Jon Hamm is considering a return to teaching.
Jon Hamm
The 'Mad Men' actor ran a drama class at the Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, before finding fame in Hollywood and he admitted the death of his parents when he was young has made him appreciate the importance of "alternative parents" such as teachers.
In an upcoming episode of 'Sunday Today with Willie Geist', he explains: "[Teaching] was always my fallback position if it all went sideways.
"Being a parent and being a teacher are parallel lines. Growing up without parents for a certain portion of my life and having certain 'alternative parents' for a larger portion of my life, I see that that's an important thing to provide for a kid.
"It can be the different between, literally, life and death -- like a kid who lives a successful life and a kid who punks out in the gutter."
The 46-year-old actor lost his mother to colon cancer when he was 10 and his father died just a few months before the star's 21st birthday.
Jon has previously spoken about the loss of his parents and how he was "quasi-adopted by [his] friends' families."
He said: "[My dad] was twice widowed. He was divorced from my mom when she died, but even so, there's a deep sense of tragedy in that. I never had the opportunity to, as an adult, sit down and talk to him about that. It's a real loss.
"Even today I get e-mails or cards from these women who, for lack of a better word, were my mom. We talk about what it means to be a family. Mostly it's about showing up. And being aware enough to check in and say, 'How are you doing?' I've been incredibly lucky to have these people in my life."
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