To the younger male actors in his retinue in Santa Barbara within the Nineteen Seventies, Gary Goddard was an exalted determine. A profitable former theater prodigy, Goddard returned by means of his 20s to direct and mentor youngster actors in his hometown, vowing to convey essentially the most proficient with him to Hollywood. He attracted a relentless orbit of devoted boys others known as the “Goddardites.”
However the seemingly idyllic setting of privilege and promise had a darkish edge for a number of members of the theater group. 4 a long time later, lots of them say they've been haunted by their encounters with Goddard.
Since actor Anthony Edwards wrote in a web based essay final month that Goddard sexually abused him as a pubescent actor in Santa Barbara, seven others from the theater group instructed the Los Angeles Occasions that their former mentor molested or tried to molest them as boys.
They describe Goddard’s advances as starting from straying palms on thighs throughout lulls in a manufacturing or fondling in a darkened Disneyland experience, to repeated incidents of sexual abuse throughout a troupe’s in a single day stays in a statewide tour. As well as, Edwards and one other former theater pupil mentioned in interviews that a classmate who has since died, Scott Drnavich, instructed them that he was sexually assaulted by Goddard as a boy.
Goddard, 65, has led an eclectic and profitable profession directing, producing and writing in Hollywood and on Broadway, and as a designer of theme parks and different points of interest. He declined to be interviewed. His publicist, Sam Singer, disputed the allegations, which he mentioned had been “filled with innuendo and rumour.”
“If it had been potential to show a unfavorable, Mr. Goddard would debate these 40-year-old allegations,” Singer mentioned, however as an alternative would solely “categorically deny” their veracity.
Goddard’s accusers have gone on to attain success in Hollywood and different industries, however they are saying they've grappled with the psychological aftershocks of his alleged abuse. Their private sagas have concerned remedy, tearful revelations to others and dramatic confrontations with the person they as soon as revered.
“It is a man who’s interested in little boys, and attracted within the sickest manner,” mentioned Edwards, an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor recognized for roles in “High Gun” and “ER.” “This isn't love, this isn't friendship what he was doing. It's a horror as a result of it's manipulating younger hearts and minds.”
‘The Misplaced Boys’
For many years, the seaside hamlet about 100 miles north of Los Angeles was a surprisingly busy incubator for Hollywood expertise. Goddard, who graduated from Santa Barbara Excessive Faculty in 1970, acted in and directed pupil productions with budding stars comparable to Timothy Bottoms, who alongside together with his three brothers went on to movie and tv fame.
Goddard, a Disney geek whose mom made sandwiches on the native deli, was on an early comparable observe to success. He majored in theater, dance and movie on the California Institute of the Arts earlier than touchdown a job at Walt Disney Imagineering, the corporate’s vaunted theme park design group, in 1976.
He continued to remain concerned in Santa Barbara, directing youth productions together with “Oliver!” and “Jesus Christ Celebrity.”
To many boys, Goddard was as shut as any member of the family. “He was sort of magical and thrilling,” mentioned Bret Nighman, a former actor who first met Goddard when he was 13. Edwards described Goddard as a “mentor, trainer and pal,” and a “dominant pressure” in his life. Former actor Mark Driscoll mentioned that for a time period the shaggy red-haired auteur turned “a very powerful particular person in my life.”
However there was a draw back to his consideration, a number of of his former proteges mentioned, inflicting them to keep away from being final within the automotive with Goddard, or closest to his mattress on an in a single day journey.
Driscoll mentioned that Goddard repeatedly sexually abused him over the course of three years, although he declined to offer particulars. “I knew I must expertise issues I didn’t need to” every time the mentor visited, he mentioned. 4 Santa Barbara classmates instructed The Occasions that Driscoll knowledgeable them of the sexual abuse throughout a get-together twenty years in the past.
Nighman mentioned that Goddard tried to molest him on 4 events by the point he was 16, culminating in an incident in 1977 on the mentor’s dwelling during which he allegedly rubbed Nighman’s crotch and compelled the boy to reciprocate.
Nighman’s childhood pal Mark Daly, now an lawyer in Denver, mentioned that Nighman instructed him about one of many alleged occurrences of abuse, during which Goddard tried to fondle him throughout a touring manufacturing of “Peter Pan.”
Linus Huffman, who acted in Goddard’s “Oliver!” on the age of 13, alleged that Goddard additionally tried to make use of mentoring in the course of the manufacturing as an overture to the touch him.
“He pulled me apart and put his palms on my legs and went, ‘I’m very pleased with you,’ and was going in direction of my crotch space,” recalled Huffman, who mentioned he extricated himself by telling Goddard he had a present to do.
