Sam Dalton

Sam Dalton is a television and motion picture actor, writer, director and producer who began acting at age five as an extra in a scene from *The Black Hills Passion Play* in Lake Wales, Florida. After graduating from Lenoir City High School in Lenoir City, Tennessee, he attended the University of Tennessee (Knoxville), majoring in Communications with an emphasis on Journalism and Broadcast Management, and performed in university stage productions such as *The Servant of Two Masters*, *The Lion in Winter*, *The Royal Hunt of the Sun* and *Look Homeward Angel*. While at UT he spent summers with the resident cast of the Hunter Hills Theater, an outdoor amphitheater in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, playing General Bullmoose in *Li'l Abner*, Preacher Hagler in *Dark of the Moon*, Will Parker in *Oklahoma* and Henry Albertson in *The Fantastiks*. During his senior year he worked part‑time as a weekend news announcer for WIVK AM radio in Knoxville, and six months later joined WNOX AM radio as a drive‑time news anchor and weekend disc jockey. He subsequently held various positions at WBIR TV (Knoxville) for five years, including on‑air news reporter and host of the afternoon *Early Show*, a tenure interrupted by active‑duty training for the U.S. Army Reserve; he then served six years as a civilian broadcaster while also acting as a Public Information Specialist for the USAR. Over the next eleven years Dalton worked in broadcast roles at stations including KMPH TV (Fresno, CA), KMGH TV (Denver, CO) and KTVX TV (Salt Lake City, UT), continuing to act in stage plays and on‑air commercials. He joined SAG‑AFTRA in 1983 after appearing in a nationally broadcast Ford truck commercial and that same year was cast as Mr. Gurntz, the gym coach, in the Paramount film *Footloose*. Relocating from Salt Lake City to Hollywood in fall 1983, he secured a recurring role on NBC’s daytime series *Santa Barbara* within weeks, followed by appearances on network prime‑time programs and movies of the week including *Call to Glory* (ABC), *Rags to Riches* (NBC), *In Self Defense* (TV movie), *Mr. Belvedere* (ABC), *Mancuso FBI* (NBC), *Touched by an Angel* (CBS) and *Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: Jon Benet and the City of Boulder* (TV movie). Recent screen work includes Disney Channel movies *Double Teamed* and *Right on Track*, films such as *Falls the Shadow*, *Online* and *A Matter of Time*, and short films including *In Aggression*, *Diminuendo* (Nashville Film Festival selection), *Dakota's Decision*, *The Bullet That Follows* and *Cat’s in the Cradle*. His recent stage credits feature Ebenezer Scrooge in *A Christmas Carol* and Sidney Lipton in Neil Simon’s *God’s Favorite*. In 2008 he moved from Hollywood to Nashville, dividing his time between California and Tennessee while continuing to perform. Dalton has taught at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville for four years, offering courses such as Fundamentals of Production, Advanced Directing, Production II, The Business of the Biz and The World of Documentaries. He is a recipient of a Rocky Mountain Regional Emmy, a Parents’ Choice award and two national Telly awards.