Robert Ginty

infobox actor

---

birthdate=birth date and age|1948|11|14
birthplace=New York City, New York
occupation=Film actor, producer, director

Robert Ginty (born November 14, 1948 in New York, New Yorkcite web|last=Erickson|first=Hal|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=91629|title=Robert Ginty - filmography|work=All Movie Guide|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2006-07-09] ) 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.

Ginty lives in Los Angeles, Dublin, Toronto, and Vancouver. He was married to Francine Tacker and Lorna Patterson and his son with Tacker is actor James Ginty.imdb|0320180]

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 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.

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", 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" [imdb title|0077375|The Courage and the Passion] .

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 him, 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. (Also from its appearance on Mystery Science Theatre 3000)
*"Gold Raiders" (1983), a jungle movie shot in Thailand.
*"Exterminator 2", a cheap sequel of the first Exterminator hit, produced by Cannon.

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")

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".

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), "" (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.

*"Bounty Hunter" a film about the life of American Indians.
*"Vietnam, Texas" another movie about the aftermath of The Vietnam War.
*"Woman of Desire" melodramatic thriller starring Bo Derek and Robert Mitchum.
*"Here Come the Munsters" an Addams Family-like TV movie from 1995.

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"

References

External links

*amg name|2:91629
* [http://www.nanarland.com/acteurs/Main.php?id_acteur=robertginty Nanarland, French website which hosts several reviews on Robert Ginty's movies]
* [http://www.robertginty.com/ Robert Ginty's Official Website]