A familiar face

Tom Kemp (above, in back) as a minister in "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past."

On any given day, there's a good chance that Milton actor Tom Kemp is on television. Having played parts on "Law & Order," "NCIS," and "Without A Trace," -- and in movies such as "Gone Baby Gone," "W.," and "Mystic River" -- he's almost always on TV, thanks to repeats and movie channels. Few know his name, but Kemp's face always looks familiar. "I'm often playing priests and cops," Kemp told us earlier today. "Character actors -- they're the meat and potatoes."

Kemp's latest gig has him filming in his home town. After joining the cast of "The Company Men" -- the John Wells project that has had Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kevin Costner popping up all over the city -- Kemp spent Monday at the Milton Cemetery filming a funeral scene with the aforementioned actors and "Company Men" costars Maria Bello and Maryann Plunkett. Kemp's been cast as a white-collar guy who, with Affleck's character, gets laid off from a corporate job. Kemp's already shot scenes with Affleck in Natick and will be filming more over the next two weeks. "It's the first time in my many, many years in Milton that I walked to work."

Kemp told us he and his family have benefited greatly from the Massachusetts Film Tax Credit. He used to spend much of his time in New York and Los Angeles, but because so many films are now made here, he's been able to stay home. His resume includes the locally-filmed "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," "What Doesn't Kill You," and "My Best Friend's Girl." He was even in "The Departed," although you didn't get to see him. Kemp played Leonardo DiCaprio's character's father in the Oscar-winning film, but his one scene was scrapped during editing. "It actually originally opened the movie. It was a flashback," Kemp said, adding that when he ran into Martin Scorsese at the Coolidge Corner Theatre after "The Departed" was released, the director profusely apologized for cutting the scene. "He made up for it by casting me in his next movie." That, of course, is the locally-shot Dennis Lehane adaptation "Shutter Island," which hits theaters this fall.

Kemp has his fingers crossed that he'll be able to spend even more time at home. He plays a prosecutor in the pilot for Donnie Wahlberg's series "Bunker Hill." Wahlberg has said the locally-shot show, which also stars Bridget Moynahan, will be on television soon enough.