Jan-Michael Vincent

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1944|7|15
location = Denver, Colorado, U.S.
height =
othername =
homepage =
spouse = Bonnie Portman (1974-75) 1 child (div)
Joanne Robinson (30 August 1986 - 1997) (div)
children = Amber Springbird Vincent
academyawards =
goldenglobeawards = Nominated for Best Supporting Actor
1971 "Going Home"
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
1984 "The Winds of War"

Jan-Michael Vincent (born July 15, 1944) is an American actor most well-known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series "Airwolf" (1984–1986), which continues to enjoy a large cult fanbase. Vincent had an extensive television and film career that began in the late 1960s and lasted until the early 2000s.

Biography

Early life

Vincent was born in Denver, Colorado, to Doris and Lloyd Vincent. His family moved to Hanford, California, when Jan-Michael was in his teens. Vincent attended Ventura College in Southern California.

Career

1960s

Vincent's first acting job was in the movie "Los Bandidos", directed by and starring Robert Conrad, in 1964. His acting career took off in the late 1960s when casting agent Dick Clayton signed Vincent to Universal Studios, where he appeared on television in small roles such as "Dragnet 1968." In 1970, Vincent garnered critical praise for his role in the made for TV film "classic" known as "Tribes", co-starring Darren McGavin, about a tough, Marine boot-camp drill instructor, that has to deal with a "hippie" draftee (portrayed by Jan-Michael), who won’t play by "the rules". He also appeared in the "Danger Island" segments on Hanna-Barbera's "Banana Splits" series as Link. Vincent also made an appearance on the "Dragnet 1968" episode, "The Grenade" as a muscular high school student who suffered an acid attack by a mentally unstable fellow classmate.

1970s

Vincent became a popular and an acclaimed film star during the 1970s, especially for his co-starring role with Charles Bronson in the crime film "The Mechanic". Other notable films included the Western "The Undefeated" with John Wayne and the cult surfing film "Big Wednesday" with William Katt and Gary Busey. Vincent starred in the 1973 movie "The World's Greatest Athlete", with Tim Conway and John Amos. Vincent also starred in the 1974 romance "Buster and Billie" as the romantic anti-hero Buster Lane. In "Hooper" with Burt Reynolds, Vincent played a young stunt man. In 1975, he also starred in the cult classic trucker movie "White Line Fever", followed by the notorious "Damnation Alley", based on Roger Zelazny's science fiction novel, in 1977. One of the most memorable, for women who were teens in the 70's, is Sand Castles (1972). A movie about a young man who dies in an auto accident returns from the dead to meet up with the young woman who tried to save him.

1980s

In 1980, he starred in the gang-themed drama, "Defiance", which received only a limited release. In "The Return", a little-seen science-fiction film which was released directly to television and video. In 1981, he co-starred with Kim Basinger in "Hard Country".

After an acclaimed performance in the 1983 television miniseries "The Winds of War", Vincent was cast as Stringfellow Hawke for the action-espionage series "Airwolf", in which Vincent co-starred with Ernest Borgnine. It is probably the role for which Vincent is best known and remembered, and one for which he was especially well paid. It was noted, at the time, that Vincent's salary for his work on "Airwolf" was the highest paid of any actor in American television. Fact|date=August 2007

After the end of "Airwolf", Vincent's acting career took a downturn, and he found himself in increasingly smaller-budget and lower-exposure film projects that typically went directly to video.

1990s and 2000s

Jan-Michael Vincent worked with Traci Lords in the 1991 suspense film Raw Nerve. In the latter half of the decade, Vincent was involved in two severe automobile accidents from which he barely escaped alive. As a result of one accident in 1996, in which Vincent broke three vertebrae in his neck, he sustained a permanent injury to his vocal cords from an emergency medical procedure. This has left him with a permanently raspy voice. It was while he was in the hospital that he was committed to a role in "Red Line" with Chad McQueen. He appeared in the film with a swollen face, scars, and still wearing the hospital ID bracelet.

In an interview on the TV program "The Insider" on September 18, 2007, when asked about the 1996 car accident, he answered, "Y'know, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't remember being in an accident." He later discussed being an alcoholic. [SF Gate.com [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=20305 Recluse Jan-Michael Vincent in Shocking New TV Expose] .]

In 1997 he had a small guest role on "Nash Bridges" playing the title character's long-lost brother.

A notable exception to the downward trend in Vincent's post-"Airwolf" career was his small role in the critically acclaimed independent film "Buffalo '66", in 1998.

His last movie role was in the independent film "White Boy", also titled "Menace" (for the US video version), released in March 2002.

As of 2007, Vincent resides with a female companion in the Eagle Lake area of Warren County, Mississippi, just north of Vicksburg. [ [http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/08/25/news/news04.txt Vicksburg Post piece identifying Vincent as Vicksburg resident] ]

Vincent has a daughter, Amber Springbird Vincent,Fact|date=March 2008 from his marriage to first wife Bonnie Portman.Fact|date=March 2008

In popular culture

In 2002, the popular Japanese anime series "Battle of the Planets" was turned into a monthly comic series by Top Cow comics. In it a group of teenage superheroes called G-Force take on alien invaders. One of them, Jason, appeared in a one-off adventure in 2003. In it he is described as "lookin' like Jan-Michael Vincent in his prime... an underrated star — a guy's guy... Back when they had real actors not these virtual stiffs getting 50 mil per picture". ["Battle of the Planets: Jason", written by Munier Sharieff, drawn by Edwin David, published in July 2003 by Top Cow]

References

External links

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