Member Profile: Art Lynch

"Although I am Facebook friends with Art, I had never met him until we recently got together for a conversation," recalled Anna Wendt. "Art has been a member of the union his whole adult life and a board member of SAG Nevada — and now SAG-AFTRA — for 18 years, serving in various roles. He has also been a national board member since 1995.

"A 'Midwestern transplant,' I asked him how he ended up living out West. He told me his first job out of college was with United Press International in Wyoming and he just kept heading west from there. He has been a resident of Boulder City for several years now. His wife, Laura Lynch, is a social worker at Boulder City Hospital. He also has two daughters, Ann and Beth, and is a grandfather as well.

"Art graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.A. in speech, theater and mass communications. Later he went on to complete his M.A. in communications at UNLV and earned a Ph.D. in education from Capella University. Art also has taught many courses in communications, theater, film, television, etc., for more than 25 years.

"I asked Art what most people do not know about him that might be surprising. 'I can be shy. I have to fight this quite a lot.'

"Recently, Art auditioned for a few roles and landed all three, in the films Kaldur (where he plays the title role space alien), Splitsville (Big Frank the mob boss) and To Topple An Empire (mob boss Vincent Donnelly). On each of those projects he is working with other Nevada SAG-AFTRA actors, along with qualified pre-union talent. In closing, Art says, 'We all have the opportunity to encourage membership and grow the talent work pool for Nevada. I encourage all members to audition for any role under a SAG-AFTRA pending contract, at any budget level. This will encourage production companies to complete the signatory process,' he said."

This item was originally featured in the December 2013 local newsletter.