I chose John Carroll Lynch as my SAG name when I was 19 years old. I was working in D.C., and I got my SAG card by doing a first aid film for the Red Cross called 'Bleeding Control'. They had a union contract.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've been acting a long time. I've been a member of SAG since 1982.
My father was a doctor, an army cardiologist.
My father was a truck driver. That's where it all started, and academically I was a disaster at school. My cousin got his name on the honour board; I, at Melbourne High School, I carved mine on the desk.
I got my Equity Card from Berkeley Rep when I was 22 years old. I was cast in David Saar's 'The Yellow Boat.'
I'm a union guy; I've always been. I've been in SAG 35 years; my father was a garbage man, a sanitation man, for the city, a union guy.
I had a head start in acting. Because of my parents, I had a SAG card, an agent and a recognizable name. But I knew if I screwed up, people would never forget. I'd be dead.
I was five or six when I joined SAG, and Equity I joined when I was nine.
Since it was too difficult to get into the Screen Actor's Guild in New York, I moved to Miami in 1982 and started a successful career as a television commercial actress, obtaining my SAG card there.
I got my SAG card on my first movie, 'Goin' South,' with Jack Nicholson in 1978.
When I first joined SAG, there was another John Reilly. My dad was John Reilly, too, but growing up I was John John. Nobody in life calls me John C. It's more like, 'Hey you, Step Brother!'