Tom Schmid took a big chance a year ago when he dumped his mainstream legal career out the window of his Upper West Side apartment in favor of a higher calling.
Some who know him thought he was crazy for leaving West Publishing Co., after six years as a legal consultant, to pursue a singing and acting career -- in the Big Apple no less, at the top of the fantasy heap.
But the Brainerd alum (1981) known for his toothy grin and athletic good looks never looked back and doesn't intend to, especially after a series of performance successes over the past 10 months.
"I intend to make this my living and there's no safety net," Schmid said this week. "It has been nearly a year and I've had a wonderful education. I have no reason to go back (to a lawyer's career)."
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Brainerd native Tom Schmid (top center) played John Hancock in the musical "1776" in Long Island, N.Y. Schmid left a career as a legal consultant with West Publishing Co. to seriously pursue an acting career.
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The country's daytime television audience witnessed his most recent acting milestone earlier this week, a brief but important appearance on "One Life to Live," a well-established ABC Television soap.
This was not just a walk-on role, but a talking part as a reporter, described in the language of the trade as a "U5," meaning a part with five lines, Schmid said.
The episode aired nationally on Tuesday, marking, in fact, the Brainerd-born actor's second appearance on the popular soap. He reprised the same role for a "One Life" segment broadcast to daytime audiences last July.
The television opportunities came up because of what Schmid, a graduate of William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, learned a long time ago: the importance of networking and making a good first impression.
They complement his on-stage skills like clover spices soup -- maybe even as much as his upbeat, can-do personality. His acting and singing have been positively critiqued by some of the sturdiest posts in New York's brass-railed media.
Anita Gates of the New York Times, for example, noted his theatrical performance in "The Great Debate" this summer, despite the reviewer's disappointment of the overall stage production.
Schmid has a "nice voice ... and a pleasant stage presence," she wrote in identifying some of the play's "highpoints." Other reviewers from The American Reporter, Theatre Reviews Limited, InTheater and other trades have expressed similar sentiments about the lawyer-turned-actor.
While making inroads into television, Schmid has flourished even more in New York's live-theater scene.
In fact, it was an opportunity for a major role in an independent stage production of "Phantom of the Opera," purchased by theaters in Europe. Schmid spent last fall in Copenhagen and Geneva, reprising the role of Raoul, a major player in the musical authored by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
He may even be in the short line for any opening in the Broadway or official touring versions of "Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Miserables," thanks to a contact he made in the European version of the former.
His initial auditions for both resulted in "call-backs," or promises to get a second chance against a much smaller, more select field than the first, he said.
Over the last year, he has also appeared in several other stage productions, including the musicals "1776" and "Titanic," both presented to Long Island audiences, and a couple of off-Broadway "showcases." That's theater talk for a 16-week gig at rates approved by the Actors Equity Association.
"I feel fortunate that my skills are diverse," he said in explaining his recent successes. "I'm not just a singer and not just an actor, so I don't see television, film or play or musical theater as different. I aspire to all."
In marketing terms, Schmid describes himself as the "leading man" type, a character image that has emerged with age, he said. He is the son of Chuck and Linda Schmid, long-time photography studio owners in Brainerd.
A 1986 graduate of the University of Minnesota, Schmid enrolled in the North Carolina's graduate acting program. He left early to attend night law school, because "I was physically too young," he said.
"I would have gone many years playing summer stock and dinner theater and would have burned myself out," he said. "Now I'm at a good age, early 30s, for the leading man role.
"I would like to make it on a soap or in a movie because the economics allow you to write your own ticket as an actor," he said. "You can pick and choose your roles."
But not for the moment. Schmid works the network every day from his 80th and Broadway flat, a 9-foot by 24-foot piece of paradise at about a grand a month. He moved into the apartment about two and half years ago when West Publishing suggested he move to Manhattan to improve the company's business prospects.
He still maintains contact with the legal community as a part-time Web site developer, a skill he learned while working as a lawyer for the giant legal publishing house.
In recent days Schmid has even auditioned for a low-budget student film at New York University, the bottom of the acting barrel but good for exposure and training. And that's what's important for the moment, he said.
In the meantime he awaits word from producers of a big-time theater production of "Secret Garden" in Seattle, as well as a possible movie role in a Hollywood production starring Harvey Keitel or Robert Duvall, he said.
"People are starting to call me," he said, "rather than my having to knock on their doors. I'm really keeping busy and it's great."
