About Me
Biography - (IMDb Biography - Robert Hegyes)
Robert Hegyes was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to his Hungarian father, Stephen and his Italian mother, Marie Dominica Cocozza. He is the eldest of four of their children, Mark Hegyes, MD - Billings, Montana, Ms. Stephanie Hegyes - Princeton, New Jersey, and Ms. Elizabeth Cocozza - Los Angeles, California.Robert began studying acting in earnest at Metuchen High School under the direction of Dr. Barton Shepard, Ph.D in the mid 1960s. He was accepted into the Theater Program at Rowan Unviversity of New Jersey (formerly Glassboro State College, and in the early 1970s graduated with a BA in Theater &; Secondary Education. Hegyes then ventured into New York City to practice his trade, immediately taking up with the Greenwich Village Children’s Repitory Companies, Theater in a Trunk, and The NYC Children’s Puppet Ensemble. In short order, Robert hooked up with his third Greenwhich Village troupe, Jack LaRumpa’s Flying Drum &; Kazoo Band, performing improvisational anti-war comedy in Washington Square and the Provincetown Playhouse.Within a year of graduating from Rowan, Hegyes was cast to co-star in the Manhattan Theater Club Emsmble’s highly acclaimed drama Naomi Court, which starred another young actor Brad Davis Midnight Express. After completing that successful engagement, Robert was tapped to co-star for Tony Award winning actor/director Len Cariou A Little Night Music &; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in the Broadway drama Don’t Call Back starring Arlene Francis at the Helen Hayes Theater. It was during the run of that Broadway drama that he was cast by producer James Komack to start in the award-winning comedy series Welcome Back, Kotter, and at the age of twenty-five, became one of the shows directors.Robert has guest starred in over thirty episodic series including Saturday Night Live with host Quentin Tarantino, Diagnosis Murder with ’Dick van Dyke’, and The Drew Carey Show. He has starred in the award-nominated Passat commercial, The Chase, for director Kinka Usher and in the feature films, Honeymoon Hotel opposite Jane Kaczmarek, Underground Aces Aces with Melanie Griffith, Bob Roberts for director Tim Robbins, The Purpose starring Mia Farrow, and Bar Hopping alongside Kevin Nealon.Hegyes made his Los Angeles stage debut to rave notices as Chico Marx in Arthur Marx play An Evening with Groucho and was shortly thereafter cast as a series regular starring in the award winning drama, Cagney &; Lacey. Robert has been awarded a life-time artist-in-residence status at his alma mater, and has taught there and continues to guest lecture regularly. He is also a California Certified Secondary Education Teacher, and teaches for the LAUSD at Venice High School.As a long-time resident of Venice, California, Robert and Co-Creative partner Craig Titley (Sam Raimi's remake of "20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea") developed the original Internet Series, THE VENICE WALK Written by: Anonymous