In accordance with a number of folks interviewed by The Occasions, Goddard’s most brazen habits was exhibited in the course of the “Peter Pan” manufacturing. A part of Santa Barbara-based California Youth Theatre, it featured underage auteurs on summer season break sojourning in a rickety faculty bus to packed playhouses across the state. Goddard directed and choreographed the manufacturing, giving him shut entry to its younger male actors, lots of whom had been taking part in “The Misplaced Boys,” Peter Pan’s tribe of loyal acolytes.
‘A intestine feeling’
Goddard’s closeness to the actors drew suspicion from Barbara Costa, the manufacturing’s self-described “mom hen,” employed to take care of the girls and boys of its forged.
Costa, 83, mentioned in an interview that she turned “extremely suspicious” of Goddard’s habits on the tour, and “the best way Gary collected these boys. They might swirl round him.”
Costa mentioned that Goddard insisted on utilizing a room divider to maintain the opposite adults on the tour away from the boys at evening — after which slept on the boys’ facet.
And on a morning at a camp close to Lake Tahoe the place the troupe stayed in 1977, Costa mentioned that she noticed Edwards strolling as if in bodily ache, with an “terrible expression on his face as if he was about to cry.” (Edwards mentioned he didn’t bear in mind the incident.)
Costa mentioned she took her issues about Goddard to California Youth Theatre founder and director Jack Nakano, however she mentioned he expressed skepticism and requested her for proof. All she had was “a intestine feeling like a mom feels for a kid,” and the matter was dropped, she mentioned. Nakano died in 2009.
In his on-line essay and in an interview, Edwards alleged that Goddard sexually abused him as a toddler actor, however wouldn't in any other case elaborate. Two of his forged mates in “Peter Pan,” nonetheless, described witnessing Goddard molest Edwards throughout that 1977 tour.
Nighman, 15 in the course of the tour, alleged in his personal on-line essay that after bodily combating to maintain him out of his personal mattress and underwear, he watched Goddard pressure his manner into Edwards’ mattress as an alternative and sexually molest him.
One other forged member who requested to not be recognized mentioned that he witnessed Goddard molest Edwards on the tour throughout an in a single day cease at a Lady Scouts camp in San Diego. A number of folks described the beds within the San Diego camp as having been pushed collectively, placing Goddard inside attain of a number of boys.
Edwards corroborated these accounts. “Sure, Gary Goddard molested me on the Peter Pan tour,” he instructed The Occasions in an e mail.
Many dad and mom had been skeptical of Goddard, the previous theater college students mentioned, however their suspicions had been usually assuaged once they defended him as a straight arrow who suggested towards consuming, smoking and medicines.
Edwards mentioned he stored his personal alleged abuse secret from his mom, denying it “by means of tears of full panic” when she requested about rumors that Goddard was a pedophile.
“He drove a stake between youngsters and their dad and mom,” Driscoll mentioned.
Maybe no secret was as bitterly stored because the alleged sexual assault of Drnavich. He was a proficient younger actor, dancer and singer, who was 15 when he performed “Freckles,” one of many Misplaced Boys.
Three folks instructed The Occasions that he later shared with them his declare of childhood sexual abuse.
Edwards mentioned that he and Drnavich confided in one another about their encounters with Goddard. Drnavich, in a match of anger over the lingering impact he mentioned the abuse was having on his grownup relationships, instructed him that Goddard had sexually assaulted him “on many events.”
One other pal of Drnavich, who requested to not be recognized, mentioned that Drnavich instructed him as nicely “that Gary had molested him numerous occasions when he was a minor.”
Lissa Liggett, a childhood pal from Santa Barbara, mentioned that Drnavich instructed her on a number of events of getting been sexually assaulted by an grownup, who he claimed had additionally molested Edwards.
Drnavich died of HIV/AIDS-related issues in 1997. A number of of his mates mentioned that he was haunted by the sexual abuse. “He was such a fantastic, humorous, harmless particular person, which made it worse to look at how he suffered,” Liggett mentioned.
Singer, Goddard’s publicist, mentioned that Drnavich is “not with us to disclaim this and can't communicate for himself” however offered letters which he mentioned confirmed the “heat and constructive” relationship the 2 males had as little as seven months earlier than Drnavich’s loss of life. The letters, in accordance with Singer, thanked Goddard for a pc and a digital camera for his enterprise.
Drnavich’s mom, Arline Drnavich, mentioned that her son by no means disclosed to her any sexual abuse. Goddard was a giant a part of Drnavich’s life and “very respectful,” she mentioned, notably after her son’s loss of life.
