Bethlehem’s Daniel Roebuck takes a call in hilarious new Geico commercial

Aug. 07--If you look carefully, you'll find Bethlehem's Daniel Roebuck in a new Geico commercial.

Roebuck, who sports a bushy gray beard and wears a vest, plays Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, in the new commercial. Geico, an auto insurance company, is known for its creative and popular TV spots.

In the commercial, Bell rudely takes a phone call while in a crowded theater, interrupting the cast and disturbing the audience.

"Hoy hoy! Alexander Graham Bell here," Roebuck says, answering the big old-fashioned telephone sitting in the seat next to him. "Hello my number is one. You must want two. Two I say!"

He then hangs up and the cast attempts to get back to its performance. The phone rings again. "Hoy, Hoy!"

A Geico spokesman then says: "As long as people talk too loudly on the phone, you can count on Geico saving folks money."

Roebuck, 55, grew up in Bethlehem, attending St. Anne's Catholic School and Bethlehem Catholic High School.

He's an accomplished character actor, who's appeared in many movies, such as the 1993 classic "The Fugitive," and a long list of TV shows including "Lost," "Matlock," "NCIS," "Law & Order" and Amazon Studio's "Man in the High Castle."

This year, his directorial debut "Getting Grace" hit theaters. Roebuck also starred in the faith-based movie, which was shot entirely in the Lehigh Valley and featured local actors and musicians.

In the movie, Grace (played by Bethlehem Catholic High School grad Madelyn Dundon) is a teenage girl who's dying of cancer. She struggles with the uncertainty of what will happen to her after she dies, along with worrying about her mother and who will look after her. She then pushes her way into a friendship with Roebuck's character, Bill Jankowski, the director of her hometown funeral home.

Through her journey toward death, Grace changes the lives of the people around her, most notably Jankowski, who learns that life should be celebrated as if every moment was the last one. The film explores the complex emotions that surround Grace and those in her life, and how to move on after a death.

Roebuck's next planned film, "The Hail Mary," will focus on an all-boys Catholic school led by a cantankerous sister of St. Joseph, a Catholic religious order of women that numbers 7,000 in the United States. He's planning to shoot the film in the Lehigh Valley.

------

DETAILS

How to see Daniel Roebuck's commercial online

* YouTube: Search for Daniel Roebuck, Geico commercial

* You can also see it at Geico's website: https://on.gei.co/2AOLDKA

------

[email protected]

610-820-6628

___

(c)2018 The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)

Visit The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) at www.mcall.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.