His long and successful career of a thousand movies and TV shows (plus, plus) includes an Emmy, an Academy Award and numerous other accolades; the magic world knows him for the “Blister” effect, but really, who is Jack Kent Tillar?
Jack has four great passions, his brilliant family, composing, mental magic and the sea! He always lives by or on the ocean and was a naval officer for over a decade.
His mom wanted her first born son (she knew it was going to be a boy) to appreciate music, so she implored her father-in-law to buy the family a piano. She played it religiously during the pregnancy. It worked! At 4, John (later Jack) began lessons.
At 9, a friend took him to Hollywood Magic. He was mesmerized by a cut rope that magically restored itself and tiny sponges that jumped from one mini cup to another!
For his 11th birthday, he got volume one of Tarbell and devoured it! More than magic, he learned stagecraft, lighting, how to routine and what makes good theatre.
(He even made gimmicks from tin cans for his Ben Chavez College of Magic tuition!)
At 13 he was a school stage manager, at 14 a TV magician and at 15, he fell in love--- with Jennifer Jones, a bewitching film star of the forties. He wrote her a concerto!
In high school, Dunninger was the rage, so Jack and a young radio actress he directed in drama class plays (who, not surprisingly, looked a lot like Jennifer Jones,) started doing Annemann's En Rapport. He studied the Trick Brain. Success became a habit.
At USC, due to the heavy solids load required of a Midshipman, he couldn't major in music, TV or cinema so he studied psychology to become a better director and writer. He composed, wrote and produced Varsity Shows, song festivals, “Trolios” and had the highest paid sustaining show,“The Club El Teen,” on channel 9. Tempting offers came in---but so did the Korean conflict. Years later, he started at the bottom of CBS.
Because of his “grease paint” mentality (and having done some homework for a now big TV exec,) he was on the fast track. At one point, he even was a junior exec in cost control at CBS Television City under Bill Larsen (yes, the Prez, Bill Larsen, Jr.!) He ultimately took over composer Jerry Goldsmith's position in the music department.
He supervised the music for many live shows during TV's Golden Age---shows like Playhouse 90 and Climax! and then film shows like Perry Mason and Twilight Zone. At Desilu and Columbia, he supervised many episodes of The Untouchables, Naked City, Route 66, etc. He was David Wolper's music director for 12 years on epics like Jacque Cousteau series, Roots, National Geographic Shows (for 27 years) and movies like Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He composed That's Incredible!, Bob Hope for 10 years, CBS Specials: E.T., Star Wars, Indiana Jones and many TV Series.
He's in Tarbell, Magick, Genii, Invocation, Talisman, etc. Retirement? No way. He is writing Broadway musicals and again enjoying family, friends and mental magic!