Lenny Von Dohlen and Karl Malden were granted honorary memberships in the ironworker's union in New York.
Toni Kalem later appeared in the film Eyes of the Beholder.
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Billy Galvin (Lenny Von Dohlen) wishes to work in construction, but his steel working father Jack (Karl Malden) is a difficult, argumentative man who will not allow his son to gain employment. Jack wants his son to better his life and become an architect.
Jack and his wife Mae (Joyce Van Patten) have a contentious relationship, though their rapport belays their fondness for each other.
Billy and his friends George (Alan North) and Donny (Keith Szarabajka) are the employees of their failing business, The Casual Construction Company. Billy tries to find a job through the steelworker's union, but his association with his father disadvantages him. Billy's prized possession is his car, which is in dire need of work. Its gas leak forces Billy to drive with his head out the window. When his car is stolen and later located, the tools kept in its trunk are missing. Billy's partners consider it an omen that they should "pack it all in." Billy tells them, "When I went down to close the store this morning, the landlord told me he thought it was closed. I guess that about sums of The Casual Construction Company."
Billy's girlfriend Nora (Toni Kalem) tells him it's okay to feel bad, but like his father, Billy holds back his emotions.
Tired of Jack's stubbornness, Billy's friend George is inspired to imitate Jack's voice in a call to the union, pretending to be the elder Galvin, insisting, "Put my kid on that marketplace job right now!" George's trick works and Billy is hired.
Perhaps to teach him a lesson, Jack asks his son to start working with him in the big time. This exhausts Billy. New to the job, Billy later has a frightening experience when he freezes trying to cross a beam.
Billy's temper flares when Nora asks him to tell her he loves her. Billy can't make himself vulnerable, and his words and actions hurt Nora.
Young Galvin begins to subtly soften after the death of a father figure, and an accident at work threatens his father's life. Time will only tell if Billy and Jack can find a way to work past their differences.
Streaming Availability
Billy Galvin is available for purchase on Amazon and YouTube. It can be borrowed free of cost via a library card through Hoopla.
Film Clips and Trailers
Film Stills
Behind the Scenes Photo Image shared with permission from the Fans of Lenny Von Dohlen Facebook Page.
The Premiere
Photo: Personal Collection. Photographer: Nancy Lane
Inscription on the back of the photo (9/19/86)
Celebs from "Billy Galvin": movie filmed in Boston.
Lenny Von Dohlen, who stars in the movie, Joyce van Patten, who plays his mother, and Jim Sullivan, the developer of 200 State St. where the movie was filmed as the building was built.
Media Art
Photos: eBay or similar wares sites. Photo 7 is from IMDB.
UK Promotional VHS Sleeve
Piece in a Promotional Booklet for Vestron Video
Photo: Personal Collection
Promotional Photos
Photos: Personal collection.
Photo: Historic Images - eBay
Historic Images
Historic Images
Historic Images
Unknown Source. Found in a long-forgotten folder.
Photos from The Unofficial Lenny Von Dohlen Fanpage
Mr. Von Dohlen's message from Karl Malden.
Spanish Lobby Cards
The lobby cards in my possession exceed the proportions of the scanner. The resulting images were fitted as puzzle pieces and as a result are unfortunately marred.
Lobby Cards: Personal Collection
Pieces Shared with the Now-Defunct Unofficial Lenny Von Dohlen Fan Page
Lenny Von Dohlen on Billy Galvin
"I really started from scratch with this role, because I'm not like Billy at all," says Lenny Von Dohlen, the accomplished young actor who plays the title character in Vestron Pictures "Billy Galvin."
"I have the reverse problem of Billy, who is unable to express his feelings," Von Dohlen explains. "Keeping a lid on my emotions was the biggest challenge in playing the role. I couldn't understand at first why Billy couldn't tell his girlfriend, Nora, that he loved her. But it became very clear in the script. Billy needs the love of his father - needs to hear his father say "I love you" before he can say it to anyone else.
Coming to terms with the emotional problems of his character was only part of of Von Dohlen's intense preparation for the role. Von Dohlen knew very little about ironworkers, so he spent five weeks at different Manhattan construction sites "just hanging out with the guys and learning what their lives are all about." He also spent time talking with the "regulars" at working class bars.
"I learned that ironworkers and actors have a major thing in common," adds Von Dohlen. "Courage!"
Von Dohlen also underwent a physical transformation in preparing for the role of Billy. He gained 15 pounds, worked out frequently and changed the way he walked and talked.
