An actor who spent his childhood on screen before disappearing from Hollywood as a young actor was revealed in Los Angeles this week.
Born in 1976, he began his career in commercials at the age of three before landing a starring role in the smash hit soap opera Dallas in 1983.
In the 1990s she played the lead role in a film starring Sarah Jessica Parker, which has become a staple of the supernatural comedy genre.
He was also part of the main cast of the short-lived horror science fiction show, which earned a cult fan following on the Disney Channel and Fox Kids Network.
In the early 2000s he left Hollywood to pursue other activities, including following the Grateful Dead on tour and later starting a cannabis business.
Now aged 50, he sported an iconic image with a salt and pepper beard when he was seen picking out some pumpkins ahead of Halloween on Tuesday.
Can you guess who it is?
An actor who spent his childhood on screen before disappearing from Hollywood as a young actor was revealed in Los Angeles this week
Now aged 50, he sported an iconic image with a salt and pepper beard when he was seen picking out some pumpkins ahead of Halloween on Tuesday.
Born in 1976, he began his career in commercials at the age of three before landing a starring role in the smash hit soap opera Dallas in 1983.
He is none other than Omri Katz, best known as the teenage boy who resurrects three witches hanged in Salem, Massachusetts in the popular 1993 comedy Hocus Pocus.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy played the Sanderson sisters in the film, who are brought back to life by Katz’s character Max.
The Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Katz for comment.
Born in Los Angeles to Israeli immigrants, Katz got his big break at the age of seven with a long-running role on the top 1980s soap opera Dallas.
Katz was cast as John Ross Ewing III, the son of the show’s lead characters J.R. and Sue Ellen Ewing, played by Larry Hagman and Linda Gray.
Decades later, he said that Gray and Hagman ‘really took me under their wing and treated me like I was their own son, which made it really heartwarming.’ dallas fanzine.
He portrayed a ‘good family atmosphere’ and ‘united community’ on the set, noting that he ‘never’ saw Hagman and Gray in a ‘hot moment’.
After leaving Dallas in 1991, he became the head of the horror science fiction anthology series Erie, Indiana, which was inspired by The Twilight Zone and had Gremlins director Joe Dante as its creative consultant.
Although Erie, Indiana was canceled after one season on NBC, it regained popularity in syndication on the Disney Channel and Fox Kids Network.
He is none other than Omri Katz, best known as the teenage boy who revives three witches in Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1993 comedy Hocus Pocus, in which he is portrayed (right)
Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker played the Sanderson sisters in the film, who are brought back to life by Katz’s character Max.
Katz explained, ‘I was already a big fan of Joe Dante, so when I got the privilege of working on that show, for me it was really the highlight of my acting career.’ bloody disgusting.
His ‘kid in the candy store’ experience of working with Dante and ‘seeing his imagination’ was ‘very inspiring,’ Katz enthused. ‘He’s like the oldest child, and I think that’s another thing I was attracted to. he is very funny.’
In 1993, the year Erie, Indiana was cancelled, Katz got his career-defining role as Max in Kenny Ortega’s classic Hocus Pocus.
While shooting the film, she and her co-star Vinessa Shaw, who played her character’s girlfriend, were impressed by Midler’s tremendous work ethic.
Whenever she wasn’t focused on her Hocus Pocus role as Winifred Sanderson, she was ‘already focusing on her next project,’ Katz said Taboo Comics and Kicks.
He recalled Midler singing and running lines in her trailer in preparation for the TV film adaptation of the classic 1959 Broadway musical Gypsy.
‘And I think honestly, even though I was dumb at 16, I think I still have my work ethic and my discipline – that has a huge influence on who I am today.’
Although Hocus Pocus initially flopped at the box office, its annual showing on Disney Channel around Halloween earned it a devoted millennial fanbase.
Katz starred in Dallas as John Ross Ewing III, the son of the show’s lead characters JR and Sue Ellen Ewing, played by Larry Hagman and Linda Gray.
Also in 1993, Katz starred in Joe Dante’s film Matinee, a comedy starring John Goodman as a filmmaker releasing a new project amid the Cuban Missile Crisis.
‘I would say John Goodman is one of the most professional actors I’ve seen work,’ Katz recalled years after making Matinee. ‘He was very critical of his performance. He always wanted to do better.
Despite a shower of critical praise, Matinee suffered a loss financially, and in his early adulthood Katz left acting, ‘fed up with all the BS that comes with working in this industry,’ he commented on the podcast. established in the 90s.
In another interview, he explained that by the time he left Hollywood he had begun ‘soul searching’ and wanted a more human experience; Just see what else is out there, see the world and be normal. I didn’t really have that situation growing up.
An avid Deadhead, he spent his first few months of free time behind the band on tour and then used the money he earned in his entertainment career to surf, snowboard, and travel.
After leaving Dallas in 1991, he became head of the horror science fiction anthology series Erie, Indiana, which was inspired by The Twilight Zone.
Ultimately he ‘decided to get back into acting for all the wrong reasons – to make money so I could survive again – and it didn’t work out very well.’
His brief return to the screen saw him work in shows such as Freaks and Geeks and General Hospital, but a newfound illness of stage fright plagued him.
‘I couldn’t perform. “There was some strange psychological barrier inside me that kept me from doing it,” Katz remembered. “I was terrified. I was throwing lines.’
Despite initially trying to regain his old skills with the help of acting classes, he came to the conclusion that life as an entertainer ‘wasn’t for me anymore.’
Katz worked as a hairdresser for a time and also got involved in the cannabis business in 2002, initially “under the radar” in a “discreet” manner, he said.
‘I have my own brand called The Mary Dansters. We’re doing everything legally, and I’m really excited to see where this industry takes me,’ he said in 2022.