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).
- Born:
October 15, 1947 in Davenport, Iowa, USA
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Job Titles:
Actor, Director, Producer, Songwriter, Winery worker
Family
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Daughter: Kate Getz. born c. 1978
Education
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University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, English and writing
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University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
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American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco, California
Milestones
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1969 Dropped out of the University of Iowa
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1974 Professional acting and TV-movie debut, Killer Bees , a thriller starring Gloria Swanson, directed by Curtis Harrington, and filmed in Napa Valley
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1975 Feature debut, The Happy Hooker (uncredited bit part)
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1977 Cast as a regular on Rafferty , a short-lived CBS medical drama starring Patrick MacGoohan
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1977 Played another uncredited bit part in The Sentinel , a slick horror outing
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1984 Cast as a regular on Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs , a short-lived journalistic sitcom
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1984 First starring role in a film, Joel Coen s Blood Simple
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1985 Co-starred as Detective Malcolm MacGruder on the romantic police drama, MacGruder & Loud
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1987 Cast in a leading role, deputy superintendent Ned Sheffield, on Mariah , a short-lived ABC prison drama series
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1988 Appeared on Broadway in M. Butterfly
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1998 Co-starred in the Lifetime sitcom Maggie
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Became active on the NY stage with appearances at Lincoln Center, La Mama and the Children s Theater
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Co-founded the Center for New Performing Arts as a student at the University of Iowa
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Moved to NYC
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Played Neil Johnson, a recurring role for 18 months on Another World , a long-running daytime soap
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Played the recurring role of Lee Tripper on the hit sitcom, Three s Company
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Successfully auditioned for the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco; attended on scholarship for one year
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Worked in a Napa Valley winery
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Worked with the Napa Valley Theater Company producing, directing, acting and writing music for their original productions