Steven J. Klaszky
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Born in Philadelphia PA, now lives in southern New Jersey with wife,
Debi. Has two grown children - Christian and Shanna.
Attended Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill, NJ, class of '68; was defensive safety on the football team and earned a BA in Sociology at St. Francis University, Loretto, PA, class of '72; is a retired New Jersey State Police Trooper; is a certified computer systems expert and repair technician; briefly sold Amway products and was a substitute teacher during the mid-1980's; and is an on-again, off-again professional photographer. Began his acting career in 2004 at age 54.
Steve spent the first 14 years of his 25 year police career working undercover. In 1985 he was involved in a major barroom brawl in Wildwood NJ during which his partner was seriously injured after being hit on the head with a whiskey bottle. "Real bottles don't shatter like Hollywood prop bottles. It opened a huge gash on Kurt's head and knocked him out cold. Can you believe it? The person who hit him was a 64 year old woman," he says. "She was very lucky I wasn't able to shoot her. She nearly crapped her pants when we tracked her down and locked her up months later."
Late in his police career, Steve worked in the computer crimes unit investigating primarily child pornography and identity theft. He retired in 1999 and immediately opened a small consulting firm named 'Computer Paramedic', providing tech support to residential and small business clients. Computer Paramedic ended its run in 2005.
Steve started playing the accordion at age 9, but by high school was playing rhythm guitar in The Pawns, a rock band which by his own admission was pretty awful. "The Pawns played lots of wedding receptions and the accordionist would be completely drunk before our sound check was even done. By the end of our first set this guy would usually insult the bride and by the second or third set he would almost always get his ass kicked by the bridal party. In retrospect, he recalls, "It was pretty funny. At the age of 16, I actually had to fire someone - and he was about 6 years older than me." I learned a lot about life in The Pawns.
In college Steve and 2 buddies co-founded another rock band named "Quiet Country" which was "neither quiet nor country". The band was inspired by the harmonies of the Beatles, CSNY, Three Dog Night, Guess Who and other great vocal bands of the era. Steve left the band in 1973 to pursue his police career. In 2004, after a lengthy hiatus from music performance, Steve returned to the stage as lead singer and rhythm guitarist in a classic rock cover band called Anthem, which was "just too cantankerous for its own good." Anthem had a complete meltdown in 2005.
Steve began his acting career in 2004 at the age of 54. He says, "I saw a film where an actor playing a cop sits in a diner slugging down donuts and coffee and I thought, 'Damn, that's not all that different from what I did as a real cop. But that actor is never going to get shot or sued. How do I get his job?'" After taking an acting class in Atlantic City, then landing a principal speaking role in his very first film audition, Steve was completely bitten by the acting bug.
In 2005 Steve was employed as a field technician for the Dell computer company, when Dell advertised its need for a new QVC-TV on-air computer expert - a job he says was a collision of his two major interests - acting and technology. Steve was hired and still holds the distinction of being the longest lasting Dell on-air rep at QVC (8 years), retiring from Dell in 2013.
In 2008 Steve played one of seven train conductors in Phénomènes (2008), directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Mark Wahlberg. He is prominently featured in both the trailer and the official film poster.
In 2010 Steve reconnected with the members of Quiet Country, and is now writing, recording and performing music with them again while simultaneously juggling acting gigs.
Attended Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill, NJ, class of '68; was defensive safety on the football team and earned a BA in Sociology at St. Francis University, Loretto, PA, class of '72; is a retired New Jersey State Police Trooper; is a certified computer systems expert and repair technician; briefly sold Amway products and was a substitute teacher during the mid-1980's; and is an on-again, off-again professional photographer. Began his acting career in 2004 at age 54.
Steve spent the first 14 years of his 25 year police career working undercover. In 1985 he was involved in a major barroom brawl in Wildwood NJ during which his partner was seriously injured after being hit on the head with a whiskey bottle. "Real bottles don't shatter like Hollywood prop bottles. It opened a huge gash on Kurt's head and knocked him out cold. Can you believe it? The person who hit him was a 64 year old woman," he says. "She was very lucky I wasn't able to shoot her. She nearly crapped her pants when we tracked her down and locked her up months later."
Late in his police career, Steve worked in the computer crimes unit investigating primarily child pornography and identity theft. He retired in 1999 and immediately opened a small consulting firm named 'Computer Paramedic', providing tech support to residential and small business clients. Computer Paramedic ended its run in 2005.
Steve started playing the accordion at age 9, but by high school was playing rhythm guitar in The Pawns, a rock band which by his own admission was pretty awful. "The Pawns played lots of wedding receptions and the accordionist would be completely drunk before our sound check was even done. By the end of our first set this guy would usually insult the bride and by the second or third set he would almost always get his ass kicked by the bridal party. In retrospect, he recalls, "It was pretty funny. At the age of 16, I actually had to fire someone - and he was about 6 years older than me." I learned a lot about life in The Pawns.
In college Steve and 2 buddies co-founded another rock band named "Quiet Country" which was "neither quiet nor country". The band was inspired by the harmonies of the Beatles, CSNY, Three Dog Night, Guess Who and other great vocal bands of the era. Steve left the band in 1973 to pursue his police career. In 2004, after a lengthy hiatus from music performance, Steve returned to the stage as lead singer and rhythm guitarist in a classic rock cover band called Anthem, which was "just too cantankerous for its own good." Anthem had a complete meltdown in 2005.
Steve began his acting career in 2004 at the age of 54. He says, "I saw a film where an actor playing a cop sits in a diner slugging down donuts and coffee and I thought, 'Damn, that's not all that different from what I did as a real cop. But that actor is never going to get shot or sued. How do I get his job?'" After taking an acting class in Atlantic City, then landing a principal speaking role in his very first film audition, Steve was completely bitten by the acting bug.
In 2005 Steve was employed as a field technician for the Dell computer company, when Dell advertised its need for a new QVC-TV on-air computer expert - a job he says was a collision of his two major interests - acting and technology. Steve was hired and still holds the distinction of being the longest lasting Dell on-air rep at QVC (8 years), retiring from Dell in 2013.
In 2008 Steve played one of seven train conductors in Phénomènes (2008), directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Mark Wahlberg. He is prominently featured in both the trailer and the official film poster.
In 2010 Steve reconnected with the members of Quiet Country, and is now writing, recording and performing music with them again while simultaneously juggling acting gigs.
