Imagine yourself walking down the halls of Port Arthur’s Thomas Jefferson High School in 1960. Amid the hustle and bustle of the transition period, you could find yourself rubbing shoulders with a young, long-haired and smiling, yet shy senior named Janis Joplin.

Walk a little further and you might find yourself lost in the shadow of junior football star Jimmy Johnson.

And before you turn the corner down yet another hallway, another young man destined for the spotlight might come into view, though neither you nor him, would know it for another few years.

At that time, sophomore G.W. Bailey had aspirations of becoming a lawyer, and changing the world through his arguments in the courtroom. However, the acting bug bit during his junior high years when the T.J. Drama Club brought a performance of “Private Life of the Master Race.”

“It was actually a series of dramatizations of life under the Nazi regime,” Bailey recalls. “It was a story of a young man who turned in his parents. It was a really tough piece, but I was so blown away by it that I said to myself, ‘someday I’d love to be able to do that.’”

A few years later, the youthful Bailey of 2736 14th Street would begin participating in productions for The Port Arthur Little Theatre, and high school as well.

“I loved doing it, but I never thought about doing it professionally.”

After graduation in 1962, Bailey’s began to pursue his law degree at Texas Tech University. It was there he befriended several theatre students who talked him into auditioning for plays.

“And it’s really all I’ve done since,” Bailey said with a smile.

From a young, movie-loving Port Arthur teenager who frequented such establishments as The Sabine, The Strand, The Village, The Port, and the Don Drive-In, Bailey began his professional career working for local theatre companies and ultimately landed himself at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, with such future acting stars as Michael Gross.

After making the move to California, Bailey began appearing in such popular T.V. series as Charlie’s Angels, CHiPs, and Starsky & Hutch. He also began landing parts in sitcoms and feature films before making recurring roles throughout the run of M*A*S*H and St. Elsewhere.

But, it was after Bailey received the role of Lt. Thaddeus Harris in the blockbuster comedy, Police Academy, that he became involved with what he calls the ‘third’ part of his life.

“I have three parts of my life; I have my family life, which consists of my wife, my kids and my grandkids. I have my professional life, which is right now, “The Closer.” And then I have a huge, important part of my life which is the Sunshine Kids Foundation.”