Robert Ginty

Robert Winthrop Ginty (November 14, 1948 – September 21, 2009) was an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter whose career spanned over three decades of film, television and theatre. Born in Brooklyn, New York to Elsie M. O'Hara and Michael Joseph Ginty, he was exposed to the arts early, even playing drums alongside legends such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin before studying acting at Yale University and training at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio. After building a reputation in regional and Broadway productions, Ginty moved to Hollywood in the mid‑1970s, where he secured supporting roles in Hal Ashby’s Bound for Glory (1976) and Coming Home (1978) and a recurring part on the television series The Paper Chase. Ginty’s breakthrough arrived with the 1980 vigilante film The Exterminator, which grossed $35 million and established him as a cult action‑hero; he reprised the role in Exterminator 2 (1984) and headlined a string of genre pictures including The Act (1982), White Fire (1984), Mission Kill (1986) and Programmed to Kill (1987). In addition to acting, he began directing, helming The Bounty Hunter (1989) and Vietnam, Texas (1990), and founded Ginty Films to produce low‑budget action fare for international markets. By the mid‑1990s he transitioned to episodic television, directing episodes of China Beach, Xena: Warrior Princess, Nash Bridges, Charmed and Tracker. During his later years Ginty returned to his theatrical roots, directing stage productions in Canada, France, Ireland and Italy, and served as an artist‑in‑residence at Harvard University. He was married three times—to Francine Tacker (with whom he had son James Francis Ginty), Lorna Patterson and Michelle Craske—and remained active in the entertainment industry until his death from cancer in Los Angeles in 2009.