 "We are categorically opposed to all forms of cruelty and oppression, we insist on the primacy of decency and humanity over ideology in any form." Harold Pinter, Robert Ginty
Robert Ginty is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Global Market Place, a member of the INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS , and an Associate of both THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT and BROOKINGS INSTITUTION .
The New York Times described Robert Ginty as an important figure
in the world of experimental theatre challenging the traditional
notion that artist must have a set style; he constantly experiments
with different media, subjects and formats. Transcending theatrical
convention, he draws in other performance and graphic arts' which
coalesce into an integrated original work of art.
May 2008 will see Mr. Ginty presented with the Carrosse D'or from the French SOCIÉTÉ DES RÉALISATEURS DE FILMS. Also in 2008, Mr. Ginty was elected a member of the NATIONAL TRUST for HISTORIC PRESERVATION where he contributes articles to the society's magazine as well as speaking as an advocate on behalf of preserving classical American architecture.
While continuing his work as one of the most in-demand directors of international opera for DVD, the year 2008 will see Mr. Ginty developing a film about one of his own direct ancestors, the Irish aristocrat Lord Edward Fitzgerald of Leinster House, Dublin (now home to the Irish government). Lord Edward was elected to Parliament in 1783, and was a colleague of Wolfe Tone and a disciple of Thomas Paine. Lord Edward was killed in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. In March of 2007 Mr. Ginty will curate the first U.S. show of Irish artist Michelle Rogers at the Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica California. Robert's next showing will be at ART BASEL in Switzerland, June 13-17 2007.
Mr. Ginty's career continues to challenge categorization. He is a film, television and stage director who works as a writer, artist, curator, educator organizer and activist whose art production alone manifests itself in experimental films,paintings, photography, performance art, public intervention, video and installation art. As varied as these pursuits maybe, in the end they are all unified by a single vision: Ginty's thoughtful concern for the philosophical and cultural possibilities of social interaction. His paintings are monumental canvases introducing a complex vocabulary of text, symbols, abstract forms and figural elements. In contrast his latest work in photography goes against the grain of this era of the monster C-print, dominated by landscapes, portraits and cinematic tableaux. His small, basically traditional Polaroid still lifes are an illuminating novelty. In narrowing the scope to a small space and a few familiar elements his work zeros in on photography's first and most profound function the basic act of looking and reminds one of the sheer pleasure this act can entail. In April 2006 Mr. Ginty showed at the Pompidou center in Paris and directed a fifteen minute piece LA DERASION DU LOUVRE , a nocturnal visit to the Louvre Museum set to music and starring Laetitia Casta who will lead a video tour as a way of introducing more contemporary art to the Museum. In July of 2006 Mr. Ginty was an honored guest at the Cineteca Bologna in Italy. |
 Mr. Ginty is currently executive producing a 6-hour prime time television series, THE ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE, to begin airing September 2007. The series depicts one year in the life of cadets of the RMC as they grow from teenagers to adulthood. Mr Ginty is also executive producing THE YOUNG CHURCHILL, based on the book by Sir Winston's granddaughter, Celia Sandys, for the ITV network in England in association with BOX-TV. |
In March of 2005 Prince Charles, his royal highness the Prince of
Wales appointed Mr. Ginty an ambassador for the Prince's
Trust
in the United Kingdom. |
2005 also saw Mr. Ginty elected a member of the
Society of Canadian Artists .
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In spring of 2005, Mr. Ginty was at the FESTIVAL
de THEATRE des AMERIQUES
in Montreal, Quebec. That summer he joined fellow directors Joann
Akalaitis and Anne Bogart at the Lamama International Symposium for
directors in Spoleto Italy, and was also at THE
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
, where he directed Bertolt Brecht's MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN set in Iraq.
Mr. Ginty directed a rap/hip-hop musical version of
Anthony Burgess's
A Clockwork Orange
, which opened at Hart House Theatre in Toronto on September 15th,
2004, to unanimously positive reviews. Discussions are now taking place
about moving the production to bigger venues in London and Paris.
In the spring of 2004, Mr. Ginty was elected a member of the Centre
Culturel Irlandais (Irish Cultural Center in Paris) where he worked
on a theatrical production dealing with Ireland's two most famous
Nobel prize writers, James Joyce and Samuel
Beckett .
