Leon was born on May 23 in Kokomo, Indiana, and grew up on several different farms in the general area. Moving frequently led Leon to develop a fantasy life at an early age, and when he wasn't on a tractor or a horse, he was reading, writing short plays and recording them on audio-cassette, and watching TV comedy of the late 1970s.
It was then Leon realized acting was his destiny. He began what he calls "Musical-Comedy High School," acting in high-school and community-theatre productions throughout Indiana, such as Guys & Dolls, Arsenic & Old Lace, Brigadoon, Wait Until Dark and Li'l Abner. He also wrote, directed and acted in, along with a childhood friend, a series of short films called Wonder Twins, which he shot with his mother's home movie camera.
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Following graduation, Leon attended Indiana University, where he studied theatre, English literature and journalism. Leon landed his first paying show-biz gig during this time--an amateur-night appearance at The Club Showbar in Indianapolis led to a six-month nightclub act. A couple years shy of legal drinking age, Leon hid out in the dressing room between sets.
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THE EARLY YEARS: (clockwise from top left) Leon in high-school productions of Arsenic & Old Lace and Guys & Dolls; in a community theatre production of Li'l Abner; shooting an episode of Wonder Twins with Charly Badders; performing in his nightclub act.
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| Leon moved to California in the late 1980s, and pursued his craft in earnest, studying with Jean Shelton's Actors Lab, Cliff Osmond, Mark Monroe Studios, and Inner-life Acting Workshop. He appeared in several "black-box" theatre productions, including Crowded Fire Theatre's A Hard Heart, Theatre Rhubarb's Man Outside the Door, and Tennessee Williams' one-act The Strangest Kind of Romance.
He was cast in several features, such as Housebound, Metalman, The Orange Field, and Roommates & Cafe (a.k.a. Coffee Mates), as well as short films, including Christos Dimas' Breath, which won "Best Short" honors at festivals around the globe, and about dominance and submission, which won the Robert Bell Outstanding Achievement Award from SF State University.
He also wrote and directed two shorts, and a feature entitled OUT, in which he played a terrorized agoraphobe.
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| WIth the folks, Judy & Norman Acord |
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His first break was being cast as "Devon" in Some Prefer Cake, the comedy feature which was distributed theatrically in Great Britain, screened at over 20 film festivals, and is available in the U.S. from Wolfe Video, or your local video outlet.
Leon then wrote, produced and starred in his one-man show Last Sunday in June at Theatre Rhinoceros, playing such diverse characters as a Midwestern mother, a vacuous TV journalist, a self-involved film star and a pregnant, pro-life black lesbian.
He also originated the lead role of "Chris" of in Lou Reda's comedy smash Happy Anniversary which enjoyed an extended three-month run at Theatre Rhino before moving to Off-Broadway.
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While in San Francisco, Leon was blessed with a variety of roles in both film and theatre. He starred as a bleary-eyed barfly in the award-winning film thriller Foucault WHO?; a crusading environmentalist stranded in the distant past in the feature Birds of Lightning; a mortician suspected of multiple murders in the thriller feature Final Remains (a.k.a. Mortuary); a British doctor in 1914 California in the short The Currycomb, and a busy-body waiter in the film-noir short A Quiet Place.
On stage, he surprised critics and delighted audiences in 2 002 with his "point-perfect" (SF Chronicle) portrayal of British raconteur Quentin Crisp in Jeffrey Hartgraves' hit comedy Carved in Stone (which Leon also co-produced) -- Leon's favorite project and role of all time.
He's enjoyed a long and fruitful (no pun intended) association with New Conservatory Theatre Center, playing cynical "Brad" in The Last Sunday in June; the title role in Message to Michael; The Narrator in the long-running drama Dream Boy, based on the novel by Jim Grimsley; and half of the star-crossed couple of Thief River. He was the scheming "Bob Lucey" in the comedy smash Worse than Chocolate at Theatre Rhinoceros, and worked with stage notables John Fisher & Ronnie Larsen in A Few Gay Men.
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| Quentin Crisp in "Carved in Stone" |
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| "Foucault Who?" |
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In 2004, Leon moved to Los Angeles, where he pursues his love of acting. He made his LA stage debut in 2004 as the down-and-out yet over-the-top poet "Harlequin" in The Scheme of Things. The following year, he was invited to join Company of Angels Theatre, Los Angeles' longest-running repertory theatre, and made his debut in the Company's collection of short plays Fresh Meat in the one-act Victims.
He performed in indie and short films, most notably as "Mort Schienberg" in Arvin Bautista's thesis film Deer Season, and leads in several USC shorts. In 2006, he portrayed bumbling ex-boyfriend "Simon" in the world premiere of Rose Martula's stage comedy Salsa Saved the Girls at the Eclectic Co. Theatre.
In 2009, he accomplished a major goal, co-producing and reprising the role of "Quentin Crisp" in a Los Angeles production of Jeffrey Hartgraves' Carved in Stone at Theatre Asylum on Hollywood's Theatre Row -- which ran for twelve weeks and won universally rave reviews. He followed up that stage triumph with a turn as Jacob Marley's Ghost/Fizziwig/Uncle Tim in Jason Moyer's Dickens adaptation gay apparel: A Christmas Carol.
Leon returned to film in 2010, winning raves in Patrick Dawn's film aWake as a man dying of AIDS who hosts his own wake -- and who confronts his closeted, long-time lover. He went on to shoot a cameo in Dawn's follow-up film, Allegiance, later that year
He found himself wearing multiple hats beginning in 2011, as creator/writer/co-executive producer/star of the comedic web series Old Dogs & New Tricks, which focuses on four middle-aged friends (Acord, Curt Bonnem, Jeffrey Patrick Olson & David Pevsner) living in youth-obsessed West Hollywood. Acord plays 'Nathan Adler,' a talent agent facing 50 who finds himself in an affair with a man half his age. The series, directed by Arvin Bautista (Deer Season) premiered in July 2011 to wildly enthusiastic response and can be seen at www.OldDogsNewTricksTheSeries.com.
He's an avid reader of autobiographies, a frequent flyer (who hates to fly), and the latest in a long line of know-it-all Democrats.
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The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same:
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| 2005 |
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A teen-aged Harry Beaton backstage in a high school production of Brigadoon -- As the Father, post-murder, in October's Chosen
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