Tom Nowicki is accustomed to being recognized in public: “Hey, aren’t you that guy who was in that thing?” Such indeterminate familiarity is to be expected by any actor who has spent the past 50-plus years appearing in films and television programs playing supporting (albeit often showy) character parts.
Likewise, Nowicki has frequently been mistaken for Kris Kristofferson (with whom he appeared, alongside Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, in 2011’s Dolphin Tale). That, of course, is likely to happen less often since Kristofferson died in 2024.
Nowadays, however, the 1973 graduate of Winter Park High School is being routinely recognized as the mainstream celebrity he has finally become through a pivotal role in the hit Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey, which was the No. 1 show on the network this past fall and the No. 3 show across all streaming platforms.
“This is now the lesson I teach to all young actors,” says the self-deprecating Nowicki, whose goateed visage and long hair (bleached colorless from exposure to swimming-pool chlorine) really does make him resemble Kristofferson. “Just hang in there for 50 years or so and your dreams will come true.”
As Nowicki shares this nugget of wisdom with a reporter friend at the Panera on Park Avenue, two starstruck young women approach and ask if they may have their pictures taken with him. Why, of course they can! Several other locals who have spotted the actor patiently await their turns for autographs and selfies.
“I’ve represented Tom for more than 20 years, and I can tell you it’s an honor to work with an actor of his caliber,” says Traci Danielle, his agent in the southeast and founder of the Brevard Talent Group in Orlando. (Nowicki is also represented by Clear Talent Group in Los Angles and New York.) “He’s a chameleon. He can play any role. But he’s also so humble and kind and grounded.”
MAKIN’ MEMORIES
Bad Monkey was executive producer Bill Lawrence’s (Scrubs, Cougar Town, Spin City, Ground Floor, Ted Lasso and Shrinking) 10-installment black comedy adapted from the 2013 Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name about quick-witted former Key West police detective Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), who—following the discovery by fishermen of a severed human arm in the ocean—is drawn into a world of greed and corruption that spans South Florida and The Bahamas.
Nowicki plays Captain Fitzpatrick, the grizzled fishing boat skipper who appears in the first handful of episodes but is omnipresent throughout the series as the in-character narrator, connecting numerous subplots and brusquely (but hilariously) recapping previous episodes for those of us too slow to follow the twists and turns typical of a story by Hiaasen.
Critics ultimately praised Nowicki almost as much as they did the peripatetic Vaughn. And that’s quite a feat, especially considering that the noir-style narration was added as an afterthought to capture more of Hiaasen’s expository humor and whimsical voice, which character dialogue alone would have missed.
Wrote GQ: ‘It’s all guided along by the warm, grizzled tones of narrator Tom Nowicki, who makes Hiaasen’s words leap off the page.” For example, when psychopathic criminal mastermind Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner) misbehaves, Captain Fitzpatrick matter-of-factly notes: “Eve knew she might get a UTI from banging in the Jacuzzi but still felt it was worth it.”
Added Vulture: “Nowicki delivers [his lines] with a gravelly bluntness that makes it sounds like he’s telling us this story between sips of Corona. Instead of grating, the narration grows on you.” Concluded Rolling Stone: “The whole thing feels extremely Florida, in the best way possible.”
In fact, one of Captain Fitzpatrick’s utterances became the tagline for the show. After vacationing anglers reel in the aforementioned putrefying limb (on which rigor mortis has twisted the fingers into an obscene gesture), the sunbaked old salt leans over the railing on the helm and notes nonchalantly: “Well, we’re in the memory-making’ business.”
The narration, which was partially original and partially taken word for word from the book and recorded by Nowicki in an Orlando studio, was added nearly a year after filming was complete in Miami and Key West. It was basically Hiaasen’s idea, according to an interview by Bill Lawrence with Deadline.
“Carl and I were all talking, and he said that he often feels like a lot of his stories are fishing stories,” said Lawrence. “That gave us the idea to have it be the captain, the fisherman, when he says in the beginning, ‘I’ll tell you something about fishing stories, they always start on a boat.’ And we [had] cast an actor who sounded to us like The Big Lebowski.”
