Hobbit actor to stand tall next week in Plachta

There are many life lessons to be found in hunting pirate treasure, persevering on a college football team and befriending talking tree-people.

Actor Sean Astin, best known for his roles in “The Goonies,” “Rudy” and “The Lord of the Rings,” will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium.

The speech, titled “What I Learned as a Goonie, as Rudy, and as a Hobbit named Sam,” will cover the insights Astin has found in his professional and personal life.

The event is open to the public and sponsored by Program Board.

“Knowing the movies he’s been in … it just seemed like something that would be popular enough,” said Program Board President and Muskegon junior Dave Breed. “Here’s this big Hollywood actor that has been around for a while. It just seemed like it would be a really interesting talk, hearing about his movies and experiences and Hollywood and all that.”

Breckenridge freshman Jared Allen said after watching Astin’s films, he would like to see him speak.

“I watched all the ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and I watched ‘Rudy,’ and I would be interested to see what he has to say,” Allen said.

Some students, such as Troy freshman Kenny Mero, are less enthused about watching a speech by an actor who is not necessarily a marquee name.

“I guess I might go,” Mero said. “Something to do on a Tuesday.”

Breed, however, said Program Board is not worried about a lack of enthusiasm for the event on campus.

“I expect that we’ll get a really good turnout,” he said. “We have been trying to promote the show the best we can, over the last week or so. I think as big as ‘Lord of the Rings’
was and as big as ‘Rudy’ was, there are going to be fans out there that will want to come see him.”

Breed said he also was not concerned about the scheduling of the event, the day after Labor Day.

“Originally I thought maybe, it would possibly hinder our ability to spread the word about the event, because so many people leave,” he said. “But I think we did a good job getting word out there, and people are excited about the event. I don’t think it’s going to be much of a problem.”

Son of “Valley of the Dolls” actress Patty Duke, Astin has been acting since 1981 and broke through with “The Goonies” at age 13.

Other roles include the films “War of the Roses,” “50 First Dates” and “Bulworth,” as well as appearances on television shows “Angel” and “24.” Astin also directed the Academy Award-nominated short “Kangaroo Court” and narrated the first three seasons of Animal Planet’s “Meerkat Manor.”