Yeah good stuff "Spainfish". He was never an agent at William Morris okay? He temped there so please look before you leap. Yeah I know you read that on his resume that he hands out when you go in. If you don't beleive me call WM.
Also no one said check out IMDB Pro to see if he had A list talent but merely to see if any of his clients have recent credits.

Best of luck to you and I truly hope you prove to be the exeption.

A visit to IMDBpro indicates this Doug Bennett character doesn't have any clients with good recent credits except this guy:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1070870/

For all I know, a couple of those roles could be exagerrated extra work.

And who is this Andrew Fish? He says he is a SAG actor but I can't even find him on the IMDB.

quote:

Originally posted by sunshinesmile:
This is insane, it really is? What is trying to be proved here? We all KNOW that you are not happy, you've had your say, and if anyone wanted to find anything they wanted to about Doug, they could. Why keep going?
This is just me, but you all seem to know a whole lot about Doug and his trust fund or whatever it is. How would you know that? Sounds like a personal relationship to me. I'm a client and I don't even know that, or NEED to know that!
And now you are getting on my case about good grammar? Maybe I choose to use bigger and fancier words than the average person, but I have a feeling that it is a good thing...At least I have correct grammar patientone.
So now lets be grownups and move on! You fell off the horse, now get back on! Find a better agent then! DO you have an agent yet?

You should be concerned about the man, his integrity, etc. As you have read later in this posting, he never was with the WM Agency, and for someone in his 50s, having been an agent for how many years - and still pulling what appears to be the same old game with new clients....just doesn't make sense.

So, what great roles has he gotten you, you stated that he has been your agent for a year - or are you still looking for the "right vehicle" for your break out?

Sure you aren't Doug, yet again, under another name? Just wondering.......

Look, I dunno the man. I don't have a dog in this race, and I live on the opposite coast. I don't think I'll have an encounter with him. Ten pages have been written about the guy though, and I think a few logical conclusions can be made. First, lets give the newbie posters the benefit of the doubt and assume there are not Mr. Doug Bennett. Fine, they are satisfied with his work. That's great. There are also many posters who have had horrible, horrible experiences with him. Taking both opinions as fact, I think it would be safe to say that he has, at best, an uneven reputation.

If you get called in for an appointment, know that several actors have had wildly bad experiences with him so some caution may be warranted.

lol is it just me or do the people who support Doug have no logic and don't make sense in their arguments and the people who bash him do? not to mention the peole for this cock knocker have some kind of problem with reading the entire thread before saying something?

Johnny Drama, I'm actually agreeing with you. I just wanna put the thread to rest. I feel like the guy has earned his reputation and if an actor wants to meet with him, then they have enough information to make a decision on.

I read all ten pages of this and it was pretty standard. You'd get five or six posts of "stay away" and then a slew of newbie posts saying "no he's great." Then everyone would counter with negative evidence and a couple die-hards would still insist the guy was great. I was attempting to bring things to a peaceful conclusion, but if anyone has more to add, I will not stand in their way.

R.I.P. D.B. THREAD

Hahahaha. Doug worked for William Morris? Please. Was he the janitor? Why does everyone keep talking about his Mercedes? That thing is like a 1997. Wow he's a shooter! Haha. IMDB pro says it all. Just look at it. He reps no one who works period.

Thank you so much Mr. Fish! You have brought more insight to this thread than has ever been before.
Mr. Bennett, Mr. Katzman, and Mr. Gerler are all very sweet men who have their clients interests best in heart.
When it comes down to it, everyone will have different opinions of Doug.
So I agree. R.I.P D.B. thread.

Wow... I am so glad that I found this post today that I felt compelled to sign up and write something here -- because this man is exactly what the majority of the people on this board have described him as -- extremely rude and unprofessional. It truly wouldn't surprise me if he has been running a scam for years on end because there are enough aspiring actors immigrating to Hollywood on a daily basis who are completely naive to the sometimes seamy underbelly of this town.

I saw Doug Bennett two years ago when I was still pursuing a professional acting career. I had mostly forgotten about our meeting until I received a voicemail today from one of the assistants at the agency. She said she had received my submission and that Doug was interested in meeting with me.

Two years ago when I met with Mr. Bennett, a phone call like this made good sense. However, I have not sent out a mass mailing or a single submission to an agency since well before I last met with him.

I thought that the name sounded familiar so I searched google (thank you, internet) and found all of these postings. Then I remembered the hours that I spent sitting in his waiting room hoping to see Doug. Same thing -- a good two hours, at least. The meeting wasn't extraordinarily long but it was a ton of lip service. The thing was that although it was lip service, I just felt threatened and completely idiotic -- as though I didn't know what I was doing. I left that meeting and because of it (along with some other similar experiences) I stopped acting for awhile.

I write today because there are so many people out there who will listen to a man like Mr. Bennett and let him squash their ego like he did to me. Don't go see this man... or, if you do, don't let him change the way you think about yourself and your dreams. There are a lot of crazy people in this town who will try to take you for all you're worth (which seems so sadly ironic considering actors are generally such an underpaid group to begin with) BUT there are a lot of legitimate people out there too.

This is the first time I have ever posted on a blog page, but I felt it was important to share MY experience with Doug Bennett.
I "auditioned" for him about a year and a half ago and like all of the previous posters on this blog- he asked me to take new headshots (which I did), he recommended an acting class (which I took) and like thegypsylady above he too made me rethink my decision to pursue acting. Having experienced all of this, I can definitely say with 100% certainty that Doug Bennett makes a majority (if not all) of his income off of the actors he meets with every day- not by submitting them, but by earning a fee from the photographers, printers and acting teachers he recommends.

Anyone who has met with him and wasted two hours of their time can tell that he is not spending a majority of his day submitting actors. He arrives to work after noon and takes meetings for most of the day. Not to mention that he doesn't weed out the talented actors with potential from just random people trying to avoid getting jobs. For instance, he didn't even have me do a monologue when I met with him- he had no idea if I could even act for the year and a half. You can only imagine the reputation he must have with casting directors if he just sends them anyone with a pulse.

So I give you the same advice that I got and should have listened to when I asked another actor before I got involved in all of this stupidity: don't waste your time and most importantly money. It is better to have no agent than a bad agent. Submit yourself, take theatre roles when you can get them and try to team up with friends to get projects done. Good representation will find you.