LINFIELDER DAN KOENIG (Class of 1970) from the drama of the courtroom as an attorney, to the drama of the movie set, as an actor. This story is about…
LINFIELD AT THE MOVIES
By Dan Koenig, Linfield Class of 1970. This article was written March 23, 2020. It has been slightly/lightly edited by Wildcatville.
As this article was, so to speak, going to press, Variety, an American magazine which has covered entertainment since 1905, highly praised the movie “Apache Junction” (mentioned below) in a review. Variety calls it “satisfying” old-fashioned western. Read the review at URL below: https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/apache-junction-review-1235071786/amp/
…………….
LINFIELD AT THE MOVIES
A dry wind blows across the New Mexican plain, generated by large Hollywood fans. A rusty western windmill creaks to life, camera left. A tumbleweed rolls down a dusty street, on cue. The Hero walks out of the familiar saloon, hand on his six-shooter, lighted perfectly.
Linfield is about to go to the movies.
Dan Koenig, Linfield Class of 1970, carefully dressed in outlaw garb, by Chief Costume Designer Samantha Kuester, Linfield Class of 2001, springs from behind hay bales and boxes and fires four shots at our hero. The hay bales, boxes, and other set props are carefully prepared and placed by Sanford Worth, Chief Production Designer. Sanford's younger brother is Linfield tennis player Will Worth, Linfield Class of 2021.
Hollywood is filming a classic Spaghetti Western, and Linfield is all over the set.
Samantha Kuester majored in Political Science with an emphasis in History and Spanish. She was a mainstay on Linfield's Women's Lacrosse team. After graduation, she went on to achieve a Masters in Fine Arts from UCLA, and began chasing her dream as a movie costume designer.
Operating out of a star trailer, Samantha brings movies to life with carefully chosen, period appropriate clothing, hats, boots, and neckerchiefs. From saloon girls to soldiers; from schoolmarms to gunfighters, her array of costumes are indispensable.
Samantha credits Linfield with giving her a sense of history to gain the right perspective on costuming. With her assistant, she starts at sun-up every shooting day, making sure the stars and extras are all fitted for the day's filming. After a 12- or 14-hour shoot, she collects, cleans, and organizes each costume for the next day.
And what does she do with her free time on the set? Well. there isn't any.
The reward...as credits roll at film's end and everyone files out of the theater. there on the silver screen...Samantha Kuester, Costume Designer.
Sanford Worth, Production Designer, makes all the movie props. That sepia-toned, weathered, 1880's "wanted poster" on the jailhouse was produced that morning by Sanford. He scoured the nearby desert for tumbleweeds. and when the director yells, "Action," he rolls them out into the wind-blown street.
He uses up to 18 3-D printers to produce elaborate props. All period piece bottles in the saloon along with the whiskey (sweet tea) and mugs of beer (ginger ale) are staged by Sanford. He carefully cellphone photographs the poker game scenes, so every card remains in the same hand. take after take.
Sanford is very proud of his brother Will. He is a big Linfield booster.
That saloon girl in the brocade red dress chatting up the cowboys in barroom scenes is extras actress Teresa Welch. Teresa was born in Astoria, Oregon. Her father, William "Norman" Welch, Linfield Class of 1952, received his Bachelors and Master’s degrees from Linfield.
Well, Dan Koenig's four shots all miss Our Hero. In the return fire of the gunfight. Dan is hit by the star's blazing pistol. Dan flies backward. landing on a four-inch foam pad, carefully hidden behind the hay bales. The stunt team has also fitted him with elbow and knee pads under his costume. As a member of Linfield's Northwest Conference Champion Wrestling Team in 1968, Dan's teammates might say he was experienced in lying on his back on a mat.
Our Hero continues down that dusty street, Colt 45's blazing, and dispatching bad guys into the setting western sun.
Linfield's there at "Apache Junction."
::::
More about the author, Linfielder Dan Koenig.
=Dan grew up in Longview, Washington, and graduated in 1966 from R. A. Long High School of Longview. He decided to attend Linfield because of its liberal arts influence and a partial wrestling scholarship. As a freshman he was his class representative at large. He was his sophomore class president and ASLC/Associated Students of Linfield College vice present as a senior, 1969-1970. Dan was a member of the Linfield Wildcats wrestling team which won the Northwest Conference championship in 1968. He and Dan Jones won individual conference championships that year.
In 1970, after graduating with a B.A. in Political Science, Dan and classmate Duane “Dusty” Rhodes (also R. A. Long 1966 and Linfield 1970) joined the USMC/U.S. Marine Corps and entered the USMC Officer Program. Each went through Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia. Dan was commissioned a Marine 2nd Lieutenant in 1970.