Nowicki, a fan of Hiaasen’s books, naturally agreed with the fateful decision because, he says, “Hiaasen is, first of all, funny. [The narration] felt very different and had a lightness to it. I had high expectations and every reason to think it was going to be successful.”
A Miami Herald columnist for more than 40 years before he retired in 2021, Hiaasen has written 21 best-selling novels, usually humorous crime thrillers with themes related to environmental issues and political corruption in the Sunshine State. (Prior to Bad Monkey, his books hadn’t been well served by movie adaptations—which is self-evident to anyone who saw 1996’s Striptease.)
In any case, Bad Monkey reaffirmed Nowicki’s stature as Winter Park’s favorite resident actor. “It’s great to be able to work and then come back to a place I can call home,” says Nowicki, whose family moved here from Detroit in 1968, when he was in middle school. “It’s so easy to live here. It’s friendly and accessible and green.”
AN ACTOR’S TALE
Nowicki has been in so many television programs—more than 100 credits and counting—that a dedicated couch surfer might see him portraying a hapless prosecutor on a rerun of Matlock, and then, with the click of a button, see him again, this time portraying a Polish counteragent on a rerun of Burn Notice.
He has also been in at least 60 feature films, covering an array of genres—comedy, drama, action, science fiction and horror. But, until Bad Monkey, perhaps his most high-profile role was in the biographical sports drama The Blind Side (2009), starring Sandra Bullock, who won an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Nowicki portrayed the uncompromising literature teacher whose class promising football prospect Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) must pass to become eligible for a college scholarship. (Spoiler alert: Nowicki’s character comes through, and Oher goes on to become an All-American at Old Miss and plays for eight seasons in the NFL.)
But for every Blind Side-style blockbuster—which Nowicki says pays the bills—there’ve been meatier roles in edgy independent productions, stints on network and cable television programs, and even gigs as a villainous professional wrestling manager and a caddish roller-derby mogul.
His prodigious work ethic was the result of training by the late Ann Derflinger, the legendary, no-nonsense drama teacher at Winter Park High School who inspired him, encouraged him—and, with her intensity and perfectionism, terrified him.
She also cast him in his first role, as Reverend Hale in the school’s 1972 production of The Crucible. He had never acted—his career goal was to be a doctor—and had only auditioned because doing so, he was told, would earn him extra credit in his literature class.
“I was scared of her at first,” recalls Nowicki of the 5-foot-tall force of nature who exerted—and still exerts—an outsized influence in his life. “I think I’d be a little scared of her now. She believed in the theater. When you got praise from her, which was rare, it was exhilarating. It was as though she, and she alone, spoke for the theater gods. Her approval meant everything.”
Derflinger, who also idolized actor Paul Newman, encouraged Nowicki to study drama at Yale University, at least in part because Newman had studied there. What Derflinger apparently didn’t realize—nor did Nowicki, until he arrived in New Haven as a freshman—was that Yale had recently dropped its undergraduate theater program.
There were student productions—Nowicki directed two of them—and the chance to audit classes at the renowned Yale School of Drama. But that was exclusively a graduate program. “So, I found myself in the classics department, studying in Greek,” he says. “The classes were tiny, and the faculty members were ridiculously brilliant. I’d learn as much having dinner at their homes than I’d learn in a classroom.”
But Nowicki was frustrated by the lack of an undergraduate theater program. So in 1977 he returned to Winter Park, where he began appearing in plays at Rollins College. There, he fell under the influence of another memorable character, theater director Robert Juergens, who cast him in The Runner Stumbles, The Norman Conquest and One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest.
“Dr. Juergens was really cunning about his process,” says Nowicki. “He pretended to be this gruff, no-navel-gazing kind of guy. But his work was as deep as anybody’s. And he taught young, self-absorbed actors a critical lesson: The real craft of acting, along with honesty and passion, is being loud and clear enough that the audience can recognize all the clever things you’re doing.”