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While in Paris Mr. Ginty was given one of France highest cultural honors
when he was made CHEVALIER DE L ORDRE DES ARTS ET LETTERS in recognition
of his career in the arts and for his efforts in promoting artistic
exchange between Ireland and France. Mr. Ginty was a guest lecturer
at the Sorbonne, the Ecole Normale Superieure, and the Ecole Nationale
Superieure des Beaux-Arts.
Mr. Ginty is a partner in Circle Films, a Paris based film and television
production company currently producing the television series, Worlds
Greatest Parties
.
In March, 2004, Mr Ginty became an honorary captain in the United
States Navy's Blue Angels
and had the opportunity to fly an F-18 Hornet jet with Angels to open
their 2004 season. As an Honorary Member of THE BLUES AND ROYALS Regiment Mr. Ginty was appointed to the ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY SANDHURST FOUNDATION
.
Mr. Ginty began 2004 as an artist in residence at McGill University
in Montreal developing college genre screen plays with first time writers
for his Toronto based film company.
In the Fall of 2003, Mr. Ginty became a visiting artist at the AMERICAN ACADEMY
in Rome where he developed a film project about the poet John Keats
for Italian television.
Mr. Ginty is the Chairman and CEO of Ginty Films Ireland and Ginty Films
Canada. He is a partner in a Rome based Italian production company,
Stage 5 Productions.
As an artist in residence at Harvard
University
in 2002 Mr. Ginty directed Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin
Agile, Pulitzer prize winner Sam Shepard's True
West, Christopher Durang's Bette n' Boo,
and Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley's Italian
American Reconciliation.
Mr. Ginty is a recipient of the Harvard University Signet Society medal
for his contributions to the performing and visual arts. He is a member
of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard and a member of the Harvard Film Society and the Harvard
Underground Theatre Company.
Mr. Ginty also starred in the theatre workshop production of Sunrise
in Your Pocket, costarring Shelley Long, Lou Diamond Phillips,
Timothy Bottoms, and Charles Durning. He directed multiple episodes
of Tracker for Lion's Gate Films in Toronto.
The previous year he was the resident director of MTV's 2-GET-HER,
a series filmed in Vancouver, directing numerous episodes and videos
of the series and receiving a Best Video Director nomination at the
MTV awards.
Currently, Mr. Ginty's company is developing Meagher of
the Sword, an Irish/Australian/U.S. co-production, The
Legend of John Ware, a Canadian/U.S. co-production, The
Great Christmas Train Robbery, an Irish/U.S. co-production,
and Churchill at Harrow, a Canadian/UK co-production.
Other projects include the screenplay, Green Shadows,
White Whale which he co-wrote with Ray Bradbury.
He also adapted Ed Naha's (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids)
novel, "Razzle, Dazzle" for the MOW, Hollywood Heat.
He is also developing an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's
Mrs. Warren's Profession, a Paris based police thriller
titled Dark City, and an English comedy The
Ham.
Mr. Ginty has received multiple nominations as Best Comedy Director
for the Cable Ace Awards. He directed the 30 million dollar Walt Disney
Epcot Center film Universe of Energy, starring
Ellen DeGeneres and Jamie Lee Curtis, for Disney Imaginering. He has
also directed numerous episodic television shows, such as VIP,
Charmed, Three,
Fame L.A., Early Edition,
Xena, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,
Lois & Clark, Lawless,
Nash Bridges, Campus Cops
and The Munsters, one of Fox's highest rated
two hour comedy. For two seasons, he was the director of the award winning
HBO series Dream On produced by John Landis
for which he was nominated for two Cable Ace awards as best director
Since 1994, Mr. Ginty has been the Artistic Director of the Irish Theatre
Arts Center in Los Angeles where he starred in and directed four American
premieres: plays from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, London's Royal Court
Theatre, and New York's Public Theatre. Over 40 new plays were given
stage readings and/or productions. One of the theatre's highlights was
his direction of the stage version of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir
Dogs. In 1996 Mr. Ginty became an associate member of
the Royal
Shakespeare Company
.
