Over the years I have met a lot of celebrities. Some are what you’d hoped they would be. Others are no one you would want to spend more time with than you have to. Geoffrey Owens is the former. The 57-year-old actor played Elvin Tibideaux TV’s “The Cosby Show” from ’85-’92. Last week a woman spotted him working at a Trader Joe’s grocery in New Jersey. That brought out the ugly, actually shaming Owens for honest work for a good company, but much more support.
Owens worked for the grocery for 15 months, saying it gave him opportunity to stay in show business. “There is no job that’s better than another job,” he said. “It might pay better, it might have better benefits, it might look better on a resume and on paper. But actually, it’s not better. Every job is worthwhile and valuable.” That impressed people including many who didn’t know who he is.
Enter Tyler Perry, an actor, director and producer who shoots films in Atlanta not far from where I roamed as a kid. Impressed by Owens’ work ethic, he said. I don’t know Perry but I have crossed paths with people who worked with him and say he is the epitome of work ethic — focused, putting in long days and willing to give as much as he asks from everyone else. Perry offered Owens a job on a new project.
“I have tremendous respect for a man who has no pride about working. He’s going to do what he has to do to support his family,” Perry said. “I know a lot of people … that refuse to go to work when they’re between acting gigs. When I saw that, I was moved by him. That’s the true measure of a man. The true measure of an artist. I have so much respect for him.”
“#GeoffreyOwens I’m about to start shootings OWN’s number one drama next week! Come join us!!!” Perry tweeted. “I have so much respect for people who hustle between gigs. The measure of a true artist.”
Owens is not on Twitter so he didn’t know about the job offer. We knew there was at least one person not on Twitter.
Luckily, the media clued him in and now it looks like he is on the project.
The woman who took the photo, meanwhile, is sorry she did and apologized for the trouble it caused. I’m glad she took it. It exposed Owens for the down-to-earth regular guy he is; he spoke well for honest labor, which is encouraging to a lot of struggling people; and it got him a great gig with Typer Perry, who seems to be all the man I’ve heard about around my hometown.
Good on all of them.
And you folks who make fun of people doing honest work — fair warning, that’s the kind of thing Mabel “Madea” Simmons will come after you for. You don’t want that.
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