Nowicki then returned to New Haven and graduated from Yale in 1978 with a degree in English literature—Greek had simply become too difficult, he says—then was off to the U.K., where he studied Shakespearean and classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
“I loved London so much that I begged every female classmate to marry me, so I could get a visa and stay,” he says. “But despite what you might hear about British schoolgirls, they’re not easily fooled.”
So Nowicki decamped to Winter Park to plot his next move and began auditioning for plays statewide, getting his Actors’ Equity card in 1980 and beginning his professional career. He landed his first film role in 1984’s Harry & Son, starring Paul Newman (of all people) and Robbie Benson.
The film was directed by Newman, who was gracious and surprisingly tolerant of the nervous newcomer who accidentally backed his character’s Corvette into a bank of lights. Recalls Nowicki: “I was sure I was going to be whipped or fired—or both.”
In fact, Nowicki became friendly with Newman, and told him about Derflinger, who was by then gravely ill: “Paul said, ‘Tom, have your script?’ I got my script and took it to his trailer. On it he wrote a long, personal note to Miss Derflinger, thanking her for the work she’d done inspiring young actors. He even signed a photograph—something he almost never did— for me to give to her.”
Back in Winter Park, Nowicki presented the script and picture to Derflinger, who was hospitalized and nearing the end. He recalls: “That was the first time I’d ever seen her not entirely poised.” Derflinger died months later, at just 44, and was buried in Winter Park’s Palm Cemetery.
Nowicki and a handful of his longtime theater buddies made a poignant visit to Derflinger’s grave during their 50-year high-school reunion in 2023. They shared memories of this meticulously stylish woman known to favor strong perfume. That scent, plus the rapid-fire clip-clop of her high heels, warned backstage slackers of her approach.
“I can even still smell her,” says Nowicki, who adds that Derflinger’s insistence that nothing less than 100 percent commitment was acceptable —even in high school productions—continues to guide him. “She knew how much it meant. That’s stayed with me.”
Nowicki’s early career was during the heady time when community leaders were touting Orlando as “Hollywood East.” A handful of films were shot here—none of which were particularly distinguished—and Nowicki was cast in most of them: from Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) with Jim Varney to The Waterboy (1998) with Adam Sandler.
Also in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nowicki had recurring television roles in The New Leave It to Beaver, Superboy and Swamp Thing, all of which were shot in Orlando. He later played a Russian astronaut in The Cape, a series filmed in and around Cape Canaveral in Brevard County.
Hollywood East was, in time, revealed to be a well-intentioned but boosterish illusion that dissipated as state incentives dried up and sound stages were closed or repurposed at Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney Hollywood Studios) and Universal Studios. Nowicki, although he never moved from Winter Park, was compelled to cast a wider net for roles.
HEELS AND FACES
Nowicki’s most interesting work, at the time, wasn’t in television or film: it was in the “squared circle,” as the late Gordon Solie, the dean of professional wrestling announcers, described the enclosure in which musclebound behemoths enact carefully scripted—but often brutal—matches that featured body slams, arm locks, drop kicks, sleeper holds and figure-four leglocks.
In 1987, Nowicki noticed a classified ad for an Orlando-based “wrestling school.” He was intrigued—it was not then widely known just how choreographed professional wrestling was—and enrolled. After all, wrestling was nothing if not theatrical.
The game 165-pound actor was taught the tricks of the trade by Rocky Montana, a veteran heel (a bad guy, in wrestling parlance, while good guys are called “babyfaces” or “faces”). Montana’s small-time Dixie Wrestling Alliance staged matches in local armories and high school gyms.
The seemingly mismatched pair became close and Nowicki was welcomed into the carny culture that wrestling exemplifies. “I just thought [wrestling] would be fun to go and do, and write about,” says Nowicki, who at the time contributed freelance stories about topics that interested him to local magazines. “And it was.”
The tale of Nowicki’s association with the Dixie Wrestling Alliance became a hilarious—and at times poignant—magazine piece that described his rough-and-tumble training regimen. (Check it out in the Summer 2020 issue of Winter Park Magazine.)
