Judge Reinhold as Don Meyer

A bald cap just wasn’t going to cut it. “Those caps don’t work at all,” says Judge Reinhold, who explains he had to make a big decision when he enlisted to play the late record-breaking NCAA coach Don Meyer, who was bald for most of his life. So for the first time in his life, Reinhold, 57, shaved it all off for the sports biopic My Many Sons.

“It’s a drastic change for me,” says Reinhold, best known for the coming-of-age classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High as well as the Beverly Hills Cop and The Santa Clause movies, and who is as good-natured and easygoing in conversation as his lovable screen personas. Before My Many Sons, Reinhold says the closest he had come to being bald was his Army crew cut for 1981’s Stripes.

“The reason I was so quick to do it was because I did resemble him, physically. We’re both 6-foot-2… My ears are a little bigger than his, so I did worry it could be a disaster. But it turned out really well, and it’s one thing I’ve never experienced before.”

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Reinhold in Fast Times (left), and prior to shaving his head (right)

My Many Sons, directed by Ralph E. Portillo, focuses on the extraordinary life and career of Meyer. In 2009, the Northern State University men’s basketball coach notched his 903rd win, surpassing the NCAA record set by his mentor, legendary Indiana coach Bobby Knight. (Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski would eventually break the mark in 2011.) Meyer, who previously called the shots at Lipscomb University and Hamline University, was coaching in a wheelchair at the time of his feat, having been severely injured in a head-on car collision in 2008. As a result of the crash, not only did Meyer have to have his lower left leg amputated, but during the surgery doctors discovered he had cancer.

After a six-year battle with carcinoid cancer, Meyer died at the age of 69 in May, just a couple months shy of the start of production on his life story.

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Coach Meyer in 2010

Reinhold never got to meet Meyer. “I missed him by two months, man,” the actor says. “He knew the movie was going to get made and was happy about it. He told the producers to make it a good one.”

Meyer’s family, however, was on the Nashville, Tennessee set to consult. “When I walked on the set the first time, I did resemble him to a pretty strong degree,” Reinhold recalls. “I met his widow [Carmen Meyer] and it was a little… it was fresh. He’d been sick a long time, so at first it was delicate for everybody, including me.” The actor found the specific details and nuances that Meyer’s family told him about invaluable, however, as well as the offerings of Pete Froedden, a Chicago high school basketball coach who played under Meyer and also served as an advisor.

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Exclusive photo on Reinhold in character

Reinhold clearly has the utmost respect for Meyer. “In 24 years, only one of his players did not graduate. So his program was a combination of academic empowerment and motivation, as well as just being awesome on the court. [The movie] chronicles that process of a very pure guy… I think it should be called The Greatest Coach Nobody Knew.”