How the Dallas actor who served prison time for manslaughter stole ’12 Mighty Orphans’

One scene steals “12 Mighty Orphans” and yet, ironically, does not include the actor who actually manages to steal the movie itself.

There is one scene that features both Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen, the first time the actors have shared the screen since they were in 1979’s “Apocalypse Now.”

Aside from that memorable exchange, and despite the presence of Sheen and Luke Wilson, it is the movie’s villains who leave the lasting impression.

“12 Mighty Orphans” has opened nationwide, and thus far the audience reviews are overwhelmingly positive ... at least according to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.

Viewers will soon see it’s not the stars who star in this movie. The first is Wayne Knight, who famously played “Newman” in “Seinfeld.”

The biggest impression comes from a lesser-known character actor from Dallas who attended Richardson Pearce, where he played football, and who also served prison time for vehicular manslaughter.

Lane Garrison, who co-wrote the screenplay, plays Polytechnic football coach Luther Scarborough. The coach’s function in the movie is to serve as the scumbag villain whose mission is to derail the orphans from the Masonic Home football team from playing.

Garrison’s portrayal of Scarborough is slimy, detestable and ultimately memorable. Garrison makes disliking Scarborough easy.

Considering where Garrison’s life was more than 10 years ago, when he was leaving prison for good behavior, playing the bad guy opposite Luke Wilson in a Hollywood movie is almost a movie itself.

Crashing in Hollywood

By 2006, Garrison was the feel good story of the guy who arrived in Hollywood with no money, worked as a janitor and made a career in an industry that routinely treats humans like props.

“I left Dallas in a car that had no AC, I had $400, and my first night there I stayed in a motel in Korea Town that was $19 a night,” he said in a phone interview. “My only contact was a manager who said I had no talent, but I could be an assistant to his assistant.”

To make ends meet, he started writing as means to break into acting. By the time he was 27, he landed a role on the popular TV show “Prison Break,” and had a part in the Mark Wahlberg action movie “Shooter.”

Garrison had also fully embraced the LA party life.

In December of 2006, he was driving drunk and crashed his car in Beverly Hills en route to a party.

One of the passengers was a 17-year-old girl named Vahagn Setian. She died.

Garrison was sentenced six years and eight months in prison.

“I went from ‘Prison Break’ to prison,” he said. “I did two years and eight months, and went to eight prisons up and down California. It’s only by the grace of God I got this second chance.”

He’s been sober ever since. Also, no amount of sobriety can make this life-altering experience fade. It’s always there.

“I really thought I had made it and 19 minutes of bad decision-making, and it changed my life and other people’s lives forever,” he said. “It’s something you live with the rest of your life, and I’d say it took years for me to forgive myself for it. I do feel like I am here for a reason, and it’s why I don’t shy away from it.

“It’s allowed me to influence young people and to tell my story.”

Stealing ‘12 Mighty Orphans’

Because of the wattage of the other actors involved in the film, Garrison’s name was not going to receive top, or medium, billing. You are not going to see his name in big letters on a movie poster that features Robert Duvall.

But this movie does not exist without Garrison, and it’s not as good without him on screen.

After shooting one scene with Sheen and Wilson in front of the Masonic Temple, Wilson looked at him and said, “You are a freakin’ scene stealer.”

Garrison helped to co-write the screenplay, and he was one of the “advisers” who helped to train the other actors in the two-week football boot camp at All Saints High School..

He and his wife moved a few years ago from Southern California to Georgetown, where they raise their daughters, 3 and 8 months.

He’s working on developing “12 Mighty Orphans” into a potential TV series.

Also on the list, he’s working on a script and trying to raise the money to make a movie about the 2002 Westside Lions baseball team that reached the Little League World Series.

“I know some people shy away from the dark chapters but I’ve embraced it,” he said. “It’s influenced my work and how I treat other people. Certainly been an interesting ride.”

In this case, it’s a ride that includes stealing a movie from Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall.