Post by nhmystix on Jan 23, 2009 15:45:12 GMT -6
For actor Robert David Hall, just one thing allowed him to overcome fear and debilitating injury
BY DAVE WALTON
DAILY NEWS AUTOS WRITER
Thursday, January 22nd 2009, 4:39 PM
Change, they say, comes easier for some than others. There are those who resist it like the plague and others who see things in perspective and decide that resistance is harder than acceptance. And as the long-running crime drama “CSI,” now in its ninth season, faces its first major wave of cast upheaval – including the imminent loss of its lead actor, William Petersen – it’s clear where one of its remaining stars, Robert David Hall, falls in the change equation.
“You don’t replace William Petersen. He’s one of a kind,” says Hall, who plays the offbeat coroner Albert Robbins on the hit series. “He has just been the rock of our show.” But Hall is optimistic that the actor who is taking over for Petersen, Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne, is more than up to the task. “When Laurence comes on, there will be a slightly different vibe, but I think it will work. So there’s a change in life and we’ve got change coming, but I think our fan base is really strong. There will be a lot of curiosity about Laurence Fishburne coming on.”
Hall’s positive attitude toward professional change is more than understandable considering his personal story. Thirty years ago, he faced a far more traumatic shift in his existence when he was the victim of a horrific traffic accident. While driving up the San Diego Freeway in Southern California – ironically, to sell the small foreign car he owned at the time – Hall and his vehicle were run over by an 18-wheel truck that swerved into his lane. It was July 10, 1978, in the middle of the afternoon.
“I was trapped under the cab of his truck and it was dark. I couldn’t see anything,” Hall recalls. “I don’t think I was in shock – I was in shock that this thing had happened. And then my gas tank exploded and I was trapped in a fire.”
Hall was saved in the nick of time by a rescue squad that arrived on the scene, but his injuries were grave. He was burned over 65% of his body, and he would eventually lose both of his legs – one that night, the other later that summer. He spent three solid months in the hospital, plus several more over the ensuing few years and underwent 20 surgical procedures in all. But Hall’s sense of survival always endured, as did his spirit to get on with his life. And that included getting back behind the wheel of a car, which he did in early 1979.
“I got a Volvo 240, which is a tank of a car,” he says. “A friend of mine helped arrange for me to get this used Volvo sedan equipped with hand controls. And I remember being in the parking lot of a supermarket at a time when all of the shoppers were up close to the market. It was a big expanse of a parking lot. And I learned how to drive the car in about an hour.”
Once Hall was used to this new way to operate a car, one of the first things he did was to go to the patch of highway where the accident happened. “I drove over the expanse of freeway where I had almost been killed,” Hall says. “I did that about 10 times that day. ”
Thirty years on, the different way that he drives isn’t really that different.
“It all falls under the category of adaptive technology,” explains Hall. “I walk on artificial legs, prosthetics. I use hand controls on my car. I wear glasses or contacts to see better. I up my computer fonts a little bit so I can see them. So everybody – able-bodied, disabled, whatever – uses some sort of technology.”
www.nydailynews.com/autos/2009/01/22/2009-01-22_driving_force.html
BY DAVE WALTON
DAILY NEWS AUTOS WRITER
Thursday, January 22nd 2009, 4:39 PM
Change, they say, comes easier for some than others. There are those who resist it like the plague and others who see things in perspective and decide that resistance is harder than acceptance. And as the long-running crime drama “CSI,” now in its ninth season, faces its first major wave of cast upheaval – including the imminent loss of its lead actor, William Petersen – it’s clear where one of its remaining stars, Robert David Hall, falls in the change equation.
“You don’t replace William Petersen. He’s one of a kind,” says Hall, who plays the offbeat coroner Albert Robbins on the hit series. “He has just been the rock of our show.” But Hall is optimistic that the actor who is taking over for Petersen, Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne, is more than up to the task. “When Laurence comes on, there will be a slightly different vibe, but I think it will work. So there’s a change in life and we’ve got change coming, but I think our fan base is really strong. There will be a lot of curiosity about Laurence Fishburne coming on.”
Hall’s positive attitude toward professional change is more than understandable considering his personal story. Thirty years ago, he faced a far more traumatic shift in his existence when he was the victim of a horrific traffic accident. While driving up the San Diego Freeway in Southern California – ironically, to sell the small foreign car he owned at the time – Hall and his vehicle were run over by an 18-wheel truck that swerved into his lane. It was July 10, 1978, in the middle of the afternoon.
“I was trapped under the cab of his truck and it was dark. I couldn’t see anything,” Hall recalls. “I don’t think I was in shock – I was in shock that this thing had happened. And then my gas tank exploded and I was trapped in a fire.”
Hall was saved in the nick of time by a rescue squad that arrived on the scene, but his injuries were grave. He was burned over 65% of his body, and he would eventually lose both of his legs – one that night, the other later that summer. He spent three solid months in the hospital, plus several more over the ensuing few years and underwent 20 surgical procedures in all. But Hall’s sense of survival always endured, as did his spirit to get on with his life. And that included getting back behind the wheel of a car, which he did in early 1979.
“I got a Volvo 240, which is a tank of a car,” he says. “A friend of mine helped arrange for me to get this used Volvo sedan equipped with hand controls. And I remember being in the parking lot of a supermarket at a time when all of the shoppers were up close to the market. It was a big expanse of a parking lot. And I learned how to drive the car in about an hour.”
Once Hall was used to this new way to operate a car, one of the first things he did was to go to the patch of highway where the accident happened. “I drove over the expanse of freeway where I had almost been killed,” Hall says. “I did that about 10 times that day. ”
Thirty years on, the different way that he drives isn’t really that different.
“It all falls under the category of adaptive technology,” explains Hall. “I walk on artificial legs, prosthetics. I use hand controls on my car. I wear glasses or contacts to see better. I up my computer fonts a little bit so I can see them. So everybody – able-bodied, disabled, whatever – uses some sort of technology.”
www.nydailynews.com/autos/2009/01/22/2009-01-22_driving_force.html
