Prentiss, Mississippi native and former Southern Mississippi football player, actor Gary Grubbs has worked for some legendary directors in Hollywood, including Oliver Stone and Clint Eastwood, and has 180 acting credits in his 46-year career. Most notably, Grubbs’ role as an attorney lit up ratings in the two all-time most watched TV miniseries, The Burning Bed and Fatal Vision. Additionally, he made the circuit on TV series like Will & Grace. Grubbs has also written scripts for television movies such as If I Had Wings, starring Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney.
The son of a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer, Grubbs was born in Amory. His family moved to Prentiss where he developed a passion for sports. “I played all the sports in high school. I was pretty good, and my senior year I was named All-Dixie Conference in football, basketball and baseball,” said Grubbs, who finished his high school sports career by being selected to play in the Mississippi High School all-star football game in Jackson, featuring Archie Manning on the opposing team.
Following high school, Grubbs attended USM and played football. He said playing sports helped him in his future acting career, though he had no plans to pursue an acting career. As Grubbs recalled the persistence required to succeed in sports, he said, “What I have learned over my acting career is that there is a huge correlation between athletes and performers, and the lessons in tenacity learned in sports come in handy as an actor.”
“I have been turned down so many times for parts. Sometimes up to 100 people will try out for a part. You have lots of rejection in this business. Even when you land a part, you can be completely cut out when the show is finally edited,” Grubbs further stated.
In college, Grubbs’ dorm room adjoined the dorm room of Cooper Huckabee from Mobile. Huckabee had plans to coach in the future but had a festering acting bug. He tried out for several college plays, and Grubbs would help him learn his lines. When they graduated in 1972, the two did not keep in touch. Huckabee returned to Alabama to coach, and Grubbs used his business degree to land a job selling bulldozers in South Mississippi.
Fast-forward five years and Grubbs, lying on his couch watching TV in Hattiesburg, heard something familiar. He recalled, “I was half asleep when I heard Cooper’s voice on Little House on the Prairie.” Grubbs’ next move was to call Huckabee’s parents to acquire their son’s contact information. He called Huckabee, who quipped, “Beats the heck out of work!” Huckabee invited Grubbs to Los Angeles to see for himself. “I followed him to his work and said, ‘I can do this’,” stated Grubbs.
Grubbs didn’t have to convince his wife, the former Miss Mississippi Glenda Meadows, to make the move, so the couple sold everything and headed to Los Angeles.
To have a successful career in Hollywood you have to have contacts. Grubbs’ game plan was to start meeting folks from Mississippi who were in the business. His hunt was successful, for those contacts helped him launch his career. In 1978 he landed his first job on the movie Deadman’s Curve, and the rest is history. Grubbs feels grateful for his success but says, “I’m very passionate and very determined to keep looking for that next job.”
