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Flipper's Pal Still Splashing
Show Launched Lifetime Career
May 3, 1998
Orlando Sentinel
By Maria M. Perotin of The Sentinel Staff
DELTONA - At 14, Luke Halpin was an adventuresome imp in cutoffs and sneakers, whose frequent brushes with danger ended in heroic rescues by his lovable pet dolphin.
At least that's how fans of the TV classic Flipper remember the child star who portrayed Sandy Ricks.
Decades later, the Deltona resident still has the mischievous grin that once made adolescent girls swoon, and he continues to earn his living amid the familiar territory of scuba tanks and movie cameras.
Halpin, 51, hasn't landed many leading roles since Flipper's television run ended in 1968; mostly, he has played characters like Fisherman No. 3 and Second Patrolman. But his years of ocean-based acting helped the New York native carve out a career in films - as a diver, stunt double and boat operator.
Those are skills Halpin started learning early, when he won the part of Sandy in the original 1963 movie, Flipper. Acting talent was a secondary criteria, he said, compared to the crux of the job.
"It was swimming, basically swimming," Halpin remembered. "I got something that's every kid's dream."
Halpin was 12 years old and performing in a Broadway play - helping to pay his family's bills after his father was seriously injured in an accident - when he was discovered by the movie's producer.
"We talked about whether or not I could swim. We went to the YMCA that Sunday. Two weeks later, I was in Nassau," Halpin said.
Soon after came the real test: winning the approval of Mitzy, the female dolphin that played Flipper.
"I walked out on the dock, and we made eye contact," Halpin said. "We were immediate friends."
On the Flipper set, as well as during the movie sequel and subsequent TV show, Halpin developed his lifelong affection for dolphins. With five different dolphins working on the TV program simultaneously, he had ample opportunities - watching a nursing mother care for her newborn, hearing one dolphin call another to point out an interesting spectacle, receiving a tender nudge from a dolphin after a hard day of work.
And there was the time Mitzy seemed to realize that Halpin needed air while shooting an underwater scene. So she grabbed him by the belt loop and hoisted the boy to the surface.
"The dolphins are very special animals. They're very unusual creatures. They know how to play. They know how to lure you into a game," Halpin said. "I don't think they have an alphabet like we do, but they have a language."
Although Halpin hasn't shared a set with a dolphin since childhood, he said he has worked with sharks during the making of some James Bond movies.
His more recent credits include Wild Things and Speed 2, where the licensed boat captain transported actors from land to sea. It's a tough way to earn a living for a one-time celebrity who'd rather be starring in movies, but Halpin said he thinks of the work as "a real-life adventure."
"After every film, you're unemployed," he said. "There's good years and bad years."
During the dry spells, one thing remains consistent - the handful of fan letters that Halpin receives each month.
His wife, Deborah, who grew up in Canada and doesn't remember ever seeing Flipper, said people still seem to identify with the innocence and fun of the show.
"We get tons of mail. We get a lot from Germany," Deborah Halpin said. "Nostalgia, that's all that we get in the letters."
Luke Halpin has his own theory about the program's lingering popularity. The show's fashions and themes are timeless, he said, and its lush Floridian setting offers couch-bound viewers the illusion of a vacation.
"They're basically half-hour morality plays. They were simple stories, and they were fun to watch," he said.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-05-03/news/9805010749_1_luke-halpin-dolphin-flipper