Hudson Cooper: An Actor’s Profile in Career Courage

Episode description:  

When Hudson Cooper entered college, he majored in biology, intending to prepare for a career in medicine. But medicine wasn’t for him, so he went to law school. The practice of law wasn’t for him either, except for a diverting stint as an administrative law judge for the New York Taxi & Limousine Commission. Instead, Hudson decided to embark on a career taking on a series of  job  challenges with the equivalent risk somewhere between hang-gliding and bungee-jumping. In today’s episode, Hudson recounts how he launched his writing career: With exactly one published article to his name, he landed a job writing a book about baseball for young adults that went into 10 printings and led to another book about football, and eventually 11 other books. Then another leap of courage and confidence—as a stand-up comic. Serendipitously, an agent in the audience one night approached him and offered him a role in the Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla. From there he went on to a series of roles on TV shows like “Law and Order,” “Madame Secretary” and “Bull.” And once again in his latest chapter, he’s returned to writing, landing a job as a weekly newspaper columnist through his usual combination of persistence, resilience, risk-taking and readiness to act when unexpected opportunities arise.

Guest description:

Hudson Cooper is a professional actor and writer who has played different characters in several acclaimed and popular television series, including “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and “Law & Order: Trial by Jury”; “Madame Secretary” and “Bull.”  Hudson’s early career was as a writer of sports books for young adults, beginning with baseball (Secrets of the Super Athletes: Baseball), which went into 10 printings and led to a similar book about football and eventually 11 other books. A stint as a stand-up comic landed him a role in a movie, which led to recurring roles on TV over the course of more than two decades. And recently, he resumed his writing career as a weekly columnist for the Sullivan County Democrat in upstate New York, with his distinctively wry view of contemporary American life and culture—everything but politics.

To see Hudson Cooper’s Actor Reel on YouTube click here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmK0Y4feHRw

Here is a blog post about Hudson Cooper written by Ron a few years ago:

https://roelresources.com/agent-cooper/