The story sympathetically explored the sometimes-desperate dreams of grappling glory harbored by about a dozen other students, all of whom grew up idolizing the likes of Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair. Nowicki didn’t have the bulk to make a credible wrestler—but he used a pompous thespian persona to create “Lord Larry Oliver,” an unscrupulous manager of heels.
Nowicki also recognized that wrestling could appeal to playgoers with a sense of humor and persuaded Montana to stage a program of matches at Theater Downtown, an Orlando performance venue frequented by arts-loving hipsters.
A full house enjoyed the no-holds-barred evening, which presaged by a decade the wholesale melding of wrestling and show business by Vince McMahon Jr. and the World Wrestling Federation. The event may have marked the first time that wrestling was presented as legitimate theater.
Sadly—or perhaps fortunately, at least for him—Nowicki’s wrestling career was ended by injuries he sustained during a Battle Royale, in which a cadre of wrestlers attempt to toss one another over the top rope. The last man standing is declared the winner—but that man was not Lord Larry Oliver, who suffered a broken nose and a shattered cheekbone as the result of a hard fall.
Later, from 1999 to 2001, Nowicki’s wrestling background informed his portrayal of the disreputable Kenneth Loge III on Spike TV’s RollerJam, a glitzy revival of the down-and-dirty roller derby programs that were popular in the 1950s. (The show was, conveniently for Nowicki, taped at Universal Studios.)
The self-righteous Loge—billed as “the most hated man in sports”— was “commissioner” of the World Skating League and one of three triplets fighting for dominance. Nowicki also played brothers Benny and Lenny as well as their mother, Drucilla.
Even Senator John McCain wanted in on the fun. During the 2000 presidential primaries, McCain’s campaign contacted producers to ask if Loge would appear alongside the candidate for the GOP presidential nomination at a rally in Florida.
Why any credible campaign adviser believed that this pairing would bolster McCain’s chances remains a mystery—although, as we have subsequently seen, stranger things have happened in politics. “We told them that [Loge] had already endorsed Pat Buchanan,” says Nowicki, who figured that the paleoconservative pundit would be precisely the sort of candidate that the overbearing roller derby mogul would have favored.
At the same time, less incendiary film and television work continued unabated. Nowicki’s big-budget theatrical credits included Remember the Titans (2000), a feel-good high-school football flick starring Denzel Washington, and The Punisher (2004), a vigilante action thriller based upon the Marvel Comics character of the same name.
In The Punisher, Nowicki played a machine-gun toting bad guy who gets his comeuppance. In fact, his character’s brutal onscreen slaying was judged by Fangoria (a magazine for fans of horror films) to be among the “Top 10 Deaths in Film History.” Since then, it’s been an unbroken string of indie movies and television appearances.
In fact, Nowicki has for years (arguably decades) been almost ubiquitous on television—a household face if not a household name—and some of the roles have been pretty cool. For example, he played the ne’er-do-well father of the two sibling protagonists in 2019’s Lodge 49, produced by Academy Award-nominated actor Paul Giamatti.
Lodge 49 ran on AMC and was ranked by Time magazine as No. 5 on its list of the season’s Best TV Shows. (Another effusive review was offered by The New York Times.) But the series was, perhaps, just a little too offbeat and ended on a cliffhanger after just two seasons—a frustrating state of affairs for its audience of cult followers.
In 2021, Nowicki was featured in Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin as the patriarch of an Amish family that conceals a ghastly secret. The film, an installment of the “Paranormal Activity” supernatural horror franchise, was set for a theatrical release but because of COVID-19 was streamed instead on Paramount+. The critical consensus: polished but not scary enough.
Neither project was really a game-changer (although Lodge 49 should have been). Still, Nowicki has never truly lacked for work. He stays as busy as he needs to stay to earn a comfortable living and—despite the usual ups and downs of his profession—he has never endured a prolonged dry spell.
Now, with the success of Bad Monkey, his agents believe that he’ll be in greater demand for larger roles. “It’s been a mixed blessing in that regard,” says Nowicki. “Now, with that show getting so much attention, I’m auditioning for roles against people who are a lot more famous than I am.”
