John Getz

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).