Kevin Baskette drives and sells automobiles, but his inability to repair one once cost him a role in a movie.

"It was The Heavenly Kid, which is about a James Dean-type character who dies in a car wreck in the 60s and comes back to help his son stop being a nerd so he can get into heaven," he explained over a hamburger steak with mashed potatoes and gravy at the Picadilly Cafeteria. "I was on my way to meet with the casting director when my car broke down in the middle of the street. Since I was up for the part of a mechanic, it was pretty embarrassing to have to tell them I was late because my car broke down and I didn't know how to fix it. I didn't get the part."

He ended up with a smaller part in the picture, one of three in which he's had a credited role. An alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, Baskette has also appeared in more than 10 stage productions in New York, Atlanta, and Florida and can be seen in a television commercial for First Volunteer Bank now being broadcast in Chattanooga .

"I haven't seen it yet myself," he said. "I'm a bank customer shaking hands with someone."

The commercial is one of Baskette's few forays into dramatics since returning to Chattanooga from Florida in 1999. Currently a sales consultant for Marshal Mize Ford, he was last seen in "On the Other Hand," a locally-produced comedy program broadcast by WDSI, the local Fox affiliate, in 2002.

The show's format was a local news program, similar to The Daily Show, and Baskette's character was Sonny McCloud, a depressed meteorologist who taped his weather broadcasts a week in advance. "We taped six episodes, and, according to the feedback we got, the people who watched it enjoyed it, but we didn't have the funding to keep it going."

Although he has primarily pursued other interests in recent years, acting is something Baskette has hopes of returning to. "I don't have an agent any more, so I've just done something when an opportunity pops up, but I would like to really get back into it. You can't give up on your dreams, or you'll die."

It's hard for him to remember a time when acting wasn't his dream. "I've been fascinated with it since I was seven years old, begging my parents to take me to see The Godfather in 1972." Later, having developed "a good ear for speech and dialect," he was entertaining his friends' parents with impersonations of Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis, and making his own 8mm home movies.

In the early 1980s, he was enrolled in dramatics classes at Broward Community College in Florida . "The first real play I was in at college, Bedroom Farce, won the regional award at the American College Theater Festival, which was a big deal because we were just a little community college."

A comment made to him after the performance prompted Baskette to become a fan of Cary Grant, who is now one of his two favorite actors, Marlon Brando being the other. "One of the judges at the festival was a casting director for ABC, and she told me I reminded her of a young Cary Grant. After that, I started watching everything I could find with him in it.

"He was so funny, had perfect timing, was a good physical comedian.he was the best. He was doing a one-man show called "A Conversation with Cary Grant," and he died before one of his performances. I was in a cab in New York City when I heard the news. It devastated me. I'd met him three years before."

Baskette was in New York after an audition in Miami secured his enrollment at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. "I was 21, by then I'd done a few commercials and some extra work in movies, and I wanted to go to New York and study. I didn't know a soul there, but I packed my stuff and left."

During the four years he attended the school (which includes among its alumni Edward G. Robinson, Grace Kelly, and Robert Redford), "I slept on a piece of foam, starved, and waited tables at night," and studied voice, music, ballet ("It was torture") and acting styles during the day. He also performed in four "off-off-Broadway" productions.

"You see famous people everywhere in New York . One day, for example, I was on my way to the show I was in and ran into (Academy Award-winning actor) Daniel Day-Lewis walking down the street. I introduced myself, shook his hand and we both kept on walking. He was very friendly. Most of them are when you meet them if you tell them what you're doing. They've all been there, and they're usually friendly and encouraging."

According to Baskette, aspiring actors shouldn't hesitate to make connections. "It's not a fair business. Talent by itself is not enough to get by on. Luck and who you know matter a lot more than they should. Many actors who never made it big have a lot more talent than those who did. You've got to be a networker and market yourself. I was never good at that."

But, he added, becoming a star often matters less to working actors than is generally thought. "A lot of people don't realize that most actors don't desire to be rich and famous. They just want to be making a living in the business because they love it."

Baskette says that's how he feels after his experiences, good and bad, in the business. "I'll tell you something that's funny now. My brother and my stepdad both sold cars, and I knew you could make money doing it, but you've got to be on the lot 55 or 60 hours a week. So when I was in New York I sent letters to several talent agencies asking them to hire me or I'd end up selling cars in Chattanooga . I wish I still had that letter."

by Buddy Roberts