John Getz
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
Stage-trained character lead often cast as upstanding if somewhat green characters on TV, and as varying degrees of sleazeballs in films, Getz began acting while attending the University of Iowa. During that period, he helped found the Center for New Performing Arts. Getz dropped out of school and attended San Francisco's respected American Conservatory Theater. While working in a winery, he became involved with the Napa Valley Theater Company. Coincidentally, this distinctive locale led to the Iowa native's professional acting debut playing an attendant in "Killer Bees" (ABC, 1974), a made-for-TV thriller starring Gloria Swanson and lensed in Napa Valley. Getz next moved to NYC where he became active in local theater while doing an 18-month stint in a recurring role on a daytime soap "Another World."
Getz entered features with a bit part in "The Happy Hooker" (1975) and followed up with several other small roles before starring in the Coen Brother's splendid crime drama "Blood Simple" (1984). He proved effective as the doomed lover of a married woman who woefully misinterprets his increasingly complex circumstances. A bearded Getz also registered in "The Fly" (1986) as Stathis Borans, a somewhat less than likeable science magazine editor who pays a heavy price for his curiosity. He reprised the role of a traumatized survivor in "The Fly II" (1989). He has also played a Marine major in "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989) and unpleasant boyfriends of professional women in "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" and "Curly Sue" (both 1991).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1969
Dropped out of the University of Iowa
1974
Professional acting and TV-movie debut, "Killer Bees", a thriller starring Gloria Swanson, directed by Curtis Harrington, and filmed in Napa Valley
1975
Feature debut, "The Happy Hooker" (uncredited bit part)
1977
Cast as a regular on "Rafferty", a short-lived CBS medical drama starring Patrick MacGoohan
1977
Played another uncredited bit part in "The Sentinel", a slick horror outing
1984
Cast as a regular on "Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs", a short-lived journalistic sitcom
1984
First starring role in a film, Joel Coen's "Blood Simple"
1985
Co-starred as Detective Malcolm MacGruder on the romantic police drama, "MacGruder & Loud"
1987
Cast in a leading role, deputy superintendent Ned Sheffield, on "Mariah", a short-lived ABC prison drama series
1988
Appeared on Broadway in "M. Butterfly"
1998
Co-starred in the Lifetime sitcom "Maggie"
Videos
Movie Clip
Family
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