Grasping for the slightest chance to make a connection in the movie industry, I visited the posh Woodland Hills mansion of movie actor Telly Savalas, known especially for his TV series “Kojak”. Being a Greek like myself, I was certain Telly would be my link with Tinsel Town’s big league.
Every nerve ending in my body was tensed with a strange mixture of energetic excitement and fear as I knocked on the massive door of the Savalas home. In a few moments the door to fame and fortune would be opened wide.
The door swept open with expensive ease.
“Good evening. My name is Dino Andreadis. Is Mr. Savalas in?” In spite of my jolting nerves, I managed to sound cool and collected. “This is it!” I told myself. “My ticket to the stars!”
The stranger standing in the brightly-lit doorway stared at me for several seconds, then he laughed. As the ornate door was slammed in my face a few moments later, all I could hear was the stranger’s laugh as he looked at my shocked face, and told me that Telly hadn’t lived there for at least ten years!
My fascination with show biz went back to my childhood when, at the age of four, I was already a fan of the fabulous Chubby Checker. Once, during a trip on a cruise ship with my parents, I heard the dinner orchestra strike up a familiar Checker tune. Before my parents knew what had happened, I bolted onto the dance floor to a round of applause. That night I stole the show.
As long as I can remember, I always had a longing for truth. I didn’t go to church and I didn’t know God, but as I cried out night after night to the lonely ceiling in my L.A. apartment, I was crying out for help, for truth, for reality. There was something missing in my life…perhaps stardom was the key that would fill the void.
The man wanted to meet me again later that evening. I could hardly contain the thrill inside of me at this dynamic turn of events. At precisely 8:00 p.m. a white Mercedes sports coupe arrived to pick me up. The casting director took me out to a popular night spot. After fifteen minutes with him, I began to feel uneasy. I couldn’t explain it. But I was not totally naive about the lifestyles of people in the entertainment world. Bluntly, I asked the man what he wanted from me. With sickening horror, I realized I was face-to-face with the Hollywood casting couch. The casting director said that he would give me a part in his next film if I paid the price…sexual compromise.
Much later, I discovered just how many are willing to pay that price of the chance at stardom. I asked the casting director to take me home immediately. What he was asking me was out of the question.
Then an acting tryout came through from NBC studios. A script arrived by messenger. What a sensational feeling! A chance to do Harvey Korman’s lines on the Carol Burnett show! Arriving at the studio, I saw Tom Snyder finishing a show on my left. Further on, I saw Bob Hope finishing a Christmas special. I couldn’t believe it! Suddenly my knees began to shake. I stood in front of a monstrosity of a camera and heard the director say “Action!” I froze. Not a line of my memory work came to mind. I ran out of the studio, terrified and embarrassed, a scared 20-year-old kid.
Yet a windfall of calls began pouring in after that! My dream was unfolding father than I would keep up with! Experienced actors were utterly amazed when I told them about the calls I was getting.
Finally, a major breakthrough. An offer came in from the casting director at 20th Century Fox for a part in a series. There was one slight hitch. The director said he wanted to hire me but he couldn’t.
“What?! Why not?”
“Because you are Canadian,”
“Canadian? What do you mean, ‘I’m Canadian?’ So is William Shatner. What does it matter if I am Canadian?”
The problem was simple. I was an illegal alien. I couldn’t be hired for a legal job in the U.S. without a green card or working permit.
“How do I get a green card?” I practically shouted. “I’ll get one! I’ll do anything!”
The next day I handed over $96 for a five-minute appointment to a lawyer who presented me with two options for getting a green card. I could invest $65,000 in a business in the U.S. or I could marry an American girl. What could I do? I didn’t have a quarter to buy a bag of candy! How could I invest in a business? There was only one option. I began to search for an American wife.
The very next day, amazing as it seemed, I met a man who introduced me to a lady who would marry me to get me my green card. The fee was $500. I paid a deposit on the five hundred and two days later, I called to check the progress of the arrangements and I discovered that I had been had. The woman and her “business manager” had disappeared.
Frantic to get my green card, I began combing the L.A. nightclubs in search of a woman who would marry me. A few days later, I met a beautiful young woman who told me that she had fallen instantly in love with me. When she heard about my dilemma, she said she was willing to marry me. In reality, I later realized that since she knew I was to be an actor, she just wanted to marry me to get a cut of the pie.
Elated, I headed my way home and began making plans. Things were falling into place. A wife! A green card! An acting career!
Coincidence?
David began sharing the message of the Bible with me. He told me about God’s love for me, and that God has a special plan for each person’s life.
“What’s the matter,” David asked. “You wanted me to tell you these things!”
“Yes, David, I did. I know I can’t live the way I would have to live if I gave my life to Jesus Christ as you’re encouraging me to do. I know if I did that, I’d have to give it all to Him. There’s too much at stake in my life right now. I can’t do it. Get out! Get out!”
