as "The Handmaid's Tale" (1990) and "Sommersby" (1993). He then played a supporting role in “Something To Talk About” (1995) as sympathetic horse trainer Hank Corrigan.
He made the big leap of faith and moved to Los Angeles. And soon afterward he married his best friend, a woman he had known for some twenty years.
His break-out role was as the killer, dressed as a fisherman, who terrorized several people in the horror film “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” He also did the sequel, “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (1998).
Watson played a host of cowboys, detectives, and sheriffs in pictures ranging from “American Outlaws” (2001) to the Midwestern crime film “Iowa” (2005). That same year, Watson joined the cast of the television series “Prison Break” as Charles Westmoreland, a longtime inmate who may be the legendary airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper. But his character was killed off at the end of the first season.
Muse Watson played in such "You Know My Name" on TV (1999), played Otis Bertram in the TV film "The Last Cowboy" (2003) and had a role in "American Outlaws" (2001). He played the role of "Boss" in "Between the Sand and the Sky" (2008).
Muse Watson and his wife and child live in Los Angeles, but spend as much time as they can at their sixty acre hide-out in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Check out his own personal web site, including a video featuring clips of his work, at:
Last posted on July18, 2009
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
© 2009 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
