Jim O’Rear

Jim O’Rear has been involved in the  entertainment industry for over twenty five years, beginning his career on  tour as The Youngest Professional 
Magician with David Copperfield, Harry  Blackstone Jr., and The Great Tomsoni and opening for acts like Cheap Trick  and John Anderson.
 
With his “magical” background and having been  trained in New York at The American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, it was only natural that Jim move into the realm of film, television, and theatre where he  has worked steadily as an actor, stuntman, and special make-up effects artist  on such projects as Day Of The Dead, Star Trek 4, The Vampire Wars, Lethal  Weapon 3, Creature Feature, Hayride Slaughter, Cop & ½, Psycho Beach  Party, Evita, Little Shop Of Horrors, No Retreat No Surrender 3, Mortal  Kombat: Conquest, and many more with actors including Martin Sheen, Burt  Reynolds, Mel Gibson, Amanda Plummer, Maximillian Schell, Robert Englund, Jon  Voight, Chris Sarandon, and others.
 
Wanting to get some of his own ideas onto the  screen, Jim successfully moved into the area of screenwriting.  Although  competition is tough, he has written and sold a number of horror-related  screenplays, including The House Of Pain (in development with Robert “Freddy”  Englund, Gunnar “ Leatherface” Hansen, Tom “Friday The 13th” Savini, Bill  “ChopTop” Moseley, and Debbie “Scream Queen” Rochon), Hayride Slaughter,  Hayride Slaughter 2, The Deadly Obligation, Vampyre Tales, Wolfsbayne, The  Deepening, and (currently playing on cable) Scream Farm.  Jim also placed  third for Best Screenplay in TSA’s screenwriting competition and was a  finalist in the Fade In Screenplay contest and Writer’s Network  competition.
 
Jim’s horror writing has not stopped  there.  He has also contributed many articles to national publications,  such as Scary Monsters Magazine, Scars Magazine, Haunted Attraction Magazine,  Comics Interview, and Underground Entertainment, and has been recognized in  Fangoria Magazine, Alternative Cinema, Fright Times, and Femme Fatale  Magazine.  Jim was also “immortalized” as a comic book character opposite  Thor in an issue of MARVEL Comic’s “What The…?”  and has appeared as  himself (along with Ken Foree, Tom Savini, Debbie Rochon, Brinke Stevens,  James Gunn, and more) in the fictional horror novel, BAD MOON RISING… the  third installment of Jonathan Mayberry’s GHOST ROAD BLUES trilogy…. and in  ZOMBIE: CSU.  In addition, Jim has written a paranormal book about real  hauntings in Tennessee for Schiffer 
Publishing titled TENNESSEE GHOSTS,  available in stores now, and is penning his follow-up titled HOLLYWOOD’S  PARANORMAL MOVIES.
 
 Currently, Jim continues to work as an actor and  stuntman on several films per year, recently cast opposite Andrew “Wishmaster”  Divoff (Lost, Airforce One), Tom Savini (Grindhouse, From Dusk Til Dawn), and  Jason Carter (Babylon 5, Angel) in The Dead Matter, playing Kane Hodder’s  (Hatchet, 
Friday The 13th) brother in Old Habits Die Hard, acting opposite  Linnea Quigley (Return Of The Living Dead) and Monique Dupree in Post Mortem  America, appearing with Ari Lehman (Friday The 13th), Daniel Taylor (Return Of  The Swamp Thing), John Dugan (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Playmate Alex Del Monnaco in Hell-ephone, portraying an alien bounty hunter in It Came From  
Trafalgar, with Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), Butch Patrick (The Munsters), Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Gunnar Hansen (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), appearing with Tiffany Shepis, Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal, and John Dugan in Shudder, and is in development deals for three more of his screenplays.   As if that isn’t enough, Jim continues to write for horror publications all  over 
the world and consult for horror-related projects  internationally.