The next morning at ten, I had an appointment with my bride-to-be. I pushed thoughts of David and his message about Jesus Christ out of my mind. It was nine o’clock and there was a knock at the door. I thought my bride-to-be was early. A kindly, tall, black lady stood at the door. She introduced herself as David’s pastor, and said that he told her about him. “When he told me about you, I felt compelled to pray for you throughout the night. Dino do not do whatever you are about to do,” Somehow I felt a warning in my heart to do as she said. I did not realize it at the time, but God had led this woman to my place at the right time. If she had not come, I would have married this woman I hardly knew and God’s plan for my life would have been shattered. When my bride-to-be arrived an hour later, I told her I couldn’t go through with our plans. Deep inside, I had always wanted to marry and build a life with a special person. To marry now and divorce three months later suddenly seemed like such a sham.
“Dino! What about your green card! Don’t throw everything away! Don’t be crazy!”
“Go! Just go!”
“Dino, you have a television series in the palm of your hand!”
However, the next day I decided I was letting go of the chance of a lifetime. It is amazing how when God does something in our lives how quickly we forget about it. All of a sudden, I had to find a wife again. All of my convictions of the day before were forgotten.
My plans were falling like a row of dominoes. In my anguish, despair and confusion, I turned to reading the Bible David had given me … searching for answers … any thread of direction to show me what to do.
I began to read the Word of God and something was happening inside of me. I found myself not just reading, but soaking and immersing myself in the Word. The words spoke life, and I was reading day and night, not being able to put it down. I realized that I needed more than stardom to fill the emptiness in my life. It was then that I asked Jesus to be my personal Savior. I didn’t understand it, but God was breaking the walls of pride in my life so I could open my heart and draw close to Him.
But how could I go preach in Hollywood at 1:30 in the afternoon? Nonetheless, I followed the prompting in my heart and off I went.
“Shut up you idiot” “You’re out of date!” The insults flew fast and thick as I went on the corner of Western and Wilshire and preached the Gospel. People laughed and jeered. “God, what do You have me doing this for? What’s the purpose in all of this? Show me!”
Walking the streets of L.A. and the skid row areas, I began to share the Gospel, day after day. But I hadn’t forgotten about my quest to become an actor. Even though I was serving God, I still wanted to pursue my long held dream of stardom.
“GET OUT OF HERE!!!”
“GET OUT OF HERE!!”
in Psalm 91:11 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
About this time I had an unusual experience. Before I went to sleep one night, I saw something that I will never forget. In a vision, I saw a man preaching the Gospel, with people all around him. As he preached the Gospel, in the midst of his preaching, I heard a loud sound like a trumpet and above me in the clouds, I saw Jesus, clothed in a white robe, His face brighter than sunlight. Suddenly, we were all rising up to meet Jesus together in the air.
“for the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a mighty shout and with the soul–stirring cry of the archangel and the great trumpet call of God. And the believers who are dead will be the first to rise to meet the Lord. Then we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with this news” (1Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Everything began to make sense to me, as though the pieces of a puzzle were being fitted carefully into place in my mind. I recalled the tract from David and the conviction of its words when I had read it. From that point on, my desire to preach the Gospel was renewed.
Once I went to the skid row area of Hollywood. It is a sad, pathetic gathering of destitute, homeless people. Jesus had made himself so real to me. I felt that I had to preach the love of Jesus to others. I began preaching wherever I went. People were giving their lives to Christ as I shared.
Another call for a screen test. I had no green card, but the studio was willing to sponsor me. Another thing that doesn’t happen for nobodies in Hollywood. The enemy was trying his best to keep me as far away from God as possible pursuing my own interests and desires.
“What so you think of common law marriage – modern marriage?”
Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I began preaching the Gospel to those women. I realized only later what I had done. I was preaching in a Hollywood studio! I can’t remember what I had said, but within minutes, most of them had tears running down their faces as God’s conviction took hold of their hearts. One woman was so convicted she ran out of the studio. Being young in God, I thought I hurt her feelings and ran after her.
“You didn’t hurt my feelings,” she said. “You see I once served God whole-heartedly, but I backslid to become an actress.”
Hollywood was not fulfilling me although it looked promising. I realized that when I was after my own pursuits and out of the will of God I was the most empty.
“Don’t call me anymore,”
I felt God’s direction to let go of my Hollywood quest once and for all and to return back home to Montreal. I ended up working in my mother’s boutique as I took time to sort out what God wanted me to do with my life.
A terrible salesman because I was more concerned about sharing the gospel with customers than selling, I soon found out that God had other plans. Before long, it was becoming more like a church than a boutique. I had such a compulsion to share the gospel, and in the church I was attending they reserved the front row every Sunday for the people I brought off the streets. It was then that I was told by a pastor that I had a tremendous call on my life and should go to Bible College.
Bible College? How could I do it? I had cheated all my way through high school. With the help of the Lord and spending the first 2 weeks in Bible College on my knees for His help, I graduated with Honors and was chosen the Baccalaureate Speaker. I began pastoring in a church in Montreal, and later was involved in full time evangelism in Montreal.
