When we learned that James Daughton, who played Dennis in the weekly series and more famously known as the smarmy Greg Marmalard in the movie Animal House, we knew Chiller Theater was going to be great. We connected with him on Facebook before the con and found him to be accessible and friendly. We made up our own headshots for him to sign, as we had done for other V actors, which he happily approved beforehand.
As we were checking in, we realized that the room James would be in was just down the hall from our hotel room and said out loud, “Oooo! This is where Jimmy Daughton will be!” and then heard a voice in the hall say “Who’s looking for Jimmy Daughton?” And it was James himself! We introduced ourselves and told him we couldn’t wait to show up in our full regalia for him, to which he smiled and told us he looked forward to it!
After dinner, we were hanging out in the hotel bar, when we saw James going up for a drink himself. We quickly sprang up and offered to buy him a drink and told him that we had a quiet corner if he’d like to join us there. He accepted both offers and we proceeded to have a wonderful evening of discussions about life, love, music, and theater.
The next day, when in uniform, the whole group went to see him, presented him with his own CT-V mug, and purchased our autographs. He was gracious enough to take some lovely pictures with us, and we could tell then that he was already part of our extended V family.
Before we left for the day, we made sure to check in one last time to say goodbye and give him one last hug. While V might have been the thing that brought us together, we were additionally fortunate to connect with James and we are so blessed to have gotten to know what a loving, sweet, and generous man he is. We look forward to the next time we visit with him!
UPDATE: September 28, 2024
On the second evening of our whirlwind trip to LA, we made plans to reunite with James and meet his partner Ray who we’d heard so many lovely things about. James suggested we go to Redondo Beach for dinner because it was so gorgeous there and they hadn’t been there in years! We had some time before dinner to walk the pier and WOW it was beautiful to see the crashing waves, the setting sun and some of the local wildlife. Hilariously, as we were observing a particular seabird and wondered out loud what it was, a random guy walking by turned out to be an expert and told us all about it (it was a juvenile night heron)!
We had a great night of dinner and drinks at Cal-Mex Cantina, which overlooked the ocean. James told us stories from his acting days and he and Ray both told us of how they met and their adventures over the years. To say we were looking forward to this night would be an understatement! It was definitely too short of a reunion and we’re already planning to do it again.
