The new York times Monday, january 23, 2006

By CHRISTOPHER MAAG

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chuck Lamb might be the world’s chattiest dead guy.

He loves to talk, and his favorite topic is how he’s fast becoming the most famous dead body alive. “Isn’t it incredible?” said Mr. Lamb, 47, who speaks at a volume that most people reserve for rock concerts. “I had no idea it would blow up like this!”

Mr. Lamb became Dead Body Guy on December 5. That’s when he put up his Web site, deadbodyguy.com. The site features photos of Mr. Lamb playing dead in various scenes around his house. Crushed by his garage door. Electrocuted in the bathtub. One series shows Mr. Lamb lying face-down in a bowl of chicken soup, above a caption that reads “Dying from bird flu.” His wife, Tonya, took the photos. She also prepared jars of fake blood, which she keeps in the pantry for future use.

By staging his own death, Mr. Lamb hopes to attain a modest form of immortality. He says he always wanted to become a famous actor. Instead, at age 47 he finds himself with six children, working as a computer programmer for Nationwide Insurance. Mr. Lamb has deep creases under his eyes, skin as pale as copy paper, precious little hair and no acting experience. Any notions he once held of becoming the next Sean Connery died long ago.

But Mr. Lamb’s dream of fame lingered. “Just once, I want to have my name in the credits of a movie or a TV show,” he says. His dream was stalled until last month, when Mr. Lamb realized that anybody can play dead. By posing as a corpse on the Internet, he thought, perhaps he could win a role as a lifeless extra on “CSI: Miami.” Mr. Lamb took two days to build the Web site, then waited for someone to notice. It was a short wait. Deadbodyguy.com received 300,000 hits in its first three weeks.

CNN labeled deadbodyguy.com one of the week’s best Web sites. USA Today ran a small story. That was all the prodding needed by representatives of the infotainment industry, who spend their days trawling for weird news. They deluged Mr. Lamb with interview requests. He soon appeared on more than 100 local TV stations and was mentioned on over 300 radio shows.

Even with the sensation his Web site has generated, Mr. Lamb hasn’t received any movie offers. But he has been invited to the Los Angeles Film Festival this June, where he’ll win the Special Achievement Award for Self-Promotion. He also will play dead on the red carpet as film actors step over his body.

Officially, Mr. Lamb is sticking to Dead Body Guy’s original goal. “Just one movie credit and I’m done,” he said. Meanwhile, he’s waiting to hear back from a producer at a late-night talk show. He’s booking a flight to New York to meet with an agent. “I want to leave a little legacy,” said Mr. Lamb. “I’d like to have a bridge named after me.”

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