From jail inmate to Netflix star: Modesto actor finds success on hit true crime show
They say life imitates art, but sometimes it’s the other way around.
Modesto resident Donny Gonzalez is finding fame through fiction, but certain aspects of his character on the new Netflix true-crime series “Heist” echo parts of his past growing up in the Central Valley.
The actor and former Modesto Junior College theater student appears in the Netflix documentary series, which focuses on some of the biggest money heists in history. The show premiered July 14 and quickly became the fourth most-watched program across the streaming service. The docuseries remains in the Top 10 shows watched on Netflix in the U.S. this week.
Gonzalez appears in two episodes of the series as a reenactor, playing a key member of a group that robbed the Brinks security company of $7.4 million in a brazen daylight heist at the Miami International Airport in 2005.
But in real life around the same time, Gonzalez was facing his own trouble with the law. The Bay Area native had moved to Modesto as a grade-schooler in 1986 and went on to Beyer High School — the same school as Modesto acting luminaries Jeremy Renner and Timothy Olyphant.
“But unlike those two, I was a knucklehead and got expelled my senior year and graduated from Elliott continuation school,” Gonzalez said of his high school years. “So I’m a proud Elliot Eagle, class of 1997.”
His troubles didn’t end there. Some drunk driving charges and in-custody fights landed him in the local jail three times, including his longest stint in 2004, which lasted seven months. Stanislaus County court records show a handful of misdemeanor cases. His last case was in 2003 — the DUI offense for which he served the most time.
From Honor Farm to Netflix fame
The Bee took a photo of Gonzalez back in his days in the Honor Farm, Stanislaus County’s now-decommissioned minimum-security jail, performing community service as an inmate while hanging the city’s Christmas lights downtown. Still, he credits his time locked up with setting his priorities straight and experiences at MJC as giving him the tools he needed to pursue an acting career.
Now, with the success of the Netflix series on his resume, Gonzalez is excited about his future career prospects and ready for his next role.
“I’ve stayed pretty much out of trouble since then, and stayed away from the bad influences in my life. That was another lifetime ago, when I was young and stupid. I was a Modesto knucklehead, now I’m a Modesto actor,” Gonzalez said.
Still, his “Heist” role could have turned out very differently. Gonzalez, who stands an imposing 6-foot-3 and weighs in at 350 pounds, is hard to miss. So he originally auditioned for the role of the real-life crew’s muscle, which is a smaller part with less screen time. But after seeing him perform, the casting director had another idea.
“She said, ‘You’re more funny than anything.’ She didn’t buy the tough-guy act. She said she had a funnier role in mind for me,” he said. “I was actually shocked how big a role mine was.”
That role turned out to that of the late Jeffrey Boatwright, who was the brother-in-law of the heist’s mastermind, Karls Monzon. A larger-than-life personality with some criminal connections, Boatwright helped Monzon round up the rest of the six-man crew to pull off the robbery.
While the actual heist went off relatively smoothly, with the men able to grab $7.4 million in money left on a lightly guarded airport dock, what happened after the crime landed all of them in jail.
Actor connected with his character
Boatwright in particular went through a harrowing ordeal, largely at the hands of brother-in-law Monzon, who had him kidnapped and roughed up twice (and then again a third time by the kidnappers who took and tortured him on their own) because of worries his extravagant spending after the crime would get them caught.
Gonzalez said he related to Boatwright’s irresponsible spending and inclinations toward flashy displays of wealth (like wearing two $20,000 Rolex watches out to strip clubs) after pocketing their ill-gotten millions. He said it didn’t take much to get into his former mindset “when I was young, wild and had a lower IQ.”
“It wasn’t terribly hard to get into that character because to a lesser degree, that was me a number of years ago. I didn’t have money like that, but I was young and reckless,” he said. “That was me, except he had millions and I had my checks from Rico’s Pizza.”
Gonzalez said he was a heavy drinker and partier in his younger years, which landed him in trouble. But unlike Boatwright, who in real life was convicted for his role in the heist and sentenced to 17 years behind bars, Gonzalez was able to find a new focus for his life after his time behind bars. Boatwright, who ended up serving 11 years for his crimes, died shortly after being released from prison.
Gonzalez gives a lot of credit for his turnaround to his time at MJC starting in 2007, studying acting and theater and later film classes. One of his instructors, longtime MJC theater professor Michael Lynch, said there’s no way he could ever forget Gonzalez.
Professor recalls softer side
“He walked into my classroom, which was in the little theater, and he’s this huge guy who is actually the sweetest guy in the world,” Lynch said of his former student. “It really shines through and it is almost incongruous to what he physically looks like. He looks like a mean mo, but he’s not.”
Lynch recalls Gonzalez in classes with fellow performer and MJC alum Lindsay Pearce, who had her 2020 Broadway debut as the lead in “Wicked” paused due to the pandemic. He said Gonzalez was “perfectly cast” as Boatwright, who comes across as more of a fun-loving guy with a drug and spending problem instead of a master criminal.
“Jeremy Renner, Lindsay Pearce, Donny — isn’t it amazing this little town has so many talented people in it. It amazed me, and I’ve been lucky to meet many of them,” Lynch said. “Donny has a lot of ambition and a heart of gold. For such a young man, he has done a lot already.”
Gonzalez made the move to Los Angeles in 2015. His other credits include an episode of the reality docuseries “Hollywood Weapons” for the Outdoor Channel, an appearance in the locally shot and produced film “The Last Alleycat” from Northern California-based filmmakers Mark and Greg Runnels, and the upcoming independent bank heist movie “Pick a Side.” In 2020 he also appeared in the music video for “Pricetag” from Sacramento-based rapper Mozzy.
“Heist” is his largest production to date, with a cast and crew of about 80 on set. The six-episode season chronicles three major heists, which are broken into two-episode chapters each. Gonzalez shot his part in October and November of last year in the Los Angeles area, on a set with daily testing as part of the production’s strict COVID-19 protocols.
Gonzalez was still living in LA through much of the pandemic, but moved back to Modesto after what he hopes will be his last run-in with the law saw him lose his license for driving without insurance recently. He plans to head back to Southern California once his driving privileges are reinstated in a couple of months.
Since the show debuted two weeks ago, he said his social media profiles have been flooded with hundreds of friend and follow requests. Since returning to the Valley, he has run into some of his old MJC cohorts, including Lynch, around town. Standing in front of the MJC auditorium, Gonzalez said the college and its theater department remain special to him.
“I really changed my life back then. .... I had stopped drinking like a maniac and put me on the path that I wanted to be. (MJC) really sparked a flame and made me want to pursue acting,” he said. “I am very glad I took all the classes at MJC. It changed my life.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
