New Haven to Hollywood, Take One

As a kid growing up in New Haven, Jim Leonard, Jr., thought he would be a teacher or lawyer, until writing changed all that. Today Leonard, 55, is a successful playwright, television writer and producer working in Hollywood. 

It’s his dream job.

“I really love this,” says Leonard. “I feel very lucky.”

Leonard has worked on several movie projects with Robert Altman, written a TV series called “Close to Home” that ran from 2005 to 2007, and written and produced numerous episodes for several TV series including “Dexter,” “The Marshal,” “Thieves” and “The Closer,” which is his current project. A recent episode that Leonard wrote entitled “Road Block,” guest starred Elizabeth Perkins and aired in December.

“What I like most about television is that it moves quickly. Within a month after I finish writing something, we’re shooting it, and then I’m editing and writing the next project,” says Leonard. “I love working with an ensemble of actors who I get to know well, and with a group of writers that are tremendously talented. Many, I think, are more talented than me.”

Don’t be fooled by Leonard’s humility. Though he claims his knack for writing is more luck than talent, history and credits say otherwise.

Over the course of his career, he has also written six award-winning plays that have been performed in repertory theaters around the world and off Broadway in New York.

Still, Leonard can’t pinpoint where he gets his way with words. He once audited a play-writing class for two weeks, but dropped out because he found it so confusing.

“I don’t think there’s a way to write a play any more than there’s a way to paint a picture,” says Leonard.

When asked where he gets his inspiration as a writer, he responded that he has no idea. He does admit, however, that if it weren’t for deadlines, “I’d never finish anything.”

And though he is surrounded by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, he is still human. So when asked why he always feels a measure of fear at the onset of each project, he responded, “I always wonder if this is the time they’ll figure out I’m no good at it. This time I’m truly lost.”

Yet, Leonard believes good writers should be scared every time they begin something new.

“You should be going someplace you’ve never gone before,” he says.

That mindset is precisely what set him on the path of a writing career in the first place.

Scene 1:New Haven to Hanover

When Leonard was in high school, his mom encouraged him 
to apply for a National Presbyterian Scholarship by writing an essay.

That essay earned him a full-ride scholarship to Hanover College in Hanover, Ind. Leonard’s first impression of Hanover was that it was tiny, but tiny turned out to be good, giving him unique opportunities to explore his interest in theatre and writing.

“I was a lousy actor, but I liked hanging around the theatre majors,” says Leonard. “At a school that small, if you’re willing to do small roles, you can be on the stage.”

One of Leonard’s theatre peers while at Hanover was Woody Harrelson, who later starred on the TV show “Cheers” playing
a character named “Woody” from Hanover, Ind. Leonard and Harrelson are still friends today.

Another benefit of the small setting of Hanover College was that Leonard was sometimes given the opportunity to write short stories in lieu of final exams or term papers.

“I started writing fiction because I had a theology class where the professor gave the choice of writing a term paper or a short story,” recalls Leonard. “I procrastinated until the night before and figured I could BS my way through it.”

And he successfully did. That first attempt at fiction turned out to be “A” work and paved the way for a unique experimental theatre opportunity in which Leonard wrote his first play.  This again garnered an “A,” both on and off campus.

Leonard’s play, “And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson,” won the American College Theater Festival and received stellar reviews by The Washington Times and The Washington Post.

After college, Leonard spent a year studying fiction at the University of California in Irvine, but his heart was in writing plays. He returned to Indiana and wrote “The Diviners,” which won numerous awards and sent him to New York City.

Scene 2: The Big Apple

While in New York, he crossed paths with a former classmate from New Haven High School, Linda Bricker, who was studying for her MFA in Modern Dance at New York University. 

“She left a note at the box office asking if I was the Jim Leonard from New Haven,” recalls Leonard. “I remembered she was really cute, so I got in touch with her right away.”

The two have been married for 28 years and have two grown sons. 

After a five-year stint of teaching playwriting at Arizona State University, the Leonards moved to California 18 years ago to pursue Jim’s dream of writing for television. 

Scene 3: Life in L.A.

In his spare time, Leonard runs a theatre company, writes plays and reads a variety of genres. He also likes to work with wood and even created a chicken coop for the hens that he and Linda raise at their two-and-a-half acre California residence. They also keep an Arabian mare named Happy Birthday, a birthday gift from Leonard to Linda 25 years ago.

For vacations, the Leonards leave the ocean to go to the lake in Indiana, spending time at their second home, located on Shiner Lake, near Churubusco.

Leonard says being a Hollywood writer might sound glamorous, but it’s still a job.

“Like anything else, we have to work hard,” he says. “We go home at night and spend time with our families and get up and do it again in the morning.” 

Photo Caption:  Fellow playwright Leo Geter and Leonard at the Circle X Theatre Co. fundraiser.