Robert Ginty

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Robert Ginty's most recent publicity photo.
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Robert Ginty's most recent publicity photo.

Robert Ginty (born November 14, 1948 in New York, New York[1]) is an American movie actor, producer, scenarist, and director of movies and TV series episodes. He is mostly famous for his many B-movie appearances.

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[edit] Background

Born in New York, Ginty was involved in several rock bands from a young age, playing and hanging out with several rock legends, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana and John Lee Hooker. He studied at Yale[1] and trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actor's Studio. Ginty worked in the regional theater circuit, and moved to Broadway after Harold Prince hired him as his assistant after seeing him perform Shakespeare in New Hampshire.

[edit] Television career

Eventually Hollywood beckoned and Ginty transplanted himself to the western shore where he found frequent work as a strong-armed player on TV action, appearing in different series in the mid-1970s. In 1976, he attained some popularity after finding a steady role staring with Robert Conrad in Baa Baa Black Sheep (TV series) a successful TV series about the experiences of United States Marine Corps aviator Pappy Boyington and his squadron of misfits during World War II. He also had bit parts in Bound for Glory (1976) and Two-Minute Warning (1976). He later made his biggest impression as Bruce Dern's pal in Coming Home (1978). Ginty then co-starred in three other TV shows: The Paper Chase (1978), Falcon Crest, and Hawaiian Heat.

Ginty also played in TV movies, including John Llewellyn Moxey's The Courage and the Passion[2].

[edit] Movie career

Around the time he was appearing in the series The Paper Chase (1978), he won his first film action lead in The Exterminator (1980), which became a surprising box-office hit. Soon Ginty was on a roll, emulating Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone as a high-action anti-hero.Four years later, he would reprise the action lead in the sequel Exterminator 2.

Robert Ginty made his first appearance in cinema in the late 1970s in two Hal Ashby movies. He then starred with David Carradine in the 1976 Bound for Glory biography of folk singer Woodie Guthrie, and with Bruce Dern in Coming Home, (1978) (which was nominated eight times for an Oscar award).

In 1980, Robert Ginty played the most defining role in his career, in the movie Exterminator by James Glickenhaus. He starred as an ex-Vietnam soldier, who has turned into a lonesome and brutal dispenser of justice. Exterminator is one of the most significant movies of the "Urban Western" genre, which was at the time the trademark of actors such as Charles Bronson and movie directors such as William Lustig.

After starring in Exterminator, Ginty began a career of B-movies. Some of them were frequently co-written and co-produced by them, and are nowadays still considered as camp.

  • Warrior of the Lost World (1983), shot in Italy, is a memorable example of a failed post-apocalyptic/Mad Max-like movie.
  • Gold Raiders (1983), a jungle movie shot in Thailand.
  • Exterminator 2, a cheap sequel of the first Exterminator hit, produced by Cannon, attracts mostly Z-grade flick amateurs.

There is a number of other "so-bad-it's-good" (for lack of a better name) Robert Ginty movies, the most popular one probably being 1984 French-American-Turkish action thriller White Fire (a.k.a. Vivre pour survivre a.k.a. Le Diamant), which is considered by amateurs to be one of the best campy B-movies ever.

Robert Ginty's acting career faded in the 1990s, although he played some higher-quality roles, such as in Tom Ropelewski's comedy Madhouse. Ginty also performed another big production, with Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.

[edit] Directing career

Ginty became an independent producer/director, and formed his own production company, where he became the head of the company Ginty Films, buying shares in the special effect studio Introvision that distributed his vehicles both here and abroad. Most were crudely made on very limited budgets, but he has nevertheless done quite well for himself as a writer/producer/director, especially overseas, with such assembly-line fare as Gold Raiders (1983) which was filmed in Thailand, Cop Target (1990), which was shot in France, and the sequel to his first big hit, Exterminator 2 (1984). He has not slowed down in the late 1990s, performing producing and directing chores on such shows as China Beach (1988), Xena: Warrior Princess (1995), Nash Bridges (1996), Charmed (1998) and Tracker (2001).

Ginty has also been a viable presence as a director on the experimental theater scene, particularly in Europe. More recently (2004), he directed a rap/hip-hop musical version of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange to fine reviews.

[edit] Filmography

  • 1975 Gibbsville: The Turning Point of Jim Malloy (TV)
  • Cop on the Beat aka The Return of Joe Forrester (TV)
  • 1976 Two Minute Warning
  • Bound for Glory
  • Baa Baa Black Sheep
  • 1978 The Courage and the Passion (TV)
  • Coming Home
  • The Paper Chase (TV)
  • 1980 The Exterminator
  • 1981 The Big Stuffed Dog (TV)
  • 1982 Escarabajos asesinos aka Scarab
  • The Act aka Bless 'Em All
  • 1983 I Want to Live (TV)
  • Gold Raiders aka Fire Game
  • Warrior of the Lost World
  • 1984 Hawaiian Heat
  • White Fire
  • Exterminator 2
  • The Alchemist
  • 1987 Programmed to Kill aka The Retaliator
  • Three Kinds of Heat
  • The Mission... Kill
  • Maniac Killer
  • 1989 Falcon Crest
  • Loverboy
  • Out on Bail
  • Code Name Vengeance
  • 1990 Vietnam, Texas
  • Madhouse
  • Cop Target
  • 1991 Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
  • 1992 Lady Dragon
  • 1995 Taken Alive
  • 1998 Doublecross On Costa's Island
  • 1999 The Prophet's Game

[edit] Trivia

In theater, Ginty played roles in Shakespeare, Molière, and Tennessee Williams plays. He became the assistant of Hal Prince on Broadway, created a theatrical adaptation of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and also founded the Irish Theatre Arts Center troup in Los Angeles.

Once flew as passenger on a "VIP Flight" in a F/A-18 Hornet with the Blue Angels. He took up flying via his association with his TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976).

He was made an officer of the order of arts and letters of France for his work in the theater.

As a painter, he has explored the action painting technique and amateur photography, and has exhibited his art work in group shows in France, Italy, England, and Ireland. He works mainly in oil and collage.

Ginty lives in Los Angeles, Dublin, Toronto, and Vancouver. He was married to Francine Tacker and Lorna Patterson[3].

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Erickson, Hal. Robert Ginty - filmography. All Movie Guide. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
  2. ^ The Courage and the Passion (1978) (TV). IMDb.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
  3. ^ Biography for Robert Ginty. IMDb.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.

[edit] External links

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