Where Are They Now: Elvis the Alligator
LOS ANGELES - It’s a quiet afternoon in a little bar off La Cienaga Boulevard. There’s not many customers which gives the bartender plenty of time to reminisce about the old days.
He seems utterly unremarkable. He could be any other 400-lb alligator in Los Angeles, working a job with flexible hours that allows him to get to auditions.
But more than thirty years ago, Elvis was riding high as one of the stars of a hit television show that brought movie-quality storylines and budgets to the smaller screen.
“We knew it was something special, even then,” Elvis said. “But we never dreamed how popular it would be.”
He was born in the Okefenokee Swamp, one of a clutch of 42 eggs laid by his mother.
“Dad was out of the picture early but I had a great mom,” Elvis said. “She’d carry me and my siblings around in her mouth. She was the best.”
His childhood and young adulthood were unremarkable.
“I was like any other young gator, my mind only on two things, food and fornicating,” Elvis said. “Trying to stay out of trouble. I didn’t want to end up a pair of boots or a bleached skull in a tourist trap.”
He never expected to be bitten by the acting bug.
“Totally unexpected,” he recalled. “Usually I was the one doing the biting.”
His career seemed rooted in Florida, in local commercials and community theater.
“I was afraid to branch out,” Elvis said. “People kept urging me to move out West. But Hollywood seem a whole other swamp, one scarier than I was used to. Luckily, fame came to me.”
In 1984, he got the role of a lifetime as Elvis, pet/bodyguard of Don Johnson’s character, Sonny Crockett.
“The show’s creator, Michael Mann, he knows his music,” Elvis said. “First day we met, he told me ‘We’re using your name, don’t you dare change it.’”
The show made superstars of Elvis, Johnson and their costar Phillip Michael Thomas, especially in the Miami area, and they took full advantage of it, hitting the clubs, often wearing the stylish threads the show became known for.
“Champagne, blow, live goats, dead goats,” Elvis said. “Anything we wanted, we got.”
The money flowed in and flowed out nearly as fast.
“I didn’t put save much,” Elvis admits. “They say our brains are the size of a peanut. I proved it by thinking the fame would last.”
But his heyday on the show was only for the first few seasons. He appeared less and less and, after the 1987 season, not at all.
“I should have been prepared for it,” he said. “How many ‘Elvis hisses at somebody on the boat’ scenes can they come up with?”
He tried to keep his career going - even moving out to California - but soon ran into a common problem, typecasting.
“They always wanted me to play the heavy,” Elvis said. “On the one hand, I get it. I’m a big, scary guy. But I got more to offer, at least I think so.”
He had a shot at roles in movies such as Romancing the Stone and the Lake Placid franchise.
“We all look alike to casting agents,” he said, raising his voice. “Those roles were written for crocodiles and crocodiles should play them! Representation is important.”
He falls silent for a moment and then says, wistfully, “Still, it would have been nice to work with Betty White.”
He returned to his first love, community theater, only to find himself blackballed after an incident with Tony Randall in a production of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”
“A real shame,” Elvis said. “Everything was going great and then Tony crossed in front of me and, well, my vision is based on movement. But Tony was real understanding, once the cast came off. He was a real pro.”
After that incident, insurance companies wouldn’t cover productions if they cast Elvis.
“I’m an alligator,” he says, bitterly. “Those guys are sharks.”
Elvis finds pleasure in a different role these days - mentor.
Shortly after “Miami Vice” went off the air, Elvis began hearing about a new arrival on the scene.
“Somebody tells me to check out this kids show, ‘Clarissa Explains It All’” he recalled. “And what do I see? Melissa Joan Hart has a baby alligator - and his name is Elvis!”
At first, the older reptile hit the roof.
“I’m on the phone to my agent, my lawyer, telling him to sue the scaly hide off this punk and his management,” Elvis said.
But cooler, albeit warm-blooded, heads prevailed.
“They encouraged me to have a good wallow and think things over,” Elvis said. “How would it look if I took a baby to court? It’s not like we’d up for the same roles.”
The more experienced actor decided to reach out to the younger Elvis, offering advice and perspective.
"Now he’s like a son to me,” Elvis said. “Except I don’t have the urge to eat him.”
Today, he lives a quiet life with a few close friends. He stays in touch with some former costars, including Phillip Michael Thomas.
“We get together now and then, shoot some pool, play around in the recording studio,” Elvis said.
His other former “Vice” costar has seen a career resurgence in recent years, almost on the level of the "McConaissance.”
“'Eastbound and Down,' 'Cold in July,' 'Django Unchained!' It’s like me and Phillip say - you can’t keep a good Johnson down!” Elvis laughs. “But all jokes aside, I’m really happy for him. He’s putting in the work and it’s paying off. It’s been great to see.”
Does he want something similar for himself?
“Of course I do,” he admits. “Like every actor, I got a screenplay. I’d love to produce. I may look a little long in the tooth but really, I’m still a young guy. I’m ready to work.”
