Anthony Genovese

This native Californian was born in Burbank's 'Media District'. His mother's family had a old connection with the film industry. His grandfather, James Spencer, was a character actor and a 'South-Sea island films' casting director at MGM during the 1930's. Mr. Spencer's most notable job was working on the Charles Laughton and Clark Gable film 'Mutiny on the Bounty." After the tragic sound stage death of Mr. Spencer in 1943, the family connection with the film industry ended. Mr. Genovese grew up in the San Fernando Valley near Hollywood. Many of his early acting abilities were nurtured by participating in the Boy Scouts of America and at his local church. He attended and graduated from California State University Northridge, studying human behavior in the university's anthropology department. He found that studying human behavior was a great foundation for his acting pursuits. During the 70' and 80's, his combined interests in acting & history brought him to perform at both the Renaissance Pleasure Faires (Northern & Southern California) and their annual Christmas Dickens Faire in San Francisco. This is where he honed his acting crafts. His superior acting abilities were recognized there by being put under a 'performer's scholarship' by the Fair's own performing academy 'The College of the Oaks." He performed there for 15 years. This 'The College of the Oaks' gives a new performer training in improvisational theater, acting, among many other performing crafts. Mr. Genovese developed two notable theme characters, a peasant 'Anthony Nightwatch' and the aristocrat 'Sir John Spencer." The Fair's own in house acting guilds awarded him 'special recognition' for these two roles. After a few years acting at the fair, he wanted to act in local Equity Waiver theater. He then worked in many musicals and comedy productions in the greater Los Angeles area, from 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' through The Fireside Theater's 'Nick Danger." The L.A. DramaLogue's newspaper cited 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' in their 'best bets' column. After experiencing theater, he was anxious to particpate in feature films. He did get a 'break' by being cast in the 1986 Debra Winger/Robert Redford movie, 'Legal Eagles." He enjoyed his role as a Deputy N. Y. State's Prosecuting Attorney but enjoyed more working with the scene partner, David Clennon. These film jobs were still sporadic at this early time of his acting career. As such, he found work in set construction at Paramount Studios. Some of his TV shows were Star Trek: Next Generation, Ferris Bueller, and Sons & Daughters. He worked set construction on many Paramount feature films; Harlem Nights, The Hunt for Red October, Top Gun, and The Addam's Family. This work fostered an interest in him for 'producing a project.' He started his production company, Cine Productions, to produce original script ideas and produce live theme events. He has produced a documentary on Sean Connery's acting career, several sci-fi video projects, and a video about a yearly Dickens's Christmas charity dinner. His company also provides prop/costume rentals as well as video editing for actors reels. Mr. Genovese still manages to keep in touch with his theater roots. He continues to perform at many LIVE events as 'Mr. Fezziwig' hosting Christmas dinners, as 'Major Henry Notely, Royal Army' at the Riverside's Victorian Fair, and as 'Sir John Spencer' at numerous Californian regional Renaissance fairs. On film sets, he has worked with many 'stars' as their photodoubles and stand-ins. Many people are not clear about these jobs. These job responsibilities need to be explained. A photodouble portrays a double of the 'star' in the scenes where the director calls for it. Some of these scenes can be long wide establishing shots, over-the-shoulder dialogue sequences, or with short hand insert shots. This way the 'star' does not need to work these scenes and can be practically acting in two places at once! The photodouble must deliver the dialogue and exact actions with the other principle actors to make the scene 'real' since it will be used in the final cut. On the other hand, stand-ins are usually never seen on camera. They have the same body size and hair/skin color to aid the camera department to light and focus scenes in advance of the lead actors and director coming into set for a scene rehearsal. Stand-ins will help in the initial rehearsal process. The film's director will ask stand-ins to deliver dialogue and walk through the scenes to be photographed with the principle actors. A good stand-in and/or photodouble can speed up the day's production. Mr. Genovese's first stand-in photodouble opportunity came with 'Cheers, " George Wendt. Mr. Wendt appeared in the Martin Scorsese's, 'Guilty By Suspicion.' The next very enjoyable job was on Disney's TV show, Home Improvement, doubling Richard Karn. Mr. Genovese was also seen in this show's episode as a member of the 'Al Borland Fan Club." In Mel Brook's 'Dracula, " he was a stand-in double for Avery Schrieber. Mr. Genovese got an memorable experience seeing Mel Brook's directing style up close. He next worked on the movie 'Bound' and doubled the film's Mafia Don, Richard C. Sarafian. After this Mr. Genovese worked twice with the wonderfully talented John Rhys-Davies, a.k.a. "Salla" in the Indiana Jones movies. They worked together on the successful CD-ROM computer game 'Wing Commander IV' and TV show 'Sliders." Tom McGowan was his next partner in the comedy movie, 'Bean." Then he next worked with a talented Chicago actor, Kevin Dunn, in Joe Dante's movie 'Small Soldiers" of a few years ago. Following his time on Small Soldiers, Mr. Genovese enjoyed many months working with 3 time Emmy winner, Dennis Franz's as his stand-in double on the film 'City of Angels." After 'City of Angels', Mr. Genovese started working as Robbie Coltrane's stand-in on Kevin Costner's movie 'Message in a Bottle." On this film, the director, Luis Mandoki, gave him another assignment. He was to have an acting role with Robin Wright Penn as her favorite Chicago Tribune still photographer. Robin's character was a reporter at the same newspaper. Next in Steve Martin's film 'Bowfinger, he worked as a stand-in for a new comedy acting pal, Adam Alexi-Malle. This film was wonderfully directed by the actor/director Frank Oz. Another memorable stand-in photodouble opportunity occurred at Universal Studios on the famous 'Columbo' detective series. He was asked to double, Columbo's able assistant, Richard Reihle a.k.a. 'Sgt. De Garmo." The episode was especially memorable to him because it was directed by a hero of his, Patrick McGoohan. Mr. Genovese enjoys meeting all these wonderful creative people while working in this vital industry and continues to stay busy preparing for up coming acting roles and participating in his many interests. Show less «