Brian O'Halloran is a classic example of a guy who was in the right
place at the right time. As a semi-pro stage actor, O'Halloran auditioned
for a role in an independent film being shot on a starvation budget,
and launched a successful collaboration with a man who would become one
of America's most talked-about filmmakers.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Brian O'Halloran's father was an automotive
engineer, and when he was young O'Halloran hoped to follow in his dad's
footsteps. However, when O'Halloran was 15, his father passed away, and
Brian became disenchanted with his original career choice. O'Halloran
soon discovered acting, and became an active figure in his high school's
theater department; when he moved on to college, O'Halloran remained
active in student and community theater while taking acting classes,
but late in his college career O'Halloran took a break from performing
arts and took a job at a supermarket. After a couple of disenchanting
years in retail, O'Halloran decided to get back into acting, and after
diving back into stage work in 1993 he auditioned for a role in an independent
film being shot in New Jersey by a first-time writer and director. The
writer/director was Kevin Smith, and the film, Clerks, became one of
the biggest independent film success stories of the decade, grossing
over three million dollars on a production budget of 27,000 dollars and
becoming a perennial favorite on home video. O'Halloran's performance
as the cranky and often befuddled Dante Hicks was the linchpin of the
movie, and he became a member of Smith's stock company, playing supporting
roles (usually as characters with the surname Hicks) in Mallrats, Chasing
Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back for the director. O'Halloran
also reprised the role of Dante by providing the voice for the character
on the short-lived animated television series Clerks, as well as the
commissioned-for-The Tonight Show with Jay Leno short The Flying Car.
In 2006 O'Halloran tackled the role yet again in a the eagerly anticipated
Clerks II. Kevin Smith's associate Bryan Johnson cast O'Halloran in the
leading role of his first film, the controversial Vulgar, and O'Halloran
has also wrapped roles in two independent films outside of Smith's View
Askew universe, Groupies and Drop Dead Roses.
