Mitchell "Mitch" Laurance (born Mitchell Dycoff) is an American film and television actor and sports broadcaster.

Early life, family and education

Mitchell Dycoff was born in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and raised in

Hewlett, New York Hewlett is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 6,819 at the 2010 census. Hewlett is usually included as one of the Five Towns in the ...

. He has an

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

brother,

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

(born four minutes later), who is also a professional actor. Both brothers are graduates of

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Career

Mitchell Laurance and his identical twin brother Matthew Laurance appear occasionally together, beginning when they were children in a

margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...

TV commercial which featured identical twins, and later in an episode of the TV series ''

Cop Rock ''Cop Rock'' is an American police procedural musical television series created by Steven Bochco and William M. Finkelstein for the American Broadcasting Company. It premiered on September 26, 1990, and broadcast eleven episodes before concludi ...

''. Although Matthew was a performer on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' for its sixth season, Mitchell also appeared in uncredited roles on the show for a few seasons (1977–80) and was an associate director and producer for the show. In 1989, Mitchell was in a AT&T commercial where he played a man in a phone booth trying to dial Phoenix and was instead repeatedly getting Fiji. Mitchell appeared on ''

Not Necessarily the News ''Not Necessarily the News'' (shortened as ''NNTN'') is an American satirical sketch comedy series that first aired on HBO in September 1982 as a comedy special, and then ran as a series from 1983 to 1990. For most of the run, the series featured ...

'' during the 1980s. Other recurring roles included the short-lived series '' Roxie'' (1987; most of the episodes were unaired), ''

L.A. Law ''L.A. Law'' is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los ...

'' (1987−88), ''

Reasonable Doubts ''Reasonable Doubts'' is an American police drama television series created by Robert Singer, which broadcast in the United States by NBC that ran from September 26, 1991 to April 27, 1993. Synopsis ''Reasonable Doubts'' is primarily about th ...

'' (1992–93), '' Matlock'' (1988−95), and ''

Dawson's Creek ''Dawson's Creek'' is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college that ran from 1998 to 2003. T ...

''. Guest roles have ranged from ''

Laverne & Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' star ...

'', ''

CHiPs ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...

'', '' The Outer Limits'', ''

One Tree Hill One Tree Hill may refer to: * "One Tree Hill" (song), a 1987 song by U2 referencing One Tree Hill, New Zealand volcanic peak * ''One Tree Hill'' (TV series), a 2003–2012 American drama series named for the U2 song ** ''One Tree Hill'' (soundtr ...

'', ''

Night Court ''Night Court'' is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984 to May 31, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan municipal court presided over by a young, unorthodox judge, Harold "Harry" T. Stone (portray ...

'', ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial drama television show, television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purce ...

'', ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot. In both po ...

'', ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...

'', ''

Midnight Caller ''Midnight Caller'' is an American drama television series created by Richard DiLello, which aired on NBC from October 25, 1988, to May 17, 1991. It was one of the first television series to address the dramatic possibilities of the then-growin ...

'', ''

Empty Nest ''Empty Nest'' is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from October 8, 1988, to April 29, 1995. The series, which was created as a spin-off of ''The Golden Girls'' by creator and producer Susan Harris, starred Ric ...

'', and ''

Jake and the Fatman ''Jake and the Fatman'' is an American crime drama television series starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. (Jason Lochinvar) "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from September ...

''. He was in the "Apollo One" episode of the mini-series ''

From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...

'' (1998). In the early 1990s he performed the role of Ben Arnold on the soap opera '' Santa Barbara''. He also has acted in

feature films A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

such as ''

Stepfather II ''Stepfather II'' (also known as ''Stepfather II: Make Room for Daddy'') is a 1989 American psychological thriller film directed by Jeff Burr and written by John Auerbach. It is a sequel to '' The Stepfather'' (1987) and stars Terry O'Quinn as th ...

'', ''

The Runestone ''The Runestone'' is an American 1991 adventure/horror film, the first film written and directed by Willard Carroll. The film is an updating of the Ragnarok legend, with Fenrir being found in a runestone in Pennsylvania unearthed by archaeologi ...

'', '' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'', and '' Urban Mythology'', and TV movies (especially in the 1990s) including ''The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery''; ''Perfect Crime''; ''To Love, Honor and Deceive''; ''Kiss and Tell''; ''Deadly Pursuits''; ''Inflammable''; and ''Death in Small Doses''. He has been a radio disk jockey at WFMZ, a sports radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has hosted billiards tournaments and has provided sports commentary for ESPN. He has also been the host of a golf podcast, ''Golf Connections with Mitch Laurance''.

Personal life

Laurance is married to

Ewa Laurance Ewa Laurance (formerly Ewa Mataya, February 26, 1964) is a Swedish professional pool player, most notably on the Women's Professional Billiard Association nine-ball tour, a sports writer, and more recently a sports commentator for ESPN. In 2004 ...

(née Svensson; formerly known as Ewa Mataya), a

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

world champion (a member of the

Billiards Congress of America The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States and Canada, and the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA).` Puerto Rico, though a US territory, and Mexico, though ...

Hall of Fame) and model. They reside in

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...

He is a golf enthusiast, having played in pro-am golf tournaments.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laurance, Mitchell Living people American male film actors American male television actors 1950 births People from Queens, New York Male actors from New York City 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors Tufts University alumni Identical twin male actors American twins People from Hewlett, New York