Ralph Server
- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Ralph Server brings to the industry some thirty years of experience in
the entertainment field. His experience is as varied as the man
himself. While a teenager Mr. Server appeared in his first play, an
inventive production of the innovative fantasy by Sutton Vane titled
'Outward Bound.' Mr. Server thereafter refined his acting skills at the
famed Pasadena Playhouse where he understudied for Dustin Hoffman in
the main stage play production of Death of a Salesman. He also appeared
regularly in various television shows playing ethnic roles for 20th
Century Fox and Universal Studios. Fluent in Spanish, dark and
handsome, he was often cast as a Mexican drug dealer. Mr. Server
remembers an incident with casting director Milt Hammerman where he
went in speaking a kind of broken English. The audition was going well
until asked how he had learned to speak English. Mr. Server suddenly
dropped his accent and told Mr. Hammerman he was Jewish and born in
America. The man turned white. Hammerman was so angry at being fooled
that he told Server that he would never work at Universal Studios
again. "He called my agent Carlos Alvarado and told him so," quipped
Server. "I thought that I was displaying my great acting ability."
Undaunted, Mr. Server continued his acting career when producer Sam
Wannamaker cast him in a Western series at 20th Century Fox called
Lancer, as the tortured Mexican vaquero Gaspar. It was a series
short-lived starring Wayne Maunder and Jim Stacy. Westerns were out.
Detectives were in. Carmel, in northern California, was the setting for
the show and he remembers it fondly. The nicest people. President of
20th, Bill Self, actor Anthony Caruso, Elizabeth Bauer, Amongst many
others. It was a fun time. After the fall, Server tried his hand at
writing screenplays. His acting career stalled, Server got the
attention of the Frank Cooper Agency when his then girlfriend passed
the screenplay on to Barney Slater who had written films for John Wayne
and Tony Perkins. Server's script about the detailed life of a
successful drug dealer was optioned many times but never made into a
movie. Drug dealers were out of fashion. Joe Wizan, producer of And
Justice For All, Junior Bonner with Steve McQueen, and Jeremiah Johnson
with Robert Redford, and who would later produce Kiss The Girls with
Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, Along Came A Spider,again with Morgan
Freeman, wanted to make a a film out of Server's coming of age story
Killing Time, about the cultural revolution. But despite numerous
options, the script got lost in a heap of executive studio changes. Not
to be discouraged, Server went ahead and wrote another screenplay about
a heist that Boris Sagal was preparing for filming to star Alain Delon,
Claudia Cardinal and Jean Paul Belmondo. Fate stepped in and Sagal was
killed on a set in Montana while making a mini-series called 'World War
III. The film was put on hold and the option ran out. Server wrote
another script called Haggarty's Way. Bob Goldfarb, Server's agent at
FCA told Server that John Wayne wanted to make the film, that he had
just talked to Michael Wayne, head of Batjac Productions, and they were
good to go on Haggarty's Way. Fate stepped in again and the great John
Wayne unfortunately died of Cancer. Server went on to produce a film
called Programmed To Cry. He returned to acting when Dick Donner cast
him as a cop on a tv series. With so many scripts in the market Server
was able to make a living as a 'script doctor' for movies that were
halted in production because their scripts needed help. Server said it
was a hell of a pressure but it was steady money and it kept him going.
Server wrote another script that he directed this time. The film called
Without Mercy(2005) won the grand jury prize at the New York
International Film Festival. At last recognition for Server as
actor-writer-director. A long journey. Then he produced several films,
one with Jan Michael Vincent and Heather Thomas. Mr. Server's next film
is now in pre-production. It will be shot in New York and Connecticut
and is presently being cast. Already attached to the project are
Magdalena Rozczka, a star in Poland, and starting a promising career in
Hollywood, and French actor Philippe Durand who is making a remarkable
career on the international scene. The film is called The Devil Never
Sleeps, about the biggest bank robbery in Connecticut history. Mr
Server is presently casting an American star to play the leading role
amongst a star-studded and stylish lineup. The film will be dedicated
to Boris Sagal.