Mr. Ginty is a Fellow of Branford College at his alma mater, Yale
University, where he has lectured at the Yale Film Study Center
and the Yale School of Drama. He also designed sets for five productions,
including his first opera as a director, La Boheme.
|
Mr. Ginty was the director of the Emmy Award winning four-camera
CBS comedy series Evening Shade, starring
Burt Reynolds. |
Mr. Ginty wrote and directed Woman
of Desire ,
starring Robert Mitchum, for which he won the Silver Lone Star Award
at the Houston International Film Festival. The film also screened
at the New Directors/New Films Series at Lincoln Center and the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. |
He was the Executive Producer of the Paramount, NBC M.O.W. Day
of Reckoning
set in Thailand, which he created with his partner, Academy Award winning
screenwriter Stirling Silliphant.
Mr. Ginty co-wrote and directed the Vision/Columbia motion picture
entitled Shootfighter, for which he won Black Belt
Magazine's Best
Martial Arts Film Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival. Later that year,
he starred in the film Lady Dragon, filmed
in Jakarta, Indonesia.
He co-starred with Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson in Harley
Davidson & the Marlboro Man. He directed the Emmy
Award winning television series China Beach
for which he won awards at the Houston International Film Festival,
San Francisco Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival.
He also co-starred with Eric Roberts and Beverly D'Angelo in the film
Lonely Hearts.
For his film Vietnam, Texas that he produced
and directed, he won Best Director at the Houston International Film
Festival and the Taormina Film Festival, Italy, as well as awards at
the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Fort Lauderdale Film
Festival.
He co-starred in one of ABC's highest rated mini-series, The
Great Los Angeles Earthquake , with Joanna
Kerns.
He starred in the Italian film Cop Target,
as well as the CBS television series Falcon Crest,
and Orion's feature film comedy Madhouse with
Kirstie Alley and John Larroquette.
He wrote, directed and starred in the award winning feature film Bounty
Hunter, co-starring Bo Hopkins, a film about contemporary
Native Americans.
The same year, Ginty co-starred with Kirstie Alley again in TriStar's
Loverboy, a comedy directed by Joan Micklin
Silver. In 1988 he starred in two films, Out on Bail,
directed by Gordon Hessler, and Mania, a
comedy/thriller shot on location in Paris. His films in 1987 were Code
Name Vengeance, filmed in Africa, Three Kinds
of Heat, filmed in London and The Retaliator
in Israel. Prior to this, he executive produced, co-wrote and starred
in the ABC television pilot titled Hardesty House
with Paul Rodriguez.
Ginty's status as a star of feature films and television is the result
of his versatility (3 television series: Hawaiian Heat
for ABC, Baa Baa Black Sheep for NBC and Paper
Chase for CBS).
Born in New York, Ginty's first love was music. At 16 while still
at school he started touring with several rock bands. His musical career
reached a high point when he played with Carlos Santana, the late Janis
Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, as well as John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Junior
Wells.
Soon thereafter, he landed a role in an early John Avildson film and
decided to concentrate on acting rather than music. He studied at the
Neighborhood Playhouse, the Actors Studio and with Robert Lewis of the
Yale School of Drama.
He starred in Provincetown's Playhouse productions of Eugene O'Neill's
More Stately Mansions, Tennessee Williams'
Orpheus Descending and created the lead role
in Terence McNally's Bringing it all Back Home.
He next appeared in the Actors Studio production of The
Silent Partner.
At the New Hampshire Shakespeare Festival, he starred as Hotspur in
Henry IV, Part One, Bottom in Midsummer
Night's Dream, as well as in Macbeth
and As You Like It. It was during this season
that he met Hal Prince, who brought him to Broadway as his assistant
in productions of The Great God Brown, Don
Juan and The Government Inspector.
While starring in the Off-Broadway production of Indian
Wants the Bronx, Ginty met numerous television executives
and casting directors who urged him to come to Hollywood. Ginty arrived
with his theatre company and quickly landed guest spots on various series
and movies-of-the-week to finance his theatre productions.
Ginty was soon cast in feature films Bound for Glory
and Two Minute Warning prior to getting his
big break in the role of T.J. Wiley in the popular NBC television series
Baa
Baa Black Sheep, created by Stephen Cannell.