"I was relived to learn that there are slim ironworkers," he laughs. "They aren't all big and beefy."
Von Dohlen made his film debut as Robert Dennis, the leader of a small band, in the Academy Award winning drama "Tender Mercies." He also starred in the comedy "Electric Dreams" the story of a young man who competes with a lovestruck computer for the affections of a beautiful neighbor. He has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway and regional stage productions. Among his television credits are starring roles in "Miami Vice," "The Equalizer," "Tales from the Darkside," and the PBS "American Playhouse" production of "Under the Biltmore Clock."
Raised in the small town of Goliad, Texas, Von Dohlen never dreamed that he would become an actor. His family is in the horse racing business, and as a teenager he was obsessed with becoming a jockey. The obsession ended, however, when he grew to almost six feet and knew he would exceed a jockey's weight restrictions.
Von Dohlen says he became involved in a play in junior high school "by accident," and found that he liked it. Now, he says, "I wouldn't trade acting for anything. You need a lot of courage and staying power ... a lot like being a jockey."
When the filming of "Billy Galvin" began, Von Dohlen was somewhat daunted at playing opposite an accomplished screen veteran like Karl Malden. "Karl had been in some of my favorite movies of all time. I was mindful of that. I thought it would be like facing Mt. Rushmore,"
"But I got over it," he adds. "Once I got into the story, I didn't think about it."
"I wasn't sure what Karl thought of me as an actor or a person until the very end," Von Dohlen continues. "After we were through filming, Karl told me I had done my homework. Had I learned that earlier on, I might have relaxed more and been less tense working with him. I think not knowing how he felt kept the tension in the story, and it comes through in the film. We really were Billy and Jack until the last day."
Reflecting on the experience of playing a construction worker, Von Dohlen says, "I actually put a screw in that building (the Marketplace, site of the construction scenes in the film). It was one of my proudest achievements. That building will be here longer than I will. So will the movie."
Vestron Pictures presents an Indian Neck/Jett Production of a John Gray Film, "Billy Galvin," starring Karl Malden, Lenny Von Dohlen, Joyce Van Patten, and Toni Kalem. The film was produced by Tony Mark and Sue Jett and directed by Gray from his original screenplay.
N. Y. Times Review/Billy Galvin
More on "Billy Galvin" By Janet Maslin
Published: Feburary 20, 1987, Friday
LEAD: JACK GALVIN, the title character's father in the family drama "Billy Galvin," likes to watch the Muppets on television. He calls people "Yardbird," and can't stand it when his wife forgets to close the kitchen cabinet door. These details, in John Gray's simple, big-hearted and essentially familiar film, are meant to say a good deal more about Jack's character than they actually do. But then, surprise is less central to "Billy Galvin" than sentiment, anyhow. Scratch any one of the principals - Billy, his parents, the barmaid girlfriend, kindly mentor or helpful roomate - and there's wistful speech lurking just beneath the surface. The setting is Boston, and the characters mostly Irish; a lot of them, like Jack (Karl Malden) and Billy (Lenny Von Dohlen), work in blue-collar construction jobs. This is a bone of contention between the Galvins, since the father wants his son to be an architect instead. He wants this so much that he refuses to give Billy work on the high-rise job for which Jack himself is a foreman. Jack even uses his union connections to keep Billy unemployed. But Billy wrangles his way in anyhow and tells his father, in a scene Mr. Gray films as a highly confrontational two-shot, that he won't back down. It's hard not to anticipate the father-son rapprochement toward which "Billy Galvin," which opens today at the 23rd Street West Triplex, is eventually headed. Nor is it hard to guess that both Jack and Billy, for all their tough talk, are softies at heart. As it turns out, Jack just wants a better life for Billy than the one he's had, and simply has a funny way of showing it. Billy, for his part, just wants to be like his dad. So Mr. Gray's screenplay must create a series of false flare-ups to maintain the illusion of conflict between these two, as well as tangential troubles between Billy and his sweetheart (Toni Kalem). But it all progresses with surprising ease, in spite of the material's essential ordinariness. Mr. Gray's direction helps give his screenplay an energy it might otherwise lack, and most of the performances are relaxed and convincing. Though the oft-repeated idea that "Everything goes by so fast" threatens to give the film a maudlin streak, its tone is gentle and even mildly humorous. Mr. Malden and Mr. Von Dohlen are well-matched, sharing both stubbornness and affection. Their sincerity, and Mr. Gray's, are the film's greatest assets."
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