Everything Is a Circle

Ken Sagoes grew up in a home in Stockbridge, Georgia, where they had an outhouse and no electricity. A couple of decades later, not only did he find himself interacting with Hollywood legends like Alfred Hitchcock, Lucille Ball and Garry Marshall, but he had also landed a co-starring role in not one but two installments of an iconic horror movie franchise. Now, for the past 25 years, Ken has used a lifetime of experiences gained from coast to coast to help inform his work as a Standardized Patient (SP) for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. 

When he first came to Los Angeles as a young man, Ken was able to land a job as a security guard at Universal Studios. That is where he met Alfred Hitchcock and also Lucille Ball, who he says used to grab his cheeks. He mentioned how kind so many of the stars were to him, including Jack Klugman (The Odd Couple; Quincy, M.D.) who, on the days he was filming, always made sure that catering sent Ken a plate of food. 

Ken says that oftentimes as he was making his rounds, he would find himself on a soundstage when cameras were about to roll and he would have to stay still while they shot the scene. He said being able to observe in that way became a major part of his training as an actor. 

Later, when he was able to afford acting classes, he realized there were not really any scripts for Black actors, so he wrote a five-minute skit for himself. A few days later, producer Garry Marshall (Happy Days; Mork & Mindy; Laverne & Shirley) called and offered him a job as an apprentice writer, which led to writing credits on both Laverne & Shirley and Joanie Loves Chachi. 

Like so many members of the UCLA Simulation Center’s SP pool, Ken often seemed on the verge of getting that “big break.” Like them, he eventually found his way to SP work as a way to supplement his income while he continued to pursue creative endeavors. By the time he came to UCLA, in addition to the writing credits described above, he had also enjoyed major screen time as Kincaid in two wildly successful installments of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, he says he was the first Black actor to survive the serial killer in a major Hollywood horror feature, thus enabling him to appear in the next installment (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master). SPOILER ALERT: He didn’t survive to Part 5. Still, despite success in these well-known films, the life of an actor in Hollywood means all options must remain open, so when a friend of his told him about SP work, he was happy to be able to land a spot at UCLA. 

In the 25 years since, he has come to think of SPs as Special People and every chance he gets, he is proud to explain to others what he does as an SP. But he stresses that while he is here to help students learn, he has learned just as much from them over the years and thus believes it is all “full circle” in that we are all helping each other out, as he believes it is meant to be. 

Full circle. Back to Stockbridge, Georgia. Stockbridge is now home to about 30,000 people, but in the late 1960s and early ’70s when Ken was growing up there, the population was closer to 2,000 and a lack of amenities (electricity, indoor toilets) was not uncommon. Ken grew up in Stockbridge as his family did before him. In fact, he tells us his grandmother used to babysit Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose father was a Stockbridge native. 

Growing up in a small, southern town, Ken longed for something more, but he makes it clear that experiences there and later in Atlanta, where he went to high school, helped to shape who he is today. In fact, he tells a story of an elderly lady in his neighborhood that he and some of his buddies used to see going from door to door with her cane and a fruit jar begging for money. He says there were times they would see her begging as they were walking to school and still begging as they returned home in the afternoon and by then, the jar was often full of money. 

He admits they used to give her a hard time, sometimes approaching her, asking her if they could have some of that money she had collected, but she always ignored them, and just moved on saying little or nothing in response. But Ken says the joke was on them. 

Two days before he was to leave for college, there was a knock on his door. The lady had come to see him and handed him an envelope. In it was cash. She knew he was going off to college, and she wanted him to have money to buy books. Ken now understood she had not been collecting money for herself; she had been collecting it to give away to others. When he returned home for Christmas that year, he went to find the lady to thank her and learned he was too late — she had passed away. 

The lesson Ken learned has stuck with him for a lifetime. In fact, in 1997, he founded a nonprofit organization, Giving Back, which provides books and supplies scholarships for youth in need, hoping that by empowering their beliefs, they can effect change. The scholarships are funded through donations, including from Ken himself. He says that half of everything he earns as an SP goes to the nonprofit. 

Today, Ken still lives about a block from the little apartment he lived in when he first arrived in Los Angeles 40 years ago. He says he doesn’t need a lot. “Whatever I have today is more than I had [growing up], so I’m blessed for that,” he says. “I’m not saying I don’t want millions and stuff like that. I’m saying I’m at peace with what God has given me.”