When I started acting classes in the fall of 1989 at HB studios in NYC, I was energized and excited to be a part of a school I had heard so much about. Taking a train and then a subway down to Bank Street on Saturday mornings from Westchester Country was a veritable feast for the eyes as the metro north blurred the autumn landscapes from town to town down the West side of New York. Getting into Uta Hagen's calsses were never easy. You had to audition and you did need a certain level of skill to get in her class. Luckily I was one of them. But one of my most fondest memories had to do with another teacher named William Hickey or "Bill" as we called him. Bill had a way to keep you engaged in his stories that was unlike anything I had ever been a part of. Here was "learning" but not by classes, not by theories and techniques, but merely by listening.
Bill had a way of explaining certain instances on stage with him and Katherine Hepburn or a incident whereby his dog knocked him down backwards, landing him atop a glass table and subsequently in the hospital! But hidden in his stories were lessons about our humanity, lessons about the body and how we react, and even our reactions themselves to his stories incited conversation and philosophies. Hidden there in the mind and body of this frail and extremely thin man was a wealth of experience and knowledge teeming to be shared with his students.
Years later, I remember driving down the Bank Street and I stopped to watch Bill talking to a new class of wide-eyed students. I got out of my car and ran over and to my amazement bill greeted me by name.
When Bill passed years ago in 1997 the world lost a great actor and contributor to the arts. HB lost one of their greatest teachers.
William Hickey is best known for his role as Uncles lewis in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and as the Mafia Don in Prizzi's Honor.
Paul Brighton
