MenDontLeave.jpg

Charlie Korsmo, in "What About Bob?" in 1990 at left, and more recently. Korsmo, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, will appear at the Cleveland Cinematheque Friday night for a Q & A. (Touchstone Pictures, left, and Brooklyn Law School)

The lengthy curriculum vitae of a law professor typically includes their legal careers, experience clerking for judges and lists of publications and scholarly presentations.

Charlie Korsmo, an assistant professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law, has a CV packed with such things, along with an impressive educational background.

But towards the bottom, it also includes these lines: “Starred in several major motion pictures, including ‘Dick Tracy,’ ‘What About Bob?’ ‘Hook,’ and ‘Can’t Hardly Wait.’ Appearances on ‘The Tonight Show,’ ‘The Arsenio Hall Show,’ ‘Donahue,’ and ‘Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee.’ ”

Not everyone teaching torts has such an eclectic background.

Korsmo will appear Friday night at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque for a Q and A following a special screening of Paul Brickman's "Men Don't Leave" from 1990. Korsmo played Jessica Lange's younger son in the drama about a recent widow's struggles to keep her family afloat.

Charlie Korsmo, with Jessica Lange and Chris O'Donnell, in "Men Don't Leave." (Warner Bros.)

PREVIEW

Charlie Korsmo and "Men Don't Leave"

What: A screening of the 1990 drama "Men Don't Leave," followed by a Q and A with one of its stars, Charlie Korsmo.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11141 East Blvd. in University Circle.

Tickets and Info: $7-$10. Call 216-421-7450 for more information, or go to cia.edu/cinematheque.

Korsmo co-starred in several films in the early 1990s. He played the Kid in Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy,” Robin Williams' son Jackie in Steven Spielberg’s “Hook,” and got laughs along side Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss in Frank Oz’s “What About Bob?”

It was good run but he missed having a regular kid’s life.

“I worked pretty much constantly from age 10 to 13,” said Korsmo. “I did five or six movies, but my family was living in Minneapolis at the time and I hadn’t been in school regularly, and my voice was going to change soon. I decided I was tired of the grind and wanted to go back to school.”

He went to high school back in Minneapolis, made one more foray into films -- the teen comedy “Can’t Hardly Wait” with Jennifer Love Hewitt – then decided to become a serious student, picking up a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree from the Yale Law School.

I told him that I was willing to believe the law degree from Yale, and that he had worked at the big Wall Street firm Sullivan & Cromwell, and that President Obama had appointed him to something called the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, but a physics degree from MIT?

“It gives me a little bit of credibility,” he said, laughing. “I feel I need to overcome some preconceptions when people find out I was a child actor. If I had just gotten a poetry degree from Swarthmore or something, they would have thought I got in because I was in the movies. You can’t fake a physics degree.”

Korsmo, 35, and his wife Adrienne, live in Cleveland Heights with their two children, Lilah, 3, and William, 1.

“I went to law school after working in Washington. D.C., for some time, then I practiced law for a few years in New York. But then I got married and had a kid and I thought, Well, I’d kind of like to know my children while they’re growing up. I had an opportunity to get a teaching position part time [at Brooklyn Law School], then went out on the real academic market.”

Case was appealing for several reasons, he said. He knew the area because his mom had grown up in Mayfield Heights and Mentor, and it put them closer to his wife’s family in Toronto. Plus, “I love the people at Case. It’s been a great two and a half years.”

Korsmo does not have tawdry tales of woe from his acting days.

“I never had a bad experience on a movie. You read about various people that are supposedly hard to work with. You hear stories about Warren Beatty or Bill Murray. But everyone was very nice to me. Maybe it’s because I was a kid. And they would use the fact that I was a kid. So when everyone was waiting and they needed Warren Beatty on the set, they would send me to go get him. You know, ‘Hey, there’s 200 people waiting for you. You better come out here.’ ”

Korsmo said he has not watched “Men Don’t Leave” for many years and is looking forward to seeing it at the Cinematheque and hearing what folks want to talk about.

“The movie I hear the most about these days is ‘What About Bob?’ That seems to be one that people still voluntarily watch. Frankly, my favorite is probably ‘Dick Tracy.’ That was the most satisfying in terms of what I did. I don’t think I could have done any better than that.”

If the words “law professor” are incongruous with “movie actor,” they are even further removed from the sometimes negative moniker of “former child star.”

He certainly has a good sense of humor about it.

“Every few months someone will send me an article from some web site, you know, ‘Child Actors – Where are They Now?’ I am usually the counterpoint,” said Korsmo with a laugh. “It’s generally about rehab or working mall security or something like that.”

Of course, a lot of the Where Are They Now rehashes on the web contain false information.

“I have a policy on not correcting misinformation online,” he said. “I feel like it’s a black hole you can get stuck in.”

He is willing to make an exception for us. At least on one count.

“There’s something that’s been on a bunch of sites about me working on a missile defense program. I have not worked on a missile defense program. But I think I can put it on my resume now because it’s verifiable in so many places.”

Glad we could clear that up.

For the record: Korsmo, Charles. Law professor? Check. Former movie actor? Yes. Missile defense specialist? Not so much.