=Prior to joining the USMC, Dan had taken the LSAT/Law School Admission Test and applied to attend a couple law schools. “The Marine Corps asked if I wanted to go on USMC Reserve duty, attend law school, and then come back on active duty.” He accepted the opportunity and enrolled in the Willamette University Truman Wesley Collins School of Law in Salem. He graduated from the law school in 1973 with a Juris Doctorate degree.
=Following law school graduation and passing the Oregon State Bar exam he served four years, two months, and 27 days, on active duty in the USMC. He served overseas duty in Okinawa, and several other bases, serving primarily as a Staff Judge Advocate, but also in other duties occasionally.
=Upon Marine Corps discharge in 1977, he joined the Lane County, Oregon, District Attorney’s Office in Eugene. Dan served more than seven and one-half years as an Assistant District Attorney. During that time, he prosecuted major felony cases and supervised the interagency narcotics team. He received a federal Drug Enforcement Administration certification as a Narcotic Team Supervisor.
In 1984, Dan left the District Attorney's Office and formed a law firm in Eugene with his former boss, (former) District Attorney Pat Horton. “We had a mid-sized law firm for 17 years. I defended many major felony cases including trials in 26 of Oregon's 36 counties. I tried cases in seven western states and one Canadian province.”
In 2001, Dan left the law firm and started his own private practice. “I primarily defended death penalty cases throughout the state. I also served as defense attorney for a number of University of Oregon football players and several Nashville country/western music stars,” he said.
=During Dan’s legal career he, “won outright five homicide cases. I believe I am one of a handful of Oregon lawyers that have ever completely won a Death Penalty case – during a two and one-half month trial in Douglas County, Oregon --with not guilty verdicts on all counts,” he said.
=Still maintaining active enrollment in the Oregon State Bar, he has not taken a law case since 2019.
=His service as a Linfield alum includes two terms as Linfield Alumni Council president. Recently he helped fund the renewal of the Linfield University wrestling program for both men and women.
=Upon law retirement in 2019, his nephew, Justin Lee, a Hollywood director, asked if he was interested in being an extra in his next movie which was about to shoot at the Eaves Movie Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The movie, “Apache Junction,” stars Trace Adkins, Thomas Jane, Stuart Townsend, Ed Morrone, Phil Burke, and Victoria Pratt. It was Justin’s tenth Hollywood movie. Dan said “yes,” quickly.
“Arriving in New Mexico, I learned one of the "gun fighter" extras hadn't shown up. He never did,” said Dan. “They asked if I would step in and do some gun fight scenes and a little stunt work. Piece of cake for an old Marine and Linfield wrestler! Through 12-hour days of shooting, both with film and guns, I get out-dueled by 'Our Hero': Stuart Townsend. I am also in several bar room scenes and street scenes. It was a fantastic experience. And, by the way, meals from Hollywood caterers are excellent.” Plus, Dan got to die in a Western movie, specifically on the dusty streets of Apache Junction. He became acquainted with actors Stuart Townsend and Phil Burke. That movie will be/was released this Sept. 24, 2021, on Apple Plus streaming and in selected theaters.
=In addition to Apache Junction, Dan also appears in "A Tale of Two Guns" filmed at a Western movie ranch outside Hollywood. It features Tom Berenger, Jake Busey (actor Gary Busey's son), Casper Van Dien, and Ed Morrone. “I get killed in a gunfight in this movie, too. Seeing a pattern, here?" "A Tale of Two Guns" is slated to be released November 2021.
NOTE: Daniel “Dan” Koenig and his former wife, Marilyn Olson Koenig, both Linfield Class of 1970, met as Linfield College students, 1966-1970. He is from Longview, Washington, and she is from Hermiston, Oregon. Their daughter is research scientist, Dr. Lora S. Koenig, Linfield Class of 1999 and Linfield Outstanding Young Alumna of 2011. Lora earned her B.S. degree in Mathematics from Linfield in 1999, her Master's Degree from University of Utah, and her Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Washington. Their son is attorney Jeffrey D Koenig. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Oregon and his law degree from his father’s alma mater, the Willamette University Truman Wesley Collins School of Law.
AUDIO
=Listen (URL link below) to song “Badland” inspired by “Apache Junction." Lyrics by Dan Koenig, music and vocals by Scott Casey.
https://soundcloud.com/user699942183/dk-sc-bland
PHOTOS
=DAN KOENIG with some members of Linfield’s 1967 wrestling team. He was a member of the 1968 team which won the Northwest Conference and NAIA District 2 championships. Photo from 1967 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook.
=“APACHE JUNCTION" movie poster.
=OUTSIDE A MOVIE SET SALOON is actor Dan Koenig.
=THIRD FROM THE RIGHT, actor Dan Koenig is the left-handed gunfighter in "A Tale of Two Guns." Tom Berenger is the third actor from the left.
