Dunstan, who has worked as an extra in such films as Princess Diaries with Julie Andrews and Bicentennial Man with Clint Eastwood, is now sharing his secrets with others through the continuing education classes he teaches at area community colleges.

It's a career that's literally come full circle. Dunstan started out as a middle school art teacher in Santa Clara Unified School District, but it wasn't long before he caught the acting bug. And as for Dunstan's modeling gigs, they were almost incidental to his interest in acting. He had gone to a talent agency recommended by a colleague at school. When the agency director spied Dunstan, her response was, "You're a model."

In short, his body type wore clothes well and he had an expressive face to boot. He could be anyone from a doctor to a worker in a hard hat. Models submit a composite photo of themselves to agencies, showing themselves in several roles so advertisers can get an idea of their range.

Photograph by George Sakkestad Because he wore clothes well and had an expressive face, Jack Dunstan was a natural as a model. Pictures from his portfolio show the range of his work.

As an extra, Dunstan figures he's been in about 20 movie and TV roles. He's often the man in the business suit going by the window where the movie principals are sitting. And sometimes only portions of him are visible in the final product. Dunstan's favorite businessman caper was in Princess Diaries with Julie Andrews.

She's also his favorite leading lady—"professional and very much a lady, all the qualities you want to see in a famous movie actress." His favorite male movie maker: Clint Eastwood. Eastwood both directed and starred in the movie BiCentennial Man.

"He had such a firm idea of what he wanted projected in the scene. He could get that vision communicated clearly to others and then get it executed—all within a matter of minutes. He knew exactly each move to make," Dunstan says admiringly.

Dunstan's first stint as an extra was in a TV drama called Lady of the House, about San Francisco madam Sally Stanford. More recently he was a colonel in the movie High Crimes with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. The colonel, who was visible for only a nanosecond, was dressed in a long coat, standing on the stairway behind Freeman.

While making Foul Play in the late '70s with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, Dunstan, who played a policeman, found himself being jeered at as he stood on a San Francisco street in full uniform. For a moment or two he couldn't figure out why. And then he realized that policemen were not held in very high esteem by a goodly number of people in San Francisco, that being the climate of the times.

In Dead Pool, with Clint Eastwood, he played a coroner's assistant.

In the more current film Boys and Girls, he's in a yellow shirt and tie, commenting on the bridge projects the students have done for their final architectural projects. However, his comments are muttered and unheard. Dunstan has yet to speak a line in any movie he's been in.

Sometimes extras are pulled aside and given a few words to say. Speaking moves an extra to one notch above the others, allowing that extra to become a day player—an actor hired on a daily basis for a movie—with a chance to join the Screen Actors Guild. However, Dunstan was able to sign up for the guild on account of his working as an extra in three consecutive movies.

Guild members earn more money than nonunion extras. Performing stage business, such as handing someone a package, also makes an extra eligible for the guild.

Though Dunstan has never had a speaking part in a movie, he has had several in community theater. For the Saratoga Drama Group, he played Evil Eye Fleegle, Fearless Fosdick and was part of the chorus in Lil' Abner. "In such a big stew pot of a production, you play everything," he says.

In Fiddler on the Roof he played the innkeeper, a role in which he took a certain amount of pride because he had to dance while balancing a bottle on his head. Plus he was the leader of the 10 men doing the dance. "And there was no trick to it. People think they're glued to your hat or there's some other gimmick to make it stay on."

Another plus of community theater was that Dunstan's son was sometimes in the production, too. Indeed, son Eric has followed in his father's footsteps in both acting and modeling. They've been runway models in fashion shows, extras on Midnight Caller and worked together in the theater production of Fiddler on the Roof.

As a student at Saratoga High School, Eric played Col. Pickering in My Fair Lady. He's also shot national commercials for Reebok and for the Olympics held in Seoul, Korea. Now 32, Eric works for eBay in Campbell when he isn't appearing—oh-so-briefly—on screen and teaching.

One of Jack Dunstan's protégés is Mariann Carothers of San Mateo. She took his class some 10 years ago and now is finding steady work in commercials.

Dunstan's classes include "Work as an Extra in TV, Commercials and Film" and "Who, Me? A Model?" and are offered periodically at community colleges on Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Classes are limited to 12 people—that way there's time to videotape each student in three different short scenarios. The first presentation students attempt involves eating and "selling" a cracker. The next is usually performed with a script, and a third may be improvisational, with a partner.

After each of his classes, Dunstan's students "leave all puffed up," while he's worn out.

Photograph by George Sakkestad Jack Dunstan looks over sample portfolio pictures with students Rosemarie Privott and Charles Horton.

Dunstan met his wife, Phyllis, when he was teaching at a middle school where she was also a teacher. Since then, she's become an interior designer, often constructing theme projects for such magazines as Sunset and Better Homes & Gardens. So both Dunstans have taken off in different directions after spending years as teachers.

Today Jack Dunstan helps manage The Practice Place in San Jose on N. Fourth Street, off Highway 101. It's a complex of 64 rehearsal studios rented by the month by groups that were once referred to as garage bands. Now they could be called Practice Place bands. Saturdays are thus free for teaching others how to sell—both products and themselves.

Between these two jobs, Dunstan thrives on doing movie extra work himself. Assuming a lesser role these days are his roles in community theater or modeling. Modeling assignments are fewer and farther between, he says, since many manufacturers today tout their products unadorned, without using a model.

And fashion shows with runway models aren't as popular as they once were. Also, Dunstan, at 64, is nearing an age when modeling jobs grow sparse. These days he sees his focus increasingly as a presentation coach, an assignment he has delivered on many times over.

His clients include corporations, such as law agencies and businesses with a management hierarchy, plus individuals who want personal coaching. Training people from his home on how to offer the most effective presentations is the work he'll be concentrating on in the immediate future.

He'll also be continuing to teach communication skills one on one for businesspeople. He's worked with younger folks, too, having been a consultant to the forensics team at Saratoga High. And Dunstan teaches a weeklong camp at De Anza College in the summer called "Kids on Campus: Kids and TV Commercials."

The presentation guru makes sure he stays in good shape. He works out regularly at a fitness center, is a dedicated hiker and participates in 10K runs, such as the Bay to Breakers.

Work as a movie extra demands endless patience with long stretches of standing around waiting to be called up. Dunstan's answer is Reader's Digest—small, easily pocketed, with short articles.

All the waiting around is one big minus of the job. Another is the early hours. Generally, extras have to be in place by 6 a.m., and if the shoot is in San Francisco, that means getting up at 4 a.m. On the other hand, there's the food—"a wonderful banquet," Dunstan attests.

Of course, the main plus to being an extra is seeing yourself on-screen. All it takes is patience, early rising, a head shot, a résumé and unyielding persistence in contacting your agency for possible work. And then perhaps it will be your visage on the screen serving as backdrop to those better-known faces.

"Work as an Extra" will be offered at De Anza College on Nov. 9; "What? Me a Model?" will be presented at De Anza on Dec. 14. "Work as an Extra" will also be offered at the College of Marin on Oct. 12 and at Cabrillo College on Oct. 26.