Sam Ayers: Cross & Crescent

From Cross & Crescent, the magazine of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity -- Spring 2000

JUST PRETENDING.

Sam Ayers Bielich, III, Memphis '83, whose stage name is Sam Ayers, first appeared in The Pretender as Sam, the sweeper, in 1996. Bielich's character, armed and somewhat like a bodyguard, enters potentially dangerous situations before other characters on the show to secure, or "sweep," the area. He has also been cast in two movies. He was a detective in the 1995 film Bad Boys and an ESU Commander in the 1990 film Quick Change.

A second generation Yugoslavian, Bielich is Sam the third. The first Sam, Bielich's grandfather, came through Ellis Island in 1906. He served in World War I and was a seagoing marine on the last U.S. Navy ship bearing sails, the USS Galveston.

"After the war my grandfather became a union organizer with U.S.W.A. (United Steel Workers of America), which was looked upon unfavorably in the 30s by the FBI. He later became financial secretary for the largest local steelworkers' union from 1940-45 with a direct hotline from the War Department to his house. He was an advocate for Social Security. In 1963 he was staff representative for the U.S.W.A. and organized the buses that traveled from Youngstown, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., on which he saved a seat for himself to go and march for civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr. On his dying bed, on Memorial Day weekend, he said 'Find out what happened to the unions; there are going be [sic] some big problems coming up...find out what went wrong.'"

The Bielich's were a steel mill family. Sam, Jr., Bielich's father, born in Pittsburgh and raised in Youngstown, started working in the mills. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Korea for 16 months, which was longer than most. When he returned he decided to go into carpentry. Despite the heavy odds stacked against a steelworker entering the close-knit carpentry industry, his father became a respected carpenter and today is director of construction with a realty investment trust.

When the family moved from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire, Bielich, with his Marine Corps crew-cut, was miserable and being taunted by other children--then tragedy struck when he almost lost his father to an automobile accident in 1965. "He hit a tree and was found with the engine in his lap--he had to be cut out of the car. My dad was in a cast for six months and then spent another 12 months in a brace--so for this very important time in my life, I didn't have a dad. I had a mom."

"I learned from my family that you choose whatever you want to be and try to be the best at what you choose. Due to limited finances, I was the only one who went on in school. I owe my college experience to my family and hope that one day I'll be able to take care of them."

Bielich recalled the toughness of his father and grandfather, relating a story about an occasion when both men were trimming wood with a table saw. His grandfather subconsciously put his hand right on top of the blade--cutting off two fingers and part of a thumb. Bielich, having worked with them earlier in the day, was fishing when he heard the sirens. "My grandfather was 74 years old when it happened and he made the ambulance wait until I got home--he unraveled the bandages, showed me, and said, 'This is stupidity around tools. Don't let it happen to you. Okay, let's go.'"

"Lesson learned."

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