Annable, ‘off to a good start’

Behind Communications Department Chair Peter Ensel's desk, there is a framed, autographed picture of a movie star.

In the picture, the man shines with everything Hollywood looks for.

From the ear-to-ear smile and the perfectly gelled hair, to the great looks, the man in the picture embodies the Hollywood persona.

That man is Dave Annable.

Annable, who is the star of the ABC family show "Brothers and Sisters," has also appeared in numerous nationwide commercials.

Apart from that, he played the character of Bean in the Hollywood film "Little Black Book," and in 2007, People magazine ranked him number seven in their annual list of the sexiest men alive.

In 1998, he was a Plattsburgh State student.

Back in those days, he wasn't landing mainstream acting roles.

Instead, he was hosting nearly every TV show Plattsburgh State Television (PSTV) offered, including the shows "Cardinal Sports" and "The Roommate Game." In fact, he was so involved in PSTV that he created his own television show — "Late Night with Dave Annable."

In 2003, however, with one semester left in his college career, Annable dropped out of PSUC and moved to New York City.

Once there, he studied acting at the famous Neighborhood Playhouse.

Since then he has become a celebrity in the entertainment industry.

His current success, though, has not caused Annable to forget about his roots, and this May he will be returning to Plattsburgh to walk across a different sort of stage — a stage dedicated to recognizing academic excellence.

By taking distance-learning classes, Annable has finished his degree and will be returning to PSUC to finally receive his diploma.

At graduation, Annable will be receiving an "off to a good start" award through the alumni office, an award very rare for a student to receive before they have even left the graduation ceremony.

Then again not many PSUC alumni have achieved Hollywood fame.

"There probably isn't a single member of the graduating class of 2009 that wouldn't want to be in his shoes," Ensel said.

For Annable, such an award is a cherry on top of a career that is just getting started.

With current acting roles in his near future, he is living the dream and enjoying every second of it, Annable said.

"It (the success) has been great, and it really lives up to all the hype," Annable said. "I mean, I know Harrison Ford, and that rocks."

Although his return for graduation will be his first trip back to Plattsburgh since his previous departure, Annable said he has never forgotten his times here as a student.

In fact, the work he did with PSTV is something he credits for getting his career up and moving.

"(PSTV) was an amazing experience to have before going into what you would call ‘the real world,'" Annable said via a phone interview. "PSTV rocks."

And Annable rocked PSTV during his time as a student.

Ensel said throughout his college career Annable took the initiative to get involved in basically everything PSTV had to offer.

"I think at some point, he either appeared or hosted every show on PSTV," Ensel said.

Deborah DeSilva, an associate communication teacher, and Annable's adviser throughout his college career, also remembers the die-hard commitment he gave to PSTV while he was a student.

"He was a talent for nearly every PSTV show we had," DeSilva said. "He always wanted to be on camera."

No one back then was complaining, Ensel said, for Annable shined when he was on camera, and most importantly, he had the skills and the talent to succeed in the communications world.

"You could see back then that he had something," Ensel said. "He had that charisma and that on-camera ease. He had the talent."

His first acting coach, Richard Pinter, whom Annable met once he began studying acting in New York City, also could spot this talent.

"He loved being looked at, which is fundamental for an actor," Pinter said.

Furthermore, Pinter was able to recognize that certain something that Ensel had spotted when Annable was a student at PSUC.

"He had something that was his own, and something that he intuitively wanted to do," Pinter said.

Talent, however, was not the only thing Annable had.

Ensel said he had an amazing personality, was an extremely nice, outgoing and affable person, and the fact that he had such a great outlook on life made him easy to work with.

Desilva also remembers that great personality of Annable's, recalling the numerous times in which Annable would come up behind her and place his hands over her eyes to try and trick her into thinking it was another student.

Annable would always give her a good, long hug every single time he saw her, Desilva said.

"Dave had so much personality that no matter what he did he would have been good at it," Desilva said. "He would have been good at selling used cars."