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On being an actor, I have observed that even if you are a graduate of NIDA or the WAAPA or The Victorian College of Arts, it is no guarantee that you will be a "star" and remained continually employed. If you take a list of graduates of cohorts in a particular year from NIDA, google their names and see if they are still in acting.
But "successful" actors have not even attended acting schools such as NIDA. One could think of Nicole Kidman, Rebel Wilson and Anthony La Paglia.
However, the abovementioned institutions do train people in other aspects of theatre and film and offer courses to professional people such as barristers on presenting themselves online, https://www.corporate.nida.edu.au/class/CVICEC-20OCM1 .
As a result, skills obtained from education courses or by learning on the job are transferrable within the particular industry. Clinton Maynard, a reporter on 2GB has experienced being a newsreader, a manager, an on air presenter and now reporter. The skills gained within one industry were transferred between 'jobs'. This page reinforces the stickability to the industry of the Jason Staveley, Craig Huggins and Jamie Angel.
On the other hand, it may not explain why some "jocks" who go from one station to the next station and the next station, disappear or become traffic reporters or not get another job in radio.
Then the issue goes back to the author's wife playing spot the "familiar" face on a tv show but don't necessarily recall the actor's name. I have at home dvd copies of "Hogan's Heroes", "Get Smart", "Mr Ed" and "Fawlty Towers" to name a few. Of particular interest are the character actors that have appeared on the US sitcoms.
Typically you google a character actor from a US sitcom and find from the IMDB site that they have made a consistent living being a character actor. In fact some of the character actors on "Hogan's Heroes" have made appearances on the show as differernt characters. Some of these actors include Alan Oppenheimer, John Hoyt and Hans Conried.
Similarly you'll see the names of Parley Baer, Howard Caine, Kathleen Freeman and voice actor June Foray on many other shows. The latter is the character voices on WB cartoons, Bullwinkle and Crusader Rabbit.
Hence those familiar faces that you see on the screen pertains to the US market where there are many shows produced. But in Australia the story is different where there are not so many jobs for character actors.
In conclusion you have to ask what are the stickability factors in order to remain in one industry in different roles and what are the transferrable skills that one picked up in a course or on the job that can be applied within and outside a particular industry.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting, thinking, critical and thoughtful Belfield. See my recollection of the Belfield Pub https://timegents.com/2018/01/22/belfield-hotel-belfield/#comment-5992