Country singer, NC native Jimmy Wayne to make acting debut in Lifetime holiday movie

Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies have become a national obsession, and on Friday, North Carolina country singer Jimmy Wayne will make his acting debut in one of the season’s early arrivals.

The 46-year-old Wayne, who was born and raised in the Gaston County town of Kings Mountain, will appear as the character “Brent” in “Every Other Holiday.” The movie will air at 10 p.m. on Lifetime, according to IMDb, the online movie, TV, home video and video games database.

Stars in the film include Dee Wallace, perhaps best known as the mom in director Steven Spielberg’s 1982 hit film, “E.T.”

“Dreams do come true, no matter where you come from,” Wayne told the Gaston Gazette in an article published Wednesday. “I came from the foster care system in Gaston County. You can do anything you want to do as long as you identify what you want to be and work hard at it.”

“Every Other Holiday” involves two “recently separated parents” who “spend every other holiday with their young daughters ...” according to IMDb. “But this Christmas, the girls have only one thing on their wish lists -- to spend Christmas with both Mom and Dad at (mom’s) family farmhouse.”

Wayne “plays a rancher who is a love interest of one of the daughters,” the Gaston Gazette reported on Wednesday.

Wayne also was co-executive producer of the 2014 TV Christmas movie, “Paper Angels,” based on his similarly titled novel.

In a 2008 article, The Charlotte Observer reported that Wayne “was still a toddler when his father abandoned the family. At age 12, Wayne saw his mother sent to prison, and at 13, his stepfather became enraged during an argument and tried to shoot him.

“Wayne ended up in group homes and foster homes in the years that followed,” the Observer reported. “He also spent his share of time living on the streets as a runaway.”

The 2008 Observer article said Wayne credited “dedicated foster parents and strict teachers with saving his life.” They encouraged him to put his thoughts down on paper, according to the article.

By 1998, he moved to Nashville to work as a professional songwriter. He “quickly found success writing songs for big name acts, the best known being Tracy Byrd’s Top 10 hit ‘Put Your Hand in Mine,’” the Observer reported in the 2008 article.

As for his film debut, Wayne could not have made a better choice than a Lifetime holiday movie, judging by the national popularity of such films on both Lifetime and Hallmark.

In November and December 2016, for instance, “when Hallmark aired Christmas movies almost nonstop, the channel often ran neck-and-neck with Fox News and ESPN for the title of most-watched TV network on basic cable,” The Washington Post reported in an Aug. 21, 2017, article.