|
KEN WHITE
Review-Journal
There isn't much Gloria Hoffmann hasn't done.
Beauty queen, champion chess player, surgical nurse, singer, actress, wife and mother.
Quite a lot for 66 years. And she just keeps on going.
Even though there are not that many good roles for older women, Hoffmann has had an active theatrical, film and television-commercial career since moving to Las Vegas in 1985 from Guam, where her husband, John Henry Hoffmann, was an oral surgeon.
She's appeared in the films "Rain Man," "Cool World," "Honey, I Blew Up the Baby" and "Mars Attacks," and episodes of "MacShane" and "The Watcher."
Onstage she's had roles in "Driving Miss Daisy," "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," "Sound of Music," "Macbeth," "King John" and "Lost in Yonkers." Currently she is appearing for the second time as Daisy Werthan in "Driving Miss Daisy" for New West Theatre.
Growing up in Wisconsin, Hoffmann's first love was singing. Although she claims to be losing the top range of her voice, she'll still break into song with her husband at the keyboard and send the family dog scurrying for cover.
"There's nothing like an old soprano," she jokes.
Hoffmann studied voice at the Wisconsin College of Music in Milwaukee and obtained a scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.
Meanwhile, at age 20, Hoffmann won the Miss Milwaukee title and advanced to represent Wisconsin in the 1950 Miss America contest.
A year later, she married John, who had owned the Wisconsin franchise to the Miss America pageant. He became her manager.
Even though she had a successful career in show business seemingly on the horizon, Hoffmann took a different direction.
"As a kid, I always had aspirations," Hoffman says. "I wanted music, I wanted theater. A decision had to be made: Which way do I want to flop in life? For me it was either give 100 percent to the performing arts or 100 percent to the marriage. I decided to go for the `Mrs.' title."
While some would say not using her talent professionally was a waste, she didn't agree.
She performed at weddings, funerals, for small productions and at luncheons.
"I had a talent, why not share it?" she says. "My payment was applause. There was a deep reward, not monetarily, but internally."
Hoffmann also raised two children: Forest, who is financial manager of a Las Vegas car dealership, and Brooks, who is in car sales in Anaheim, Calif.
During the mid-1950s, Hoffmann took up chess and in the 1960s became a championship-caliber player in women's competition. She owned titles in Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois, and won the Midwest Regional.
Next Column
|
Hoffmann found time to pitch in and help out with her husband's oral surgery practice, helping make gold castings for teeth. From that she learned how to make jewelry, and when they moved to Guam in the late 1970s, she designed her own line of rings, bracelets and earrings and sold them in her shop.
Because Guam -- a small United States territory in the Pacific Ocean that is home to a naval and air base -- lacked music and theater, the Hoffmanns pitched in and formed the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Music, an ensemble of local performers. They put on programs and performed at official government events.
The Hoffmanns moved back to the United States and took up residence in Las Vegas. Able to live comfortably without having to hold steady jobs, the Hoffmanns decided to utilize their creativity.
"We are very fortunate," Hoffmann says. "We have enough income to be able to do anything. People who are in that position, I say, `Go for it.' "
So Hoffmann went for the stage, despite the dearth of roles for women her age.
"When you get older there aren't too many juicy roles that come up," she says. "You're either cast as a bland mother, a grandmother, an aunt, a sister to another sister. The choice of characters become less and less."
Hoffmann has added television commercials and modeling to her resume, appearing in commercials for local hotels and businesses. She spends time each week in Los Angeles auditioning for roles.
Auditioning can be hell for some actors, but not Hoffmann.
"You get a high," she says. "It's like running a race. You get on the line and someone shoots the gun and it's `Go.' And you only have one chance at it. It's very stimulating and it keeps you on your toes."
Through it all, the Hoffmanns have been married 45 years. How do they do it without killing each other?
"If you give 100 percent and I give 100 percent there's a meeting of personalities and agreeing to agree," Hoffmann says. "If one gives 50 percent and one gives 100 percent, where's the other 50 percent going? And you've got to have humor. God help you if you don't."
Over the years, Hoffmann says, whenever John misplaces something and she finds it, she always asks, "Aren't you glad you married me?"
For 40 years, John says, he never came up with an answer. Until one day -- at this point they stand and make theatrical gestures, then simultaneously break out into song, "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I'd rather die than say no."
For the future, Hoffmann wants to continue acting and performing.
"You've got to get it in," she says. "You only go around once. And you'd better make it count."Please see HOFFMANN/7E
|
