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In ‘Twilight,’ Valley native enjoys limelight
The Boardman graduate’s hotel in Oregon provides a setting in the film.
Donn Simione never made it to Hollywood, but Hollywood has finally made it to him.
The Youngstown native was an actor before he became half-owner of the View Point Inn, a historic and picturesque hotel-restaurant in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon.
The inn was used as the setting for the climactic prom scene in the movie “Twilight,” which opens Friday.
The film is based on the “Twilight” books by Stephenie Meyer, which revolve around the romantic relationship between a teen girl and a vampire in Washington state.
Fueled by its huge and devoted following, the film will almost certainly become a holiday-season blockbuster. Tinseltown in Boardman and Regal-Boulevard Center in Niles will have midnight showings tonight.
Because of its role in the movie, all sorts of attention is being focused on the upscale View Point Inn, which was built in 1925 and sits on a bluff 1,125 feet above the Columbia River. The media has descended on it for stories, and the “Twilight” faithful swarm to it in fan pilgrimages.
“Fans have been coming from around the country,” said Simione in a phone interview from the inn. “As word spread [on fan Web sites], they started coming.”
Simione wasn’t aware of the cultlike status of the “Twilight” books when the filmmakers visited the View Point earlier this year while scouting potential locations.
“When [film director] Catherine Hardwicke came here, she immediately loved it,” said Simione. “In the books, the prom scene is in a high school gym, but she changed it just to be able to shoot here.”
The film crew was at the inn for four weeks in April. The stars — Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart — were there for a week for actual shooting.
“Had we known at the time that this was going to be this big, we would have bargained a lot higher,” exclaimed Simione.
The View Point, which is 22 miles west of Portland, will host a “prom” event for fans tonight and Friday night to coincide with the film’s opening. The movie set will be recreated and a promlike dance will be held.
Simione (who now goes by his middle name, Angelo) is a 1971 graduate of Boardman High School, but his family lived on Almyra Avenue on the South Side for most of his childhood, and he attended Princeton Junior High in Youngstown. His father, Don, owned Uptown Cab in Youngstown in the 1980s, a now-defunct company known for its turquoise and orange taxis.
Simione acted in many productions at Youngstown Playhouse and at Boardman High School. He earned a degree in theater from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he had roles in several Civic Light Opera productions.
Broadway came next for Simione, who became a cast member in “A Chorus Line” and was the leading man in the touring production of “Singing in the Rain.” He also did several national television commercials and had recurring roles in the soap operas “As the World Turns” and “General Hospital” and the sitcom “Mr. Belvedere.”
He left theater in the 1990s to become a personal trainer. In 2003, he became part owner of the View Point Inn with Oregon native Geoff Thompson.
The View Point has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985 — which has proved to be a mixed blessing. The inn and its fine-dining restaurant are well-respected among travel writers, but the 83-year-old arts and crafts-style structure is in need of major repairs, including a new roof.
“Because of its historic status, it is very expensive to fix this building,” said Simione, explaining that the structure’s appearance cannot be altered in any way and replacement materials must be the same as the original.
“We’re hoping that ‘Twilight’ fans will help save the View Point. If a million fans donate $1 each, that will raise a million dollars.”
To learn more about the inn, go to theviewpointinn.com.