Jake Dumelle had a distinguished career for more than 25 years as an environmental scientist educating the public about the dangers of pollution. He also served as a small town’s village manager. But his “latest act” got him the red carpet treatment.
After successfully raising a family with his wife, Dorothy, and then settling into retirement, Dumelle discovered his acting chops. The Oak Park resident is now a busy man, with bit parts in movies filmed in the Chicago area, including The Lake House, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, currently showing”where else?”at The Lake.
“They’re nice people,” Jake says of the two stars. “My role is I am the man on the gurney that Sandra Bullock, who plays a medical doctor, rolls into the emergency room,” Dumelle explains. “I have a speaking part”five words”I look up at her and ask, “Am I gonna make it?”
He might have been asking about his chances of ending up on the cutting room floor, but he made it”into the film’s final version.
Normally, Dumelle says, extras get about $75/day. Because he was given a speaking part, he earned just under $700 for a few hours work. “Pretty nice,” he chuckles.
Dumelle says he usually finds out about casting calls through the Chicago Sun-Times. “I go and stand in line with the rest of them,” he says. He doesn’t mind.
Now in his 80s, Dumelle’s children and son-in-law decided it was time their favorite screen star got a little star treatment of his own. “My son-in-law wrote a letter to a Hollywood contact explaining who I am and asking if I could attend the Hollywood movie premiere of The Lake House, explains Dumelle. “And it worked.”
Not only did Dumelle receive a ticket to the Hollywood opening at the Cinerama Dome on June 13, he also was allowed to bring his wife, daughter and niece along.
“We paid for our own plane tickets and hotel, of course,” he says. “But we got passes to the movie premiere and to the cast party afterwards.” Because of the media and fan attention, security was tight, he says, so he and his family entered through the back of the theater, but they were able to walk on the red carpet as they left. “It really does exist,” says Dumelle. “And the red carpet goes into the theater, too.”
The Cinerama Dome, located at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street, is a Hollywood landmark often used for movie premieres. Rumor has it Kevin Costner refused to attend the premiere of The Untouchables because his parents had hosted a childhood birthday party for him there, which is where he saw his first western, which was why he decided to become an actor. Fear of diminishing that early childhood memory prompted him to avoid his own premiere some 25 years later.
Dumelle had no such qualms. The cast party was held at a business across the street from the movie theater. “It was very fancy,” Dorothy Dumelle recalls. “Everyone treated us so well.” She also enjoys the distinction of giving Keanu Reeves a kiss””on the cheek,” she’s quick to point out.
Having come so far for this once-in-a-lifetime (or maybe first-in-a-lifetime) event, the Dumelles decided they would be courageous and talk to their co-stars. So when Jake Dumelle spotted Sandra Bullock at the party, he walked over and introduced himself. “I said I’m the guy on the gurney who asks you, ‘Am I gonna make it?'”
“Sandra Bullock told me, ‘You got laughs!'” he recalls, admitting he was so nervous he doesn’t remember much else about his conversation with the actress, but says she was very nice and “down-to-earth.”
With one successful star encounter under their belt, the Dumelles did not hesitate when they saw Keanu Reeves.
“I said the same thing I had said to Sandra Bullock,” recalls Dumelle. “And Reeves said the very same thing she did: ‘You got laughs!'”
Dorothy is up to date on Reeves’ personal life. “He’s had a lot of tragedy; his father left him as a child, his girlfriend lost their child which she was carrying, then his girlfriend died, and his best friend River Phoenix died,” she notes. Dorothy said he was very gracious in accommodating her request for a kiss. “He didn’t put on airs; he was just like any of us,” she gushed.
Dumelle’s son-in-law also succeeded in getting the family tickets to see the Jay Leno show, so Dorothy and Jake got a chance to meet Leno as well. “We were picked from members of the audience to be part of the jokes before the show,” Dorothy says. “We were in the green room and everything.”
The Dumelles both did silly dances on stage. “Jake did the hula, and I don’t know what I did,” Dorothy says, laughing. “We only did it because they promised us it wouldn’t be on camera.” After the show, Dorothy says, Leno had a fancy Porsche waiting for him and left for San Diego. “He was just as nice as could be,” she recalls.
This wasn’t the first brush with fame for Jake Dumelle. He also had some good roles in Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, and Mercury Rising, says his daughter, Margo.
Has hobnobbing changed the Dumelles? Not really, says Dorothy, though when they returned, Jake did tell her, “Here we are in humdrum Oak Park.”
Dear Sir:
My father-in-law, Jake Dumelle, recently celebrated his 81st birthday. And he’s still young enough to be drawn by the lure of Hollywood.
That started back in 1991 when he began as a movie extra. He found it to be a wonderful hobby and, since then, he has been in 18 movies shot in the Chicago area. During that time he landed a couple of good angles in the background, but never was one of the lucky extras to get “bumped up” to say a line.
Until last year. After 14 years, at age 80, he was picked to say three lines with Sandra Bullock in The Lake House.
Maybe this will be the start of something big. Or maybe this will be his one-and-only moment. In either case, at age 81, he has been looking forward to the movie’s release with the eagerness of a young child.
Most of all, he would love to experience the full magic of this moment. He would love to attend the Hollywood premiere with his wife Dorothy at the Cinerama Dome on June 13.
They plan to come out at their own expense. But to walk through the doors of the Cinerama Dome, they would need an invitation. Could you possibly arrange that?
Jake Dumelle can look back proudly at a long career in public service, chiefly as an advocate against pollution. But ever since he began as an extra, the stories of working long hours in film have held a special place in his heart. This would be the best story of all.
“Walter J. Podrazik