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Robert Ginty

Robert Ginty is an American actor, and eventually a producer, a scenarist or a movie/TV series director. Most of his career involved B-movies, his only great role in cinema being John Eastland in Exterminator (1980).

Robert Ginty was born in New York, USA, in 1948 November 14. He first focused on music, getting involved in Rock or Blues bands as a drummer. He had the opportunity to play side by side with several rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lee Hooker or Carlos Santana.

In the early 70's, Robert Ginty takes drama lessons at the Actor's Studio. He then concentrates on an acting career, both on playstage, TV or cinema.

Robert Ginty gets acquainted with the audience by TV. He first appears in the middle of the 70's, through different series. In 1976, he attains real popularity thanks to a strong role on the side of Robert Conrad in Baa Baa Black Sheep, a TV series about US Air Force heroes during World War II. The series is extremely successful. Ginty shall then co-star in three other TV shows: The Paper Chase, Falcon Crest, and Hawaiian Heat (a Miami Vice-like show).

Still for TV, he plays extras in some quality telefilms, such as The Courage and the Passion by John Llewellyn Moxey.

In cinema, Robert Ginty appears in the late 70's in two Hal Ashby movies (director of Shampoo and 8 Million Ways to Die): a minor role on the side of David Carradine in Bound for Glory (1976) (biography of folk singer Woodie Guthrie) and especially a larger role with Bruce Dern in Coming Home (1978) which was introduced in Cannes and nominated 8 times for the Oscar. By exposing crudely the social readaptation problem of Vietnam War ex-soldiers, Coming Home becomes a subject of polemic in the United States.

Robert Ginty is also credited in a good Larry Peerce thriller: Two Minute Warning (1976) where he appears as a balloon salesman.

In 1980, Robert Ginty gets his first (his only!) great role in cinema. He stars as a returned Viet-Nam soldier who turned into a lonesome and brutal dispenser of justice in the movie Exterminator by James Glickenhaus. Exterminator is undoubtedly one of the most marking movies of the Urban Western genre, which was at the time the trademark of actors such as Charles Bronson or movie directors such as William Lustig. After this movie, Robert Ginty becomes one of the champions of B-movies and Z-grade camps.

The movies where Robert Ginty stars (where he often works as a co-writer and co-producer as well) during the 80's become great camp flicks.

  • Warrior of the Lost World (1983), shot in Italy, is a memorable example of a failed post-apocalyptic/Mad Max-like movie. This popular genre at the time gave out a lot of turkeys.
  • Gold Raiders (1983), a jungle movie shot in Thailand, is a sorry mess.
  • Exterminator 2, a cheap sequel of the first Exterminator hit, produced by Cannon, attracts mostly Z-grade flick amateurs.
  • There are also a lot of others so-bad-it's-good movies where he stars, such as The Alchemist (1984), the French-American-Turkish White Fire (a.k.a. Vivre pour survivre a.k.a. Le Diamant) (1984) (where Robert Ginty falls in love with his sister's deadringer), Maniac Killer shot in Essonne for the Eurociné company, or Mission: Kill from the sub-surrealistic-Rambo-like movies. To add, a Z-grade flick by director Umberto Lenzi in a police comedy (?): Cop Target.
The 90's shall be shorter for Robert Ginty's acting career. He still gets better quality roles such as in Tom Ropelewski's comedy Madhouse. Ginty also returns into another big production, with Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man which will alas be an office bomb.

Independant producer/director, Robert Ginty has his own company, Ginty Films, and holds shares in the special effect society Introvision (which worked for The Fugitive, Rambo II, Karate Kid II...).

Ginty has directed some movies:

  • Bounty Hunter: a film about Indians of America.
  • Vietnam, Texas: another movie about Vietnam's afterwar.
  • Woman of Desire: melodramatic thriller starring Bo Derek and Robert Mitchum. Here Come the Munsters, an Addams Family-like telefilm (1995).
Robert Ginty also directed some TV series episodes: Charmed, Xena: Warrior Princess, Early Edition, Nash Bridges...

In theater, Robert Ginty appears in Shakespeare, Molière or Tennessee Williams plays and he becomes the assistant of Hal Prince in Broadway. He interpretes about thirty roles, including a dozen in Broadway. He creates for theater an adaptation of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. He also founded the Irish Theatre Arts Center troup in Los Angeles, which promotes Irish patrimony works.

As a painter, he attempted the dripping art (Jackson Pollock style). He is also an amateur photograph. He lives between Los Angeles, Dublin, Toronto and Vancouver. Robert Ginty has been maried (and has divorced) twice, with (from) Lorna Patterson and Francine Talker.

Most critics say that Robert Ginty is a lousy and quite inexpressive actor. Most of his fans are B-movie camp amateurs.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2004.

Robert Ginty Facts

OccupationDirector, Producer, Screenwriter
BirthdayNovember 14, 1948 (75)
SignScorpio
BirthplaceNew York, New York, USA

Selected Filmography

Evening Shade
Warrior... Priestess... Tramp
Vietnam, Texas
Woman of Desire
Here Come the Munsters
The After Dark Collection
The Magic Bubble / Woman of Desire / Stanley's Gig
Bounty Hunter
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