So, what about a sophomore season for Bad Monkey? Hiaasen’s book was a complete story with a bloody ending (no spoilers). There was, however, a sequel: 2016’s Razor Girl, which continues the adventures of Andrew Yancy and features other major characters from Bad Monkey, including Captain Fitzpatrick.
DOG’S BEST FRIEND
Nowicki certainly hopes there’s a second season—Vaughn and Lawrence have teased it—but in the meantime he remains busy with auditions and with Hip Dog Canine Hydrotherapy & Fitness, the passion project that he co-founded in 2001 with his friend, Kristina Lake Latimer, a Rollins graduate who lives in Baldwin Park. Both trained in canine hydrotherapy at Angel’s Gate, a nonprofit hospice and rehabilitation center for animals in upstate New York.
Hip Dog offers treatment for aging animals that have mobility issues as a result of such conditions as arthritis and amputation. Nowicki and Lattimer—after overcoming an absurd number of regulatory hurdles—have recently opened a brand-new treatment facility with a heated saltwater swimming pool at 1860 Anzell Avenue (near AdventHealth Winter Park). They are welcoming furry new patients.
Nowicki, it’s fair to say, loves dogs more than he loves most people and is constantly in the company of Bart, a humongous 9-year-old mastiff (mostly mastiff, anyway) who is as gentle as he is gigantic. When he isn’t traveling or attending to patients at Hip Dog, Nowicki and Bart can usually be found at dog-friendly Lake Baldwin Park.
“Having dogs has changed my life in profound ways,” says Nowicki, who adopted his first dog, a sainted Labrador retriever mix whom he named Shea, in 1994. Shea, in fact, provided the impetus for Nowicki—and like-minded locals with dogs who liked to romp—to successfully lobby the city for creation of an off-leash area in a little-used tract then known as Fleet Peeples Park.
What, then, does Nowicki’s future hold? Danielle, his agent, says she expects his career to accelerate because of the widespread acclaim for Bad Monkey. “You know, all actors are just one role away from having their lives changed,” she says. “And I think Tom was born to play Captain Fitzpatrick. When I first read the script, I thought: ‘Oh, this guy is Tom.’”
Nowicki would, of course, love to play Captain Fitzpatrick again—but even if he doesn’t, what does an actor do but act? “I’ve never had another serious job,” he says. “I’ve never wavered or had any thought of finding something else to do. I’m at the stage of my career where I still have a chance to be a big dog—and if not, at least I can provide support to a different big dog.”
BREAKING NEWS
Just as Winter Park Magazine was going to press, producer Bill Lawrence announced that the Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey would be renewed for a second season. Tom Nowicki, who played Captain Fitzpatrick and, to much critical acclaim, was the in-character narrator for the inaugural 10-episode run, was expected to return along with other cast members, including Vince Vaughn as Detective Andrew Yancy. Few other details were available at press time except that the second season will not, as speculated, be based on Razor Girl, the other Carl Hiaasen novel that featured Yancy. Instead, it will be an original story “inspired” by Hiaasen. Further information, including anticipated air times, will be announced at a later date.
HYDROTHERAPY 101
Canine hydrotherapy can help treat a wide range of injuries and health conditions. The low-impact nature of hydrotherapy exercise allows for its use in patients of all ages, including geriatric patients with arthritis and muscle atrophy or wasting, according to the American Kennel Club.
Hydrotherapy can be used as part of a very specific, structured program with the goal of easing discomfort in pets, improving function after injury or surgical procedures, and even optimizing conditioning of animal athletes.
Could your dog be healthier, and for a longer time? Yes, according to Tom Nowicki and Kristina Lake Lattimer, trained hydrotherapists and co-founders of Hip Dog Canine Hydrotherapy & Fitness in Winter Park, now in its 24th year and in a brand-new facility with a heated saltwater pool.
For more information about canine hydrotherapy, visit Hip Dog at 1860 Anzell Avenue, Winter Park, or call 407-921-5956. Also check it out online at hipdogcaninehydrotherapy.com.