Michael Louden, at 40; screen, stage actor
Michael Keena Louden was a versatile actor whose roles ran the gamut from soap operas to Shakespeare.
"He was hard-wired to be an actor," John Fogle, artistic director of the Mugford Street Players in Marblehead, said yesterday of Mr. Louden, 40, who died Saturday at his home in Hollywood, Calif.
Dory Louden-Vaillancourt of Marblehead said yesterday that she believes her son suffered an aneurysm. A cause of death had yet to be determined.
"He always wanted to an actor," said Louden-Vaillancourt, who recalled her son acting out "Saturday Night Live" sketches at home while growing up in Marblehead.
"Michael always had a vivid imagination," his brother Chuck of San Francisco said yesterday. "When he was a kid he was into 'Star Wars.' He saw the movie 20 times and knew all the dialect." He was a boy who was "always creating his own worlds," collecting coins and Beatles memorabilia and making models.
He acted in student productions at St. John's Prep School in Danvers and participated in the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival. Mr. Louden attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before auditioning for and being accepted to the Juilliard School of Drama in New York City.
While studying at Juilliard, he performed the role of Iago in a production of Othello starring Andre Braugher. He made his professional debut as the Dauphin in Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival production of "King John."
"He was the introvert of the family until he discovered acting," said Chuck. "Then he became the star."
From 1989 to 1991, he had the role of Ian "Duke" Kramer, a hospital orderly-turned-boxer reunited with his long-lost father on the soap opera "As the World Turns." He also appeared on the soap operas "Another World" and "One Life to Live." Mr. Louden appeared in the HBO comedy "Arli$$ and had the role of a young pilot in the movie "Space Cowboys."
He appeared in several other movies and TV shows. There were many other roles that he almost got after interviewing and auditioning. "Being an actor is a life of constant rejection," said his mother. "But he was always able to deal with it."
As Mr. Louden grew older, he began rollerblading to keep in shape. "He had a very promising early career and like the majority of promising young actors, he grew out of the promising phase and was struggling along," said Fogle. "It's a hard life, but he was committed to it."
Last month, Mr. Louden had a featured role in the one-act play "Three Feet Under," a satire of the TV show "Six Feet Under." It was produced by Lily Tomlin in Los Angeles. According to a review in Variety, he played a "pet undertaker who swaggers like a rock star" and "brought his lewdly self-satisfied and kinky character to life."
"He had spark and he was willing to take a lot of risks other people aren't willing to take," said Fogle. "And he was beginning to build a resume of impressive length."
Besides his mother and brother, he leaves his father, Charles, of Marblehead; two sisters, Lisa and Kelly Pickering, both of Marblehead; and a grandmother, Annalea Keena Swerdlow of Houston.
A memorial service will be held at 1:30 pm. Sunday in the Unitarian Universalist Church in Marblehead.
