Harley Venton (born December 28, 1952) is a Canadian actor from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He emigrated with his family in 1965 to Hibbing,on the iron range of northern Minnesota.(Bob Dylans' hometown;..missed Bob by a couple of years...sigh..)In the fall of 1965 he enrolled at Hibbing Junior High School where, in exchange for 20 cents(his lunch money) and, more importantly, to get out of two periods of classes, he went to see something called a 'play.' He was enthralled, enchanted and decided, then and there, that acting was what he wished to do for the rest of his life. He went out for the spring drama club production of Desperate Ambrose a farcical comedy about a greenhorn dandy who goes west, is flattered into taking on the position of sheriff in a Wild West Town and, quite by comedic misadventure, manages to clean up the rough and tumble town. He 'tried out' for this first acting role having studied with some of the finest acting teachers extant: Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Milton Berle, The Marx Brothers, Danny Kaye, Jonathan Winters, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, and, perhaps most importantly for this particular role, Don Knott's as Deputy Barney Fife. Relying on instinct he pulled out all the stops and got the leading role his first time out. (How could he not believe that acting was his destiny?) His director, a HJS teacher whose name he has sadly lost to memory, was an excellent practitioner who taught him both the structure of comedic timing but also the fundamental of stagecraft. by misadventureHis first acting experience occurred in his 8th grade production of "Desperate Ambrose," in which he played the lead. In the summer of 1970, the family moved to Jamestown, North Dakota, where Venton spent his high school years at Jamestown High School. He continued to take every opportunity to perform, in theatre, speech contests, and choir. During his senior year, in addition to placing first in the state in the North Dakota State Speech Competition for Humorous Interpretation, he also was awarded the "Joseph Jefferson Award" (given to the outstanding senior actor at Jamestown High School), and won the school's annual talent show with a comedy routine which featured his impressions of various celebrities and political figures. (He liberally 'borrowed from Hal Holbrook's performance as Mark Twain, and the political impressions of master mimic, David Frye)He went on to college at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks which had a small but excellent theatre program peopled by many ex-patriot and/or eventual professional actors and directors. One professor, Patrick Rucker, had a profound effect on the direction of Mr. Ventons' professional life. Professor Rucker encouraged and supervised Mr. Ventons' application the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre prestigious Bush Fellowship Program which provided a full scholarship through an accelerated Master's of Fine Arts followed by a full season at t
In the October 2002 episode, "Offensive Action" of JAG (1995), Venton was missing the top half of his ring finger, on his right hand (his wedding band he wore for a number of years, before -- since 1996, was also gone.)
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ABC and Cybill Shepherd originally wanted him for the role of "David Addison" in Moonlighting (1985), but show creator and writer, Glenn Gordon Caron, rejected him for the then-unknown Bruce Willis (both screen test were filmed -- two scenes each with actress Mary-Margaret Humes playing "Maddie Hayes" -- on September 7, 1984.) His screen test, along with Bruce Willis, appears at the end of the pilot episode DVD release.
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
JAG
2002
TV Series
Capt. Patrick 'Pat' Wingspak
Falling Like This
2001
Jack Lockhart
Law & Order
2000
TV Series
Raymond 'Ray' Taylor
The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds... It Leads
1999
TV Movie
Earl Janus
Michael Hayes
1998
TV Series
Central Intelligence Agent / CIA Attorney
The Practice
1997
TV Series
Mike Randall
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
1997
TV Series
Daniel Rosen / Tom Eltern (segment "The House on Baker Street")