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Robert Ginty
Robert Ginty
Occupation(s)	Film actor, producer, director

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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.

Ginty lives in Los Angeles, Dublin, Toronto, and Vancouver. He was married to Francine Tacker and Lorna Patterson.^[2]

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.

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^[3].

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), 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.

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

^ ^a ^b Erickson, Hal. "Robert Ginty - filmography". All Movie Guide. New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-09.
^ Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
^ The Courage and the Passion at IMDb

External links

{{subst:#if:Ginty, Robert|}} [[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1948}}

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| #default = 1948 births

}}]] {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:LIVING}}

|| LIVING  = 
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[amg-1] Erickson, Hal. "Robert Ginty - filmography". All Movie Guide. New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-09.

[imdb-bio-2] Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.

[3] The Courage and the Passion at IMDb

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[2]

[3]

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 }}
 {{citations|article}}
 '''Robert Ginty''' (born [[November 14]], [[1948]] in [[New York, New York]]<ref name="amg">{{cite 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}}</ref>) is an [[United States|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, California|Los Angeles]], [[Dublin]], [[Toronto]], and [[Vancouver]]. He was married to Francine Tacker and Lorna Patterson.<ref name="imdb-bio">{{imdb|0320180}}</ref>
 ==Background==
@@ Line 79: / Line 81: @@
 *1998 ''Doublecross On Costa's Island''
 *1999 ''The Prophet's Game''
-==Trivia==
-{{trivia|date=May 2007}}
-Ginty lives in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[Dublin]], [[Toronto]], and [[Vancouver]]. He was married to Francine Tacker and Lorna Patterson.<ref name="imdb-bio">{{imdb|0320180}}</ref>
 ==References==