C.C. Courtney

About C.C.

C. C. Courtney was born in north Louisiana, in the triangle known as ArkLaTex because it is right in the intersection of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. He never stayed there much. When he was five, his parents divorced and he spent his childhood constantly moving around with his little brother. He considers himself to be from New Orleans which he still loves beyond measure. When he was only 8 he started preaching at churches in the South. He left home and entered college at the age of 15, receiving a degree in Economics. He stopped preaching at 16.
      
CC had started working in radio and TV when he was 14 and went at it full-time at age 16, working all over the US. There was no internet then and rock radio was the way most people under 30 communicated. If you had a message for somebody, you requested a song that said that and had the jock dedicate it to that person or persons.

CC returned to New Orleans for a legendary stint where he not only dominated the airwaves but had his own rock band and appeared on stage with most music stars of  the day, including the Beatles. In fact, Bob Walker’s history of N. O. Radio says CC is the most popular personality in the history of New Orleans radio.
 
It all came to an end when CC’s younger brother was killed in an accident at a radio station in North Carolina. CC kept on for a while longer but soon just had to quit radio and get out of town. He had always had an interest in acting and wondered how to make it in that field. By chance, he met the famous actor Steve McQueen who asked CC to show him N.O. They spent a fabulous night catching all the great musical acts in the city. Around 4am they went for breakfast and CC asked Steve what he should do if he wanted to be an actor. Steve told him to go to New York to study acting with  Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse, at that time the best acting school in the country. 

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After surprisingly getting accepted by Sanford Meisner and completing the 2 year program, CC landed a principal role on an NBC soap opera, The Doctors. In less than a year on that show CC's  role was an immense hit. He got roles on NYPD (Special Guest Star) and several other series popular at the time.

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At this time CC got into writing and had several shows produced in New York, best known being a rock musical, Salvation, the biggest off-Broadway hit of the year and from which there was a song, “Why Can't I Touch You”, that reached the top-40 on the charts. You can hear this song by the original artist, Ronnie Dyson and several cover versions on Spotify and other music services. Later CC co-wrote  Earl of Ruston,  which ran on Broadway. (Not a hit because I was young and stupid—I shouldn’t have let them put it on Broadway as they don’t like country music in any form there. “Earl” was a sound similar to The Eagles who entered the scene about the same time.

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Sanford Meisner called CC and told him he should be an acting teacher. CC thought of the saying “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Mr. Meisner laughed and said CC should come to his class where he would teach him how to be an acting teacher. CC did that.

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Suddenly, in the midst of all this success CC bought into the back-to-the-land movement of the day. He quit The Doctors, got married, moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains and had two children, a son Kat and a daughter Silver, whom he delivered.
 
Then he suddenly moved again, this time to Carmel, CA where he published and edited a very popular radio trade magazine. CC received 21 gold records for his work in the music business.

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His marriage ended. Wanting to fill some holes in his knowledge, CC went back to school and received two Master of Fine Arts degrees, one in Directing under Barry Kyle, of the Royal Shakespeare Company. CC wrote several more plays, which have been produced at universities, by regional theater, and in various commercial venues.
 
Over the years, CC has continued to act, doing many plays from regional theatre to off-Broadway. He also acted in films, working with such famous directors as Louis Malle and Steven Soderbergh. He also did independent films.

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Alongside his acting and writing career, CC has directed plays from university theatre to Broadway. For 30 years, CC has taught acting in private classes, at universities and for 8 years, at the Neighborhood Playhouse. It was there that CC realized that teaching was his greatest gift.

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Then CC met an opportunity. Mallorca Film Academy (MFA) offered him the chance to establish an acting conservatory—an artist’s colony in an amazing ancient, yet modern, district in the heart of Palma de Mallorca on a beautiful Spanish island in the Mediterranean. CC designed for MFA a 2 year conservatory curriculum. They were pleased with it and decided to move a scaled down version to their home country, Germany. CC didn’t want to live in Germany so once again he moved on. 

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He got married again and has spent many wonderful years with his wife Helen. He has moved back to the mountains. From his front porch you can see the Great Smokeys. From his back deck you can see The Blue Ridge Mountains. He is writing—songs, short stories and a memoir. But next to raising his children, CC considers teaching to be the most important thing he’s ever done.