Montini grad steers acting dream to TNT's 'Last Ship'

Kevin Michael Martin did the unthinkable at Montini Catholic High School in Lombard: He dropped sports for acting.

"Actually, I really wasn't into the whole acting thing at the start," the Downers Grove native admitted. "Being a theater kid in high school was not the best way to be a popular guy who gets all the girls."

Martin participated in basketball, track and cross-country most of his life. Then he began watching movies and performing in musicals.

"I realized I loved it so much that I left all athletics, which was kind of hard on my dad," Martin said. "He loved going to my games. At some point, I had to let it go."

If you caught the Season 2 premiere of the TNT science-fiction series "The Last Ship" Sunday night, you saw Martin playing young Navy recruit Eric Miller, a bumbling good guy trying to help his shipmates save the world after a pandemic wipes out most of humanity.

Martin's original contract called for him to appear in two episodes of "The Last Ship." He wound up making nine out of 10 episodes in Season 1.

"I just got lucky," Martin said.

Pressed for more, he credited his late father, Michael.

"My dad really instilled in my brothers and me the will to win," Martin said. "Never give up! I was a slow kid growing up, always behind the curve in sports. I dealt with failure early on. In acting, you get plenty of nos before you get to yes.

"In acting, your size doesn't matter. The size of your perseverance matters. That's what pushed me to the head of the pack, finally, after four years."

Key contacts played a pivotal role as well.

After two years at Illinois State University, Martin headed to UCLA's theater school, where he not only majored in acting, but he also "rubbed shoulders" with people who could get him connected with local talent agencies.

He performed in commercials but didn't tell his UCLA professors because of an understood rule that students should not be practicing their craft before they've finished their education.

"That wasn't a rule I wanted to abide by," Martin admitted. "I was on a track to become as successful as I could as fast as I could."

After being taken to the woodshed by a professor who caught Martin on TV, the actor cooled his extracurricular work until graduation. After that ...

"I was on fire!" Martin said. "I did commercial after commercial." Then he got small parts in TV pilots and shows, including "Desperate Housewives."

For a while, he made ends meet by parking cars at a country club. He taught third- and fourth-graders how to create animated movies using Legos at $20 a class.

Now, Martin not only makes a living as an actor, but he also lives with his kid brother Jimmy, who moved to L.A. after finishing business school. Their younger brother Jack just completed his junior year at USC's filmmaking school.

"We used to make movies together when we were little," Martin said. "The day Jack got into USC was the proudest day of my life."

A few years ago, Kevin and Jack created a Chicago commercial and indie filmmaking company called Martin Revelation Films. At Christmas, the brothers decided to close up shop to follow individual careers for a while.

No matter what happens, the Martin brothers can count on their Downers Grove mother, Karen, to support them and keep them grounded.

"She used to say to me, 'Gee, I hope you don't peak at 25'," Martin said.

Despite his perseverance and connections, Martin still believes he's a very lucky guy.

"I get to play guns every day," he said, "and get paid way too much to do it!"

Jamie Sotonoff and Dann Gire are looking for suburbanites working in showbiz. If you know someone, contact jsotonoff@dailyherald.com. or dgire@dailyherald.com.

Paying tribute to Dad

Sunday marked the fourth Father's Day that Kevin Michael Martin experienced without the man he calls his “best mentor” — his late father, Chicago attorney Michael Martin.

“His passing really made me and my brothers look at life differently at a very young age,” the 27-year-old actor said. “It was really tough.”

Martin said his mediocre grades in high school limited his options for colleges. Only one school, Illinois State, accepted him.

“My dad told me that if I made the dean's list at Illinois (State), he would pay for me to go to any acting school of my choice.”

He did make the dean's list and had a choice between two schools: UCLA and Notre Dame, his father's alma mater. Dad had dreams that his son would go to Notre Dame.

“Then Dad said, 'I think UCLA is where you need to be for what you want to do,' At that moment, I knew my dad was really proud of how I had turned my life around. He pushed me to UCLA, and for that, I'm where I am today.”

— Dann Gire