Spartan Profiles: David P. O'Malley
RISING SPARTAN IN HOLLYWOOD
In 1942 Glenn Miller put Kalamazoo on the map with his hit recording, I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo. In 2005, film producer and director David P. O’Malley, ’69, hopes to do likewise with the movie Kalamazoo, a comedy about three 28-year-old women trying to destroy a time capsule prior to their 10th reunion so that they will not be embarrassed by their predictions. “It’s a wacky, caperish comedy,” says O’Malley, a rising Spartan in Hollywood who has enjoyed success in the film industry as an actor, writer, director and producer. “But it’s also a comedy-drama about facing your goals and what’s important about life, and the choices you make.”
Coincidentally, Dave is a native of Battle Creek. He came to MSU to study “radio, television and film,” and in his senior year, he and fellow Spartan Tom Chapman wrote a script about the Baja Marimba Band that landed them an Emmy award for Best Entertainment Special. After a stint as a radio news director in Santa Barbara, CA, Dave wrote and produced his first film, Deadly Fathoms, in 1974, winning the Silver Medal at the Atlanta Film Festival. Since then, he has received credit in 12 films as a writer, 7 as a director, 4 as a a producer, and 4 as an actor. “I like them all for different reasons,” he notes. “Being a producer is really hard, but you learn a lot. Writing is terrific because you start off with a blank page and it’s all creativity. But I probably love directing the best because you get to work with so many different people.”
In Kalamazoo, Dave gets to work with such stalwart actors as Clare Bloom and Chita Rivera. Perhaps his best known film was 1993’s Fatal Instinct, a send-up of mystery thrillers in the style of Naked Gun. Dave credits MSU with giving him “the basics” about filmmaking and “a great general education.” And he says he runs into many Spartans in Hollywood. “Whenever I wear my Red Wings cap,” he notes, “you won’t believe how many people I meet at the grocery store.”