Robert Ginty is an American actor, producer, a scenarist and a director of movies and TV series. Aside from his role as John Eastland in the 1980 movie Exterminator, he mainly played parts in various B-movies.

Robert Ginty was born in New York, USA, on November 14 of 1948. He started out as a musician and became involved with several rock and Blues bands as a drummer. During this time, he had the opportunity to play side by side with several rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lee Hooker, and Carlos Santana.

In the early 1970s, Robert Ginty took drama lessons at the Actor's Studio. He then concentrated on an acting career on stage, TV and cinema.

Robert Ginty began his career on television, appearing in different series in mid-1970s. In 1976, he attained some popularity after playing the role of Robert Conrad in Baa Baa Black Sheep. This was a successful TV series about US Air Force heroes during World War II. Ginty then co-starred in three other TV shows: The Paper Chase, Falcon Crest, and Hawaiian Heat , a Miami Vice-like show.

Apart from TV shows, Robert Ginty also played extras in some made-for-TV movies, such as The Courage and the Passion by John Llewellyn Moxey .

Robert Ginty made his first appearance in cinematography in the late 1970s in two Hal Ashby movies. (Hal Ashby is director of Shampoo and 8 Million Ways to Die). Robert Ginty played a minor role of David Carradine in a 1976 Bound for Glory biography of folk singer Woodie Guthrie. He played a larger role as Bruce Dern in Coming Home, a 1978 movie introduced in Cannes and nominated eight times for an Oscar award. Coming Home exposed the social readaptation difficulties of ex-soldiers of the Vietnam War and became a subject of some polemic in the United States.

Robert Ginty also made a brief appearance in a 1976 Larry Peerce thriller: Two Minute Warning as a balloon salesman.

In 1980, Robert Ginty played his first - and only - great role in cinema in the movie Exterminator by James Glickenhaus . He starred as an ex-Vietnam soldier, who has turned into a lonesome and brutal arbitrator of justice. Exterminator is one of the most significant movies of the "Urban Western" genre, which was at the time the trademark of such noted actors as Charles Bronson and movie directors such as William Lustig .

After starring in the "Exterminator," Robert Ginty become one of the champions of B-movies and Z-grade camps. The movies starring Robert Ginty (and movies that he frequently co-wrote and co-produced as well) become great camp flicks during the 1980s.

- Warrior of the Lost World (1983), shot in Italy, is a memorable example of a failed post-apocalyptic/Mad Max-like movie.

- Gold Raiders (1983), a jungle movie shot in Thailand, is another example of movie-making gone awry.

- Exterminator 2 , a cheap sequel of the first Exterminator hit, produced by Cannon, attracts mostly Z-grade flick amateurs.

- There is a number of other so-bad-it's-good Robert Ginty movies, such as the 1984 The Alchemist, the 1984 French-American-Turkish White Fire (a.k.a. Vivre pour survivre a.k.a. Le Diamant), Maniac Killer shot in Essonne for the Eurociné company, or from the sub-surrealistic-Rambo-like movies. Another notable entry is a Z-grade police comedy flick by director Umberto Lenzi called Cop Target .

The 1990s were shorter for Robert Ginty's acting career. He played some 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 - a movie that bombed at the box office.

Currently an independent producer/director, Robert Ginty is the head of the company Ginty Films. He also holds shares in the special effect studio Introvision , which participated in creating The Fugitive, Rambo II, Karate Kid II, and many others.

Ginty has directed three movies:

- Bounty Hunter : a film about American Indians.

- Vietnam, Texas : another movie about the aftermath of Vietnam.

- 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 of shows such as Charmed, Xena: Warrior Princess, Early Edition, and Nash Bridges.

In theater, Robert Ginty played roles in Shakespeare, Molière and Tennessee Williams plays. He became the assistant of Hal Prince on Broadway. He created a theatrical 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 has explored the dripping art technique in the style of Jackson Pollock. He is also an amateur photograph. Robert Ginty lives in LosAngeles , Dublin, Toronto and Vancouver. Robert Ginty has been maried (and divorced) twice, with (from) Lorna Patterson and Francine Talker .

Filmography

1999 - Prophet's Game, The

1998 - Doublecross On Costa's Island

1995 - Taken Alive

1992 - Lady Dragon

1991 - Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man

1990 - Cop Target

1990 - Madhouse

1990 - Vietnam, Texas

1989 - Code Name Vengeance

1989 - Out on Bail

1989 - Loverboy

1981 - Falcon Crest (TV Series)

1987 - Maniac Killer

1987 - The Mission... Kill (a.k.a. Mission: Kill)

1987 - Three Kinds of Heat

1987 - Programmed to Kill (a.k.a. The Retaliator)

1987 - Three Kinds of Heat

1984 - The Alchemist

1984 - Exterminator 2

1984 - White Fire (a.k.a. Vivre Pour Survivre a.k.a. Le Diamant)

1984 - Hawaiian Heat

1983 - Warrior of the Lost World

1983 - Gold Raiders (a.k.a. Fire Game)

1983 - I Want to Live (TV)

1982 - The Act (a.k.a. Bless 'Em All)

1982 - Escarabajos asesinos (a.k.a. Scarab)

1981 - The Big Stuffed Dog (TV)

1980 - Exterminator

1978 - The Paper Chase (TV)

1978 - Coming Home (a.k.a. Hemkomsten)

1978 - The Courage and the Passion (TV)

1976 - Baa Baa Black Sheep (a.k.a. Black Sheep Squadron a.k.a. Flying Misfits) (TV)

1976 - Bound for Glory

1976 - Two Minute Warning

1975 - Cop on the Beat (TV) (a.k.a. The Return of Joe Forrester)

1975 - The Turning Point of Jim Malloy (TV) (a.k.a. Gibbsville: The Turning Point of Jim Malloy a.k.a. John O'Hara's Gibbsville)