I was born April 20, 1953 in Whittier, California... early in the morning... putting
me right on the cusp of Aries/Tarus. I ended up with 4 older brothers, one older
and two younger sisters. My middle name "Quentin" derives comes from the
Latin word for five, as I was my parents 5th son. I was also their sixth child, and
might well have ended up with a middle name of "Sextus". The problems that
could have caused while I was growing up make me shudder still. I attended
the Saint Mary's Catholic School in Whittier's "Uptown" area for 1st through 7th
grades, having an interesting but thorough education from Dominican nuns. In
June of '66 my family moved to Placentia, Orange County, where I then attended
El Dorado High School. The school was under construction, and offered only 7th
through 10th grades, making it a surreal combination of both middle school and
high school. Allowing for construction and the growth of Placentia, at the end of
each of the following two years, the school added an upper level class and dropped
a lower level. So I had the strange honor to be one of the few dozen people to have
graduated from El Dorado twice... once from the 8th grade in June of '67, and again
4 years later in June of 1971 as a senior. I entered California State University, in the
city of Fullerton in September of 1971.
In the late 90s, I made and lost a "sure-thing" bet and as a result had to model naked
for a local art class at Fullerton Community College. I seemed that I had a natural
talent (pun intended), and art instructors were so pleased that they passed my name
to their peers. Within some few a few months I was being asked to pose naked all
over the Southland. Go figure... being paid to stand around naked. What a world!
In January of 2000 artist Karl Gnass, who was at the time acting as consultant for
a special film project at Sony Imageworks Studios, of Culver City, California, gave
me a call. He had gotten my number from the model office at Pasadena's Art Center
College of Design after he had made inquiries of them in a search for a very specific
type of model: one with some certain physical traits, as well as an outgoing character
and a good imagination. We spoke... he saw my web site and hired me immediately. I
was invited to a work with the Sony CGI animators so they might use my body and my
poses to create the character of The Mountain Troll for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone. The troll holding Harry by the foot was me posing while holding a stuffed toy
monkey and swinging at it with a yardstick. The troll trying to shake Harry off of his
shoulders was me giving a "piggie-back" ride to that toy stuffed monkey. And no, I was
not wearing a loincloth when posing.
This became my revelation that I could use what God gave me to share to entertain or
amuse others. Art modeling had gave me the confidence to be just myself, even in my
birthday suit, in front of a group of strangers. This made a move to film and television
as easy as fallen off a log. I have since become the "go-to" guy for any project
needing a totally unabashed male, and have proudly shared my skin for many films
and popular television programs. - Michael
