Tom Logan (born 1953) is an American director, writer, producer,

acting instructor An acting instructor is a person, usually well educated in theatrical arts, who teaches, or instructs aspiring performers on various acting methods. One example is the French mime artist Jacques Lecoq, whose methodology has inspired several theatr ...

, and former actor. Based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, he has directed a multitude of feature films and television shows, and directed hundreds national and international commercials.

Early life

Logan was born in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

and attended the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

for two years before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts from

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as of Fall 2024), it has the ...

Career

One of his first assignments was directing/writing/producing many episodes of ''

Real Stories of the Highway Patrol ''Real Stories of the Highway Patrol'' is a half-hour Broadcast syndication, syndicated Television show, television series which ran in the United States for six seasons from March 22, 1993 to June 29, 1998, Started in the UK, it's produced by M ...

''. His feature film directing credits include ''

Shakma ''Shakma'' is a 1990 American natural horror film directed by Tom Logan and Hugh Parks. It stars Christopher Atkins, Amanda Wyss, Ari Meyers and Roddy McDowall battling a baboon that has been driven insane by an experimental drug. Despite nega ...

'', ''Dream Trap'', '' The Night Brings Charlie'', ''King's Ransom'' and ''Escape from Cuba''. Logan has also held acting roles in ''

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...

'', playing Gary on-and-off for 13 years. He also starred in ''

Days of Our Lives ''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that aired on the network NBC from November 8, 1965, to September 9, 2022; the soap has streamed n ...

'' and other

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

Acting

In the eighties and nineties Logan appeared on dozens of TV shows including ''

CHiPs ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. After the final first-run telecast on NBC in May 1983, the series went into reruns on Sundays fr ...

'', ''

What's Happening! ''What's Happening!!'' is an American sitcom television series that first aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from August 5, 1976, premiering as a summer series. It also returned as a weekly series, that later aired for the rest of the ...

'', ''

The Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in a series of mystery novels for young readers. The series revolves around teenage amateur sleuths, solving cases that often stumped their adult counterparts. ...

'', and ''

James at 16 ''James at 15'' (later ''James at 16'') is an American drama series that aired on NBC during the 1977–78 season. The series was preceded by the 1977 TV movie ''James at 15'', which aired on Monday September 5, 1977 and was intended as a telev ...

''. He has also starred in TV movies and commercials. Logan also starred in many feature films and over 70 stage productions. In New York he starred in ''

You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'' is a 1967 musical with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner and (in a 1999 revision) Andrew Lippa. It is based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip ''Peanuts''. The musical ...

'', ''

Mame MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to emulate the hardware of arcade games, video game consoles, old computers and other systems in software on modern personal computers and ...

'', and ''

Applause Applause (Latin '','' to strike upon, clap) is primarily a form of ovation or praise expressed by the act of clapping, or striking the palms of the hands together. Audiences usually applaud after a performance, such as a concert, speech or ...

''.

Other work

Prior to his acting career, Logan was an acting coach. Logan headed the TV/Film & Commercial acting departments in Los Angeles at the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

(1981–88), and the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a Private college, private drama school with two locations, one in New York City and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related ...

, West (1980–87). Logan has written four books about acting: ''How to Act and Eat at the Same Time'', ''Acting in the Million Dollar Minute'' and their respective sequels. Logan is also an aviation enthusiast and owner of a

Piper Arrow The Piper PA-28 Cherokee is a family of two-seat or four-seat light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft and designed for flight training, air taxi and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 62–64. Werner & Werner Corp, ...

. Logan also dedicates time helping young people who are interested in the entertainment industry. He is a collaborator with the Los Angeles-based Young Performers Studio.

Accolades

* 1986 – Bronze Halo Award "Outstanding Contributions to the Entertainment Industry" For authoring his three (now 4) best-selling books for actors. Given annually by the Southern California Motion Picture Council. http://www.tomlogan.com/Director.htm * 1995 – Producers' Choice Award "Outstanding Direction of a Television Variety Program", 1995 Miss North America Pageant. http://www.tomlogan.com/Director.htm * 1999 – Best Director "Outstanding Achievement in Direction", ''Escape From Cuba'' New Star Discovery Awards. http://www.tomlogan.com/Director.htm Logan is a member of the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...

, the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was a performers' union that represented a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording ...

, and

Actors' Equity Association The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly called Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in Theatre, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions w ...

Bibliography

* *

External links

Official Website
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Logan, Tom 1953 births Writers from Shreveport, Louisiana American television directors Living people University of Arkansas alumni California State University, Northridge alumni American aviators Male actors from Shreveport, Louisiana Film directors from Louisiana