For island actor, life was his stage

He was a 98-year-old artist with an 80-year-old lover named Sophie Greengrass.

He was a Mafia guy, a senator, Charles Shultz and Mister Cellophane.

Dick von Glahn was all of these characters -- and at least 70 more -- on the local stage over the past 30 years.

Upon his death Sunday at 81, we now can see the best role Von Glahn played on Hilton Head Island was ... himself.

Von Glahn was adopted into a family of great wealth. French was his first language because of his nanny. He said he was reared by his chauffeur, was a poor student in boarding school and lasted only three months in college.

But he was a hit on Madison Avenue, handling a big Pepsi-Cola account. He bailed out of the rat race early, moving to Hilton Head in the early 1970s.

He was a recovering alcoholic who quit drinking decades ago, but attended at least one local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting a day and sponsored many colleagues.

His best friends locally were struggling actors and servers in the food and beverage industry.

He was a night owl who joked about getting up "at the crack of noon." He was ritualistic in his routines. He shopped at Piggly Wiggly and always got the same items: Pepsi, white bread, peanut butter and Oreo cookies. He had breakfast daily at the Robert Trent Jones clubhouse in Palmetto Dunes. He went out for dinner every Wednesday with friends, and always ordered, "A hamburger patty, rare; no bun; a slice of onion, raw; and a fruit cup."

He dabbled in community theater in New York but gave it all his energy here. He got warm applause every time he stepped on stage. But those appearances by a bald, 5-foot-6 man who could make anyone smile were, in reality, the least of what he gave us. Without him, we would not have the theater that today forms the backbone of the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. He was on the board of the old community playhouse for 19 years and sometimes wrote personal checks to keep it afloat.

He was always there in a place that was a crossroads for people of all ages and lifestyles. He got his energy from the flow of humanity tripping through the theater, some more gracefully than others.

Von Glahn was divorced and didn't have many relatives in real life. No memorial service is planned. But because the theater helped glue this community together, he leaves a large family.