LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Stephen Tobolowsky has been a familiar face in movies since the '80s. He said his most famous role, in 1993's Groundhog Day, had unlikely origins.
Tobolowsky traced his repetitively comedic role back to the 1988 Ku Klux Klan drama Mississippi Burning. The role of KKK Grand Wizard Clayton Townley was one of Tobolowsky's first major supporting roles.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI for his latest film, Mimics, Tobolowsky, 74,, explained how Burning director Alan Parker was a fan of the one and only movie Tobolowsky directed, Two Idiots in Hollywood.
So in addition to acting, Parker gave Tobolowsky a contract to work with him shadowing the director as he interacted with all departments.
"The casting director [Howard Feuer] of Mississippi Burning was the casting director of Groundhog Day," Tobolowsky said. "So all of that time I spent with Alan ended up putting money in the bank and I ended up getting the part in Groundhog Day, which of course was seminal, very important for me."
