A former child actor who grew up to become the executive producer the multi-Oscar-winning "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), Gary Goetzman has been working with director Jonathan Demme in various capacities since serving as production manager on Demme's 1974 debut "Caged Heat/Renegade Girls". Simultaneously, he has carried on a career as a composer and producer (as well as music editor and sound recordist) for such artists as Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan and Thelma Houston.
The Los Angeles native never made it to the top rung of child actors, but he can be seen as Dick Van Dyke's son in "Divorce American Style" (1967) and alongside Tim Matheson and Morgan Brittany (then billed as Suzanne Cupito) as Henry Fonda's children in the family comedy "Yours, Mine and Ours" (1968). He has continued to act in bit roles, usually in Demme's films like "Citizens Band/Handle With Care" (1977), "Melvin and Howard" (1980) and "Married to the Mob" (1988). In both "Something Wild" (1986) and "Philadelphia" (1993), Goetzman portrayed the same character, the lounge singer Guido Paonessa. He also produced Demme's "Stop Making Sense" (1984), the excellent Talking Heads concert film which earned a citation from the National Society of Film Critics.
Separate from his work with Demme, Goetzman has been active as actor (Joel Schumacher's "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" 1981), music supervisor (Dennis Hopper's "Colors" 1988; Barbet Schroeder's "Reversal of Fortune" 1990) and producer of projects of varying quality and success ("Modern Girls" 1986; "Miami Blues" 1990). He was also producer of "Amos & Andrew" (1993), the Nicolas Cage-Samuel and with Jesse Beaton served as executive producer on Carl Franklin's underappreciated "Devil in a Blue Dress" (1995). Not only did he help produce Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!" (1996), but he also contributed several original songs to the soundtrack.
In fact, work in the music world has occupied much of Goetzman's professional career. He wrote the theme song for the 1978 syndicated TV series "Hot City Disco" and has worked with such artists as Natalie Cole, The Staple Singers, and The Manhattans. Goetzman directed the music video for Jane Child's single "Don't Want to Fall in Love", which reached Number 1 on MTV and contributed song to the soundtracks of "Fright Night" (1985), "Married to the Mob" and "Miami Blues". He and Demme reteamed for the Robyn Hitchcock concert film "Storefront Hitchcock" and "Beloved" (both 1998).