MARQUETTE – The lessons actor Sean Astin has gathered in his life, such as “Keep moving forward” and “Ask your parents questions,” can be picked up in many professions, but it’s particularly entertaining when you learn them playing Samwise Gamgee in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and a vertically challenged Notre Dame football player named Rudy.

About 900 people showed up in the University Center at Northern Michigan University Tuesday to hear Astin speak on “Life Lessons from a Career in Film.” The presentation was coordinated by the NMU group Platform Personalities.

Astin is a second-generation actor, the son of actress Patty Duke, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Keller in the movie “The Miracle Worker.” His adoptive father is John Astin of “The Addams Family” television series.

“Any lessons that I’ve learned in the movies that I’ve done, you know, the thing doing the learning, the ‘me’ doing the learning, was forged in this environment, with this family,” Astin said, “and it was an exciting life.”

He’s also an advocate for literacy and mental health issues, the latter of which he has personal experience with since Duke suffers with bipolar disorder.

Astin’s acting stories, though, generated much interest in the college crowd.

One tale focused on his role in “Memphis Belle,” for which he traveled to London as an 18-year-old. Astin and the other actors, which included Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz and Harry Connick Jr., showed up around July 3.

“We won the war in 1776,” Astin said. “So, they don’t celebrate Independence Day. It’s a different story from their side. That’s one of the things I learned. Oh, when you travel around the world, you can have a slightly different perspective. Like, they didn’t win that war.”

However, he got to fly in B-17 planes 8,000 feet above the “unspoiled English countryside” and shoot 50-caliber machine guns with cartridges coming out and the “smell of the gunsmoke.”

Such is life in film.

It also was legal for Astin to drink for the first time in his life, an experience for which he was unprepared.

“I had to go England to realize that I can’t really hold my liquor,” Astin said.

Being on the set of “Lord of the Rings,” which was filmed in New Zealand, allowed him to meet Sir Edmund Hillary, a Kiwi who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was the first to summit Mount Everest in 1953.

Hillary is on the $5 bill in New Zealand, the actor pointed out.

“Have you ever met anybody that was on money before?” Astin asked the crowd. “I don’t think I’d met anybody that was on money before.”

When Astin met Hillary, who’s on the tall side, the size difference was apparent.

“His hand just enveloped my hand,” Astin said. “And his feet – I’m like, ‘Have I really been shrunk down to Hobbit size?’ – because this guy, he’s an actual giant.”

Another lesson he learned had to do with him taking a part in the Adam Sandler movie “50 First Dates,” for which he initially was reluctant.

“It’s important to open your consciousness up, and if people around you are passionate about something, you don’t necessarily have to do it, but take note,” Astin said. “Take note of other people’s enthusiasm.”

He’s also a believer that “happiness goes with the word play.”

To illustrate that point, Astin mentioned one of his favorite television shows, “The West Wing,” and its writer, Aaron Sorkin.

“I got to meet him,” Astin said, “and I got to hang out on the set and observe their production for a little bit, and he said, ‘Oh, you’re going to come play with us.’ And I just thought it was so cool that to him it was play.”

To him it appeared the work was intense and didn’t look like play.

“For him, that was what playtime was,” Sorkin said. “Playtime was getting to be in an environment where you could do that hard work, so I kind of like that idea.”

He said he always has something in his life over which he has control, whether it be attending college, running marathons and triathlons or working on short films.

In other words, there’s always something at the forefront of his mind, Astin said, that he’s determined to be achieving, enjoying and creating value.

And it’s usually in the middle of that when something else comes up.

“I have every, every, every reason in my life to be happy,” Astin said. “Every blessing you can imagine. Health, health of my wife and children. You know, work. We’re secure financially. But then somehow inside, there’s always this little thing, this little engine.”

That continues to propel him.

“You know, what are my big life lessons that I share with people?” Astin said. “Keep moving forward.”

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.