After a two year run, Ginty played Bruce Dern's best friend in Hal
Ashby's Coming
Home. (The film won three Academy Awards.)
He returned to television to play the character of 'Anderson' in the
award winning CBS television series Paper Chase.
Due to critical acclaim and Emmy nomination, it provided entry to many
highly regarded television and film roles. The
Exterminator (1980) was an enormous financial success,
especially overseas, and made Ginty one of America's most bankable actors
in Europe.
Other of Ginty's films became cult classics such as The
Alchemist, a thriller about reincarnation, Gold
Raiders, an action-adventure in Thailand, The
Scarab, filmed in Spain with Rip Torn, and
The Act, a political satire/comedy shot in New York.
Ginty returned to Italy for Warrior of the Lost World
with Donald Pleasance and White Fire shot
in Istanbul. He did Exterminator II for Cannon,
co-starring Mario van Peebles and Mission Kill
filmed in Mexico.
Ginty formed his own production company Ginty Films. They are currently
involved in various directorial, producing and writing projects for
both film and television.
As a writer, Ginty worked on such scripts as Mission Kill,
The Retaliator, and Code Name
Vengeance. He wrote Bounty Hunter,
Vietnam, Texas and Woman of Desire.
He now has several projects in development: Glory Days,
Trackdown, Boomtown
and Acappella.
As a visual artist, Mr. Ginty's paintings, film and video work has
been seen in many group shows in Ireland, London and New York, including
The Whitney Biannual '93.
Mr. Ginty was the in-house producer/director of Introvision Studios,
where such films as The Fugitive starring
Harrison Ford, Fearless directed by Peter
Weir, and Steven Segal's Under Siege, as
well as Rambo II, Stand By Me,
Darkman, Karate Kid II
and Army of Darkness had their special effects
done.
Mr. Ginty studied directing at Harvard University as well studying at
the Harvard Graduate School of Design. While at Harvard, Mr. Ginty contributed
to both the Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Lampoon. He is an associate
of Adam's House as well as an honorary member of the Porcellian Club.
Mr. Ginty studied production design at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, as well as studying art, architecture and drama at Yale and Oxford Universities. While at Christ Church, Oxford, Mr. Ginty was a member of the Oxford
University drama society
and the Oxford University
Rugby Club
, he was made an honorary member of the Vincent's Club
and The Bullingdon Club. Mr. Ginty is the class rep for the 1971 Alumni of Christ Church College Oxford, and is a Trustee for the Yale University Rugby Football Club. He is a member of the
International Writer's organization PEN, Ireland and the Canadian Film Center.
Mr. Ginty is a member of the English Parliament Rugby Club, Commons
and Lords
.
He is a member of the Galway Blazers and Kildare Fox Hunting Club in
Ireland. He is an associate member of the Harrow Association, the Oxford
University Society, the Society of Irish Playwrights, the Irish Georgian
Society, the Royal Dublin Society, the Irish Academy of Letters, and
the Royal Society of the Arts in London. Robert is an overseas member of fellow actor Russell Crowe's South Sydney Rugby League Club THE RABBITOHS
.
He lectures at Trinity College, Dublin two terms a year at the Samuel
Beckett School of Drama. He is a member of the American Center for Irish
Studies, the U.S. affiliate of the Royal Irish Academy. He is a member
of the Irish Society of Contemporary Art, an overseas member of the
Royal Hibernian Academy and a member of the Kildare Street University
Club in Dublin.
The Ginty family are patrons of the Royal Ontario Museum, the art gallery
of Ontario, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company
and the National Ballet of Canada. Mr. Ginty is a celebrity volunteer to the Special Olympics Canada and for UNICEF Canada.
Along with directors Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, Mr. Ginty is a founding
member of the Director's Guild of Ireland as well as being a member
of Screen Producers Ireland, the Director's Guild of Great Britain,
the Director's Guild of America and the Director's Guild of Canada. The Robert Ginty archives and papers are located at The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York City.
Click here for a printable version of this page.
Mr. Ginty is espesially proud of his son, actor James
Ginty ,
who starred with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson in K-19.
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