Talent, Courage and a Pair of Alec Baldwins

Actor Johnny Pruitt

By Dan Hagen

At 19, not long out of Sullivan High School, Johnny Pruitt figured if he could make it there, he’d make it anywhere.

“There” being New York, New York, a brass ring of a place to make it as an actor.

Dropping out of Webster Conservatory of Theatre Arts in St. Louis, the young man went east in January 2001.

"Leaving school early was, at the time, the easiest decision I remember ever making,” he recalled. “I was enjoying my time at school, but opportunities came up in New York that really anyone in my position would have jumped on. An agent and a place to live at 19 was a no-brainer.

“Thinking about doing something like now at 30 — terrifying. At 19, not a care in the world, sounded fun,” he said. “And I've tried to do my best to live up to that decision which drives me.”

Pruitt’s boyish looks and assured acting style won him in roles in films like “Kinsey,” “Confess,” “Whirlygirl” and ”Once Upon a Time Never Comes Again” and in TV shows like “Boardwalk Empire,” “30 Rock,” “Mercy,” “Ed,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

Now he wants to be a producer — well, a co-producer and a co-star, with Percy Rodriguez, in “Death and McCootie,” an original comedy-fantasy play to be performed at the prestigious New York International Fringe Festival this summer. Written by Clayton Smith and Rodriguez and directed by Michelle Boss, it’s “a film noir-style farce that goes a little haywire when Edgar P. McCootie, P.I., matches (a lack of) wits with the Grim Reaper in a desperate bid to escape his own death.”

“We're asking for donations to get the show produced,” Pruitt said. “We have perks set up for every level of donation and our gratitude will never go away. No amount is too small (or large, ha)."

You can check the show out, and/or donate, at www.deathandmccootie.com/

"This show represents a lot for my partners and me,” Pruitt said. “This is the first time that I'm really doing my own producing so the stakes are high. Usually I just show up and do the job and leave. This is a lot more gratifying and personal. I use skills that I’ve learned from everyone I've ever worked with. Especially those from Little Theatre.”

The son of John Pruitt and Jean Wood of Sullivan and the brother of SES teacher Melissa Haegan, Pruitt grew up with and IN the Little Theatre, landing starring roles there in shows like “The Jungle Book” while in his mid-teens. 

Unlike young people from towns without a professional theatre, Pruitt was able to learn that a viable acting career was not merely possible for him, but plausible.

“It was something that was available to me,” he said. “I still had to work at it and learn, but it certainly made it seem like something that was attainable. And when you’re young and fearless, it was a great combo for me, ha!

“From the first show I did at LTOTS, which was the 40th anniversary season, I knew that this is what I was going to do. Some of the people that I met working there are my best friends and most trusted contacts today. Which makes any successes really special because I share it with all of those people.

“My family have been always supportive and enthusiastic as well. But there’s something about show biz type folk who really understand each other. And I learned that at a pretty young age at the Little Theatre. It would be hard to say that anything had a bigger influence on life and career.”

Springboarding from the Little Theatre, Pruitt appeared in productions with some familiar names, including Liam Nesson, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris O’Donnell, Laura Linney, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Steve Buscemi and a favorite of Pruitt’s, Tina Fey.

Tina Fey

“I shot ‘30 Rock’ with Tina Fey who was super great and incredibly inviting,” Pruitt said. “I had actually had dinner with her and her husband years before that shoot. Some friends of theirs who I was friends with invited me when she was still on SNL and hadn’t told the show that she was pregnant yet. She said we were the first people she told.”

“She remembered me from that dinner when I asked her about it on the ‘30 Rock’ set.”

And while a fair number of actors can claim to have worked with Alec Baldwin, how many can say they have appeared with TWO Alec Baldwins?

“I didn’t have the nerve to tell Baldwin that I had worked on ‘30 Rock’ prior to shooting the Capitol One commercial with him. Just never got the opportunity, only being with him one day.”

Pruitt played a man buying a wedding ring with the advice of the two Baldwins, one of whom was busy flirting with his fiancé.

"Alec Baldwin was cool and easy,” Pruitt said. “A little intimidating at first as he’s known to have a bit of a short fuse. But I shot with him on the last day of a four-day shoot so by then, they were all at the end and he was in a good mood. He had one moment of ‘I’m here and ready why aren’t we shooting?’ but if you've ever shot anything, no matter who you are, you've said that 100 times. It’s tedious but he was a pro and dropped what was probably about $30,000 on jewelry for his girlfriend. All in all, nice guy.”

And Pruitt had another reason to be happy about that shoot. “Anytime you do a commercial with a celebrity, you know it’s going to have a healthy run on TV.”