3fc55ed630061d5976ffc5c49df26c56.jpg

HILLSBOROUGH: New role for police lieutenant

By Audrey Levine, Staff Writer
   Like any beginning actor, he is working his way into show business slowly, having had his first job in 2008 in an Adidas commercial and moving into playing bit roles in such shows as “Watching the Detectives” on the Biography Channel and “Ugly Betty” on ABC.
   Unfortunately, it will be some time before he can devote himself full time to the business he has been interested in since high school as Hillsborough Police Lt. Bill Geary, the department’s Patrol Division commander, is committed to spending at least five more years with the force.
   ”Acting is something that has always been in the back of my mind,” he said. “I’ve been in the department for 20 years and can retire in about five years (when) I’ll have 25 years in the pension system. I want to get away from law enforcement and go in another direction.”
   The goal may be to do something different, but in the parts Lt. Geary has played since his first audition in April 2008, he has not strayed far — playing security guards and New York Police Department officers.
   ”A lot of the parts have been security officers,” he said, laughing. “But I have a comfort level there, I know what I’m doing. I find that easy to do.”
   Even as a fledgling actor on several major network hits, including “Ugly Betty” and a stint on NBC’s “Lipstick Jungle” last summer, Lt. Geary said he has used his professional knowledge to his advantage when looking at scripts.
   ”I may have offered a few suggestions (during shooting) if they wanted to make sure it was a reenactment,” he said.
   He said he made a comment about what an officer was scripted to say in an indie film he recently worked in.
   ”Someone revised the script because I said the officers wouldn’t say or do that,” he said.
   For Lt. Geary, acting was always an interest, although he strayed from those goals when he entered college to study architecture before later changing to administrative justice and becoming a police officer.
   ”In the transition period (from high school to college), I had thought about it,” he said.
   Still, it wasn’t until Lt. Geary’s 14-year-old son, Jason, wanted to go on an audition that he decided to give show business a try.
   ”My son has been doing plays in school, and we went to an audition in New York City,” he said. “Then I had head shots taken and set up a makeshift resume.”
   This audition, Lt. Geary said, was for “Forensic Files” on truTV for which he recently got a call for an appearance in an upcoming episode. The show, he said, features recreations of actual crimes in which forensics played a part in catching the perpetrators.
   This also will be one of his first credited roles where he does not play a police officer, but still a character he can portray using his police background.
   ”I am playing Mark Unger, who allegedly killed his wife in 2003,” he said of the episode that has not yet been filmed. “This is the first job I have had where I step out of my police role.”
   Lt. Geary’s most recent role, in an episode that should air around Easter, was that of a security guard at the Museum of Natural History, in New York City, on “Ugly Betty.” Although he did not have any lines in the episode, he said he still was featured in the scenes.
   ”I had direct interaction with the main characters,” he said.
   His other recent roles have included a small speaking part as an NYPD officer on “Watching the Detectives” on the Biography Channel; playing a police officer in “The Tested,” a film in post-production; playing an NYPD detective on the upcoming ABC comedy-drama “The Unusuals;” and being an extra in a classroom scene in the upcoming film “The Last Film Festival” with Dennis Hopper and Jacqueline Bisset.
   For Lt. Geary, this was one of the moments when he was starry eyed himself.
   ”It was exciting to be sitting next to (these celebrities),” he said.
   Still, Lt. Geary said it is most important on the set to be professional, which is why he always responds negatively to friends’ questions of whether he has gotten autographs from any celebrities.
   ”You don’t do that on the set,” he said. “Everybody’s professional.”
   With all the work he is doing, Lt. Geary said his family — which includes Jason, his wife, Donna, 16-year-old J.P. and 10-year-old Sarah — has been supportive and loves seeing him on television.
   ”(Jason) still wants to go into this business, but he thinks it’s cool (what I’m doing)” he said. “And my wife gets a kick out of it.”
   Even his colleagues in the Police Department have been supportive, although Lt. Geary said there are only about five or six people who know he is pursuing acting.
   ”I wanted to keep it low-key,” he said. “But now this is my way of letting people know.”
   Although this is fulfilling a dream, Lt. Geary remains committed to his work as a police officer for however long he plans to work in Hillsborough. He said most of the jobs he has scheduled have been on the weekends or he uses his allotted personal and vacation time.
   ”If I have a meeting, I’m at work,” he said. “I’ve turned down parts so that I’m at work.”
   But while he continues as a police officer, Lt. Geary said he has set some goals for himself in his new field as he hopes to take some acting classes in the coming year and even join the Screen Actor’s Guild. For right now, though, he is happy with the work he has gotten, and is just trying to build up his resume.
   ”I enjoy this because it’s completely different than what I’m used to,” he said.