John Mese

Theatre

At LSU, he acted in several theater productions, to name a few: The Tooth of Crime in 1986, in which he played Hoss; Sly Fox in 1982, and Death of a Salesman in 1986.^[10] He played "Treat" in Lyle Kessler's play Orphans.^[12] He played Alvaro Mangiacavallo in the LSU Theatre main stage production of The Rose Tattoo, directed by John Dennis in 1987.^[13]

He has the title role in an acclaimed^[14] one-man show written by Champ Clark, Wild Son: The Testimony of Christian Brando,^[15] which premiered at the Santa Monica Playhouse in 2019 and was praised by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley.^[16] Wild Son is based on face-to-face interviews between the journalist Champ Clark and Christian Brando before the latter's death in 2008.^[17][18] The show was performed at Bistro Byronz, a restaurant chain in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 19, 2022.^[19] The show ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 15-20, 2022.^[20][21]

Film

Mese had the starring role as Richard Broderick in the film Noise in the Middle (2020), also starring Tara Buck as Richard’s deceased wife.^[22] He played Augie in King of Herrings (2013), an indie film directed by Eddie Jemison and also starring Mese's fellow LSU alumnus Joe Chrest.^[23] Mese played "Crow" in Derek Sitter's award-winning short, Bugtussle (2022).^[24] Bugtussle was recognized by the Accolade Global Film Competition for "Awards of Merit" in August 2022, notably for Leading Actor (Mese), Supporting Actor (Sitter), Film Short, Script/Writer (Sitter), Original Score, composed by James Hutchens and Johnny Bourbon.^[25]

Television

Mese was featured alongside Mark Harmon and Frederic Lehne in a Lili Fini Zanuck-directed production called "We Have Cleared the Tower," in which Mese played the role of Donn Eisele of the Apollo 7 mission; Harmon played Wally Schirra, and Lehne played Walt Cunningham.^[26][27] Mese was a cast member for Episode 1 ("Can We Do This?") and Episode 3 ("We Have Cleared The Tower") of From the Earth to the Moon (1998).^[4] His "first big job"^[8] for television was in 1992 as the love interest of Marlee Matlin on Reasonable Doubts.^[8] Prior to that, his TV roles (on shows like The Fanelli Boys, Matlock, and Northern Exposure) were relatively minor.^[8] He was "the Congo Man"^[28] in a Budweiser Beer commercial narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker (in character as Carrie Bradshaw). In 2000, Mese played Sheriff Phil Adderly on Chimera (The X-Files), one of the "Monster of the Week" episodes in the seventh season of The X Files. He played the baseball coach, in season 2 episode 10 of Ghost Whisperer.

Writing

Mese and his wife, Dawn Kelsey, are the authors of a children's book series called Flippy and Friends.^[5] The idea started in 2002; Mese and Kelsey worked with illustrator Chanler Holden and her husband, Major Mittendorf.^[5]

In 2017, Mese penned an editorial for the entertainment section of Purple Clover; this was an autobiographical sketch about boyhood fantasy, titled "My First Playboy."^[29]