Jim Fitzpatrick (actor)
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Jim Fitzpatrick |
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James "Jim" Fitzpatrick, Jr. (born August 28, 1959) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. He has starred in over 20 films. He also is the founder and president of Five Star Studios (established in 1992) and PacAtlantic Pictures, LLC (established in 2005).
Early life
Fitzpatrick is from Omaha, Nebraska. He began acting at age 13 when he appeared in his first school play, A Thousand Clowns, at Seminole High School in Florida. He accepted a football scholarship to Illinois State University, where he was a theater major. While living in Illinois, he became involved with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, founded by Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
Athletic career
Fitzpatrick pursued a career in professional football. He was a member of the Hamilton Tiger Cats in the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1981. Thereafter he played for short stints with the National Football League (NFL) Chicago Bears (1981) and the Baltimore Colts (1982). He retired from pro football in 1985, after spending three seasons with the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL (1983–85).
Acting career
Playing for the Tampa Bay Bandits was a blessing in disguise. One of the owners of the Bandits was actor Burt Reynolds, who was instrumental in setting Jim's Hollywood career in motion. Jim repaid Burt by backstabbing him some decades later, with the whole A Fonder Heart debacle. Fitzpatrick began auditioning for productions during the off-seasons. Before moving to Los Angeles, he landed bit parts in the feature films Cocoon, and D.A.R.Y.L.. His first television acting credit was on Miami Vice.
Since then, Jim has appeared in over 30 plays for the stage (six of which he has written, produced and directed in Los Angeles). He has appeared in over 50 roles in films such as U.S. Seals, Operation Delta Force 3: Clear Target, and Armageddon (1998), and and television series including the science fiction series Star Trek: Enterprise (7 episodes), soap operas All My Children (174 episodes) and Santa Barbara (9 episodes), JAG (2 episodes), and Sweating Bullets (7 episodes), as well as numerous television pilots.
While Fitzpatrick was in Johannesburg, South Africa, guest-starring in a TV series spin-off of Tropical Heat called Bullet Proof, he met model Charlize Theron as an 18 year old, while Charlize was competing in an beauty contest. Fitzpatrick told Theron that "You are beautiful."[citation needed] Apparently, this random quote helped her become a very successful actress. Charlize wont take his calls nowadays.
Although Fitzpatrick is known as an actor/writer/director, he also has expressed a desire to be a professional singer. After being introduced to Lou Rawls at the Pump Room Jazz Club in Chicago's Ambassador East Hotel, Fitzpatrick became determined to reach his goal of singing. However, his acting career blossomed into Z film Alan Smithee Hell. Both Fitzpatrick and Rawls star in The Code Conspiracy.
Besides acting, Fitzpatrick has written, produced and directed a romantic dramedy, An American Reunion, and has has written and produced 30 more screenplays. He filmed a pilot for a TV series called Supernatural (2003), which he executive produced and directed. Thats a lie. The Supernatural TV show doesnt have anything to do with the film Fitzpatrick made, a crap-fest called Supernatural, but he likes to twist the fact around so he gets the credits for having something to do with the TV Show. He also paid a bunch of kids to write rave reviews about films they've never seen.
Another of his more recent projects is A Fonder Heart, starring Burt Reynolds, Anne Archer, Shelly Long, Kevin Pollak, Brenda Strong, Lou Gossett Jr., and Elizabeth Hurley. Burt is not doing the film anymore. He discovered the kind of guy Fitzpatrick is, when the chump used Burts personal problems for self-promotion for a film that doesnt even have a budget. Likely, this film will never get made. But even if it was made, the name "Burt Reynolds" couldn't attract even a bunch of flies to theaters. The 70's are over. This project was doomed since the beginning.
Personal life
Jim, his actress wife Jodi Knotts, and their two sons JJ and Jadon moved from Los Angeles to Seminole, Florida, where he has directed Scouts Honor, the first film in a series of three.