Palouse cop also career actor

"Put your hands on the ground! Put your hands on the ground right now!" barks a voice over the phone.

This is the "scary" voice of Terry Snead, reserve officer for the Palouse Police Department and life-long stage and film actor.

Snead, 59, is currently acting in the indie film, The River Sorrow, in Spokane. It’s his latest performance in a career that has spanned stage, film and commercial acting around the United States.

In a phone interview from Metalline Falls Monday, Snead told the Gazette he and his wife Jennifer live part-time in Malden and part-time in Metaline Falls.

Snead, who also served a stint as chief of the Tekoa Police Department, said his careers as an actor and as a police officer can be linked. He pointed out the majority of police work, in his mind, involves persuading people to change their behavior. His acting skills can come in handy for this.

"I sound scary sometimes. If you can do it with voice, then you don’t have to resort to anything else. All you are trying to do is effect a change in behavior, whether it’s driving slower or not beating the wife," Snead said.

He volunteers an average of 16 hours a month for the Palouse Police department and will be on patrol for several nights of Haunted Palouse.

Palouse Chief Jerry Neumann said Snead’s acting voice is so good they used it on the department voice mail for years.

"Terry has a great greeting voice. It used to be the long-time [voice mail] on our greeting, ‘You’ve reached the Palouse Police Department’," said Neumann. "Now you just get me."

Four years ago, Snead was the interim police chief for Palouse while the city searched for a permanent chief that resulted in the hiring of Neumann.

Snead performs three to four professional stage shows a year around the country; it is his bread and butter.

"I’m all over the country probably six months a year sometimes," he said.

Before taking on the role in The River Sorrow, Snead this summer performed in two shows in Georgia.

This summer, for the state of Georgia Musical Theatre, he performed as General Waverly in the stage play "White Christmas," and as Old Ben in "The Secret Garden."

Because shows are on a contract basis, Snead said he is always hustling work by participating in auditions and keeping in contact with his agent in Spokane.

Every year he attends an auditioning conference in Memphis where more than 70 stage companies recruit. Actors have 90 seconds of singing and acting to draw a director’s eye.

Because of his loud voice, big stature and presence of authority, Snead said he is mostly cast for roles of "big people," like generals, lawyers, policemen or judges.

Taking jobs on the spot often ends up in surprises for him, he said.

"There are times when you get to a place, go up to the door and say, ‘Oh my God, what did I get myself into’," he said.

Once he landed a role in a play in rural Kentucky.

"I pulled up to this town that made Albion look like a big city," he said.

It wasn’t until he walked into the giant performing complex with a reputation for selling out that he realized he had come to the right place.

Snead mostly performs in stage plays, but has also been cast in films, commercials and books-on-tape.

Stage acting pays $600 to $700 a week, he said.

His wife Jennifer manages The Cutter Theatre in Metaline Falls.

Off stage and off duty, Snead said he is actually very shy in person.

"I am probably one of the most impossibly shy people you’ve ever bumped into," he said. Behind his professional veneer, he added he is fairly introspective and very curious about almost any aspect of life.

In fact, Snead began his career as a reporter. He was a former news anchor with KIRO News Radio in Seattle, news director for a TV station in Ellensburg, and a TV reporter at stations in Ellensburg and Yakima. He and Jennifer have both worked stints as reporters for the Gazette.