Drnavich, 88, mentioned she realized within the final month that her late son’s mates had been circulating the allegation that he mentioned he had been sexually assaulted. “It’s arduous to grasp, however it’s very hurtful, that’s for certain,” she mentioned.
An indignant confrontation
As Goddard’s profile grew in Hollywood, he retained hyperlinks to the boys he had encountered in Santa Barbara. His most vital movie credit score is as director of 1987’s “Masters of the Universe,” a essential and business flop, however as a supervisor he launched the careers of hometown youngsters Edwards and Eric Stoltz.
And he developed a profession as a designer of theme parks and different points of interest, co-founding Landmark Leisure Group with a former Santa Barbara classmate. The corporate had backing from Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who was partnered with late pop star Michael Jackson. Goddard later based the Goddard Group, which has been concerned in multibillion-dollar initiatives, together with the design of mega-casinos in China.
Goddard is taking a depart of absence as CEO in order that the corporate can “proceed their initiatives undistracted by latest allegations,” the corporate introduced final month.
He employed a number of former Santa Barbara proteges to work for him in Landmark and in different roles. These included Driscoll, an govt at Landmark from 1987 by means of 1996.
Singer, in denying the allegations, questioned accusers who “maintained private and professional relationships with Mr. Goddard nicely into maturity, and now, out of the blue, are making false, disparaging and defamatory statements.”
Driscoll cited “the long-lasting sort of affect and energy” that he mentioned Goddard nonetheless had over him.
In 1990, whereas nonetheless employed by Landmark, Driscoll mentioned that in a get-together with a bunch of shut mates from the Santa Barbara theater, certainly one of them broke down crying, alleging that he had been sexually abused as a toddler by Goddard.
In accordance with Driscoll, the opposite males shared their very own allegations about Goddard, till all six males within the shut pal group had disclosed that he had sexually abused them as kids.
4 of the opposite males concerned corroborated Driscoll’s account of the confessional, and described to The Occasions their very own allegations of getting been sexually abused by Goddard as kids. They every requested to not be named on this article.
One of many males alleged that Goddard molested him throughout a cease on the “Peter Pan” tour, by unzipping his sleeping bag and fondling him. One other alleged that Goddard masturbated him on a drive dwelling from Disneyland. A 3rd former pupil alleged a number of years of “shock assaults” involving “aggressive kissing” and groping by Goddard, together with an episode of fondling in a darkish experience at Disneyland. A fourth man mentioned that on in a single day visits as a youngster to Florida — the place Goddard was directing stage exhibits for Disney World — and Los Angeles, Goddard had him sleep in the identical mattress as him and masturbated him.
Fueled by “anger and disbelief,” Driscoll mentioned, the group of males drove that evening to Goddard’s dwelling close to the Hollywood Reservoir, the place they banged on the door and confronted their “white-faced and quiet” former mentor. Driscoll mentioned that Goddard listened to their grievances and apologized.
In a press release to The Occasions, Janie Mudrick — mom to Goddard’s youngster — denied Driscoll’s allegations that Goddard abused him. Mudrick, a Santa Barbara native, mentioned she was 13 when she met Goddard, who was 18, and there was “by no means any indication or proof of any of the claims” involving Driscoll. Referring to Driscoll’s allegation that Goddard “groomed” his victims, Mudrick mentioned it “wasn’t grooming — it was care.”
In his personal account, Edwards mentioned that he confronted Goddard concerning the sexual abuse throughout an encounter at an airport twenty years in the past. Edwards wrote that Goddard “swore to his regret and mentioned that he had gotten assist,” and that he “felt a brief sense of aid.”
However that aid dissipated in 2014, Edwards mentioned, when Goddard was accused in two federal lawsuits of sexually abusing underage boys within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s. (The fits had been voluntarily dismissed inside a 12 months, with an lawyer for the plaintiffs apologizing to 2 different defendants for together with them within the claims. Goddard’s publicist known as the litigation “fraudulent.”) Edwards’ “rage resurfaced” at Goddard, he mentioned, and mates directed him to a therapist specializing within the remedy of sexual abuse victims.
He mentioned he drafted his essay implicating Goddard when he lastly felt “capable of speak about it as a survivor and never as a sufferer.” Earlier than he determined to publish the account, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was publicly accused of alleged sexual assault and harassment, opening the floodgates for grievances about different alleged abusers. Edwards printed his account Nov. 10, spurring others to inform their very own tales about Goddard.
“In a way, it’s actually my ‘me too,’” mentioned Edwards, who added that he’s since been inundated with correspondence from victims of sexual abuse. “The quantity of letters and emails I’ve gotten has been heartbreaking, but in addition incredible as a result of individuals are therapeutic.”
gus.garcia-roberts@latimes.com
Twitter: @ggarciaroberts
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