John William Getz (born October 15, 1946) is an American character actor. After starting his acting career on stage, he has appeared in numerous television series and films.
Early life
Getz, one of four children, was born in Davenport, Iowa, and grew up in the Mississippi River Valley.[2] He began acting while attending the University of Iowa, where he helped found the Center for New Performing Arts.[citation needed]
Career
Getz dropped out of college to attend the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. While working in a winery, he helped to found the Theater Company in Napa County, California. His location in the grape-growing Napa Valley led to Getz's television debut in a made-for-television horror film Killer Bees (1974). Killer Bees starred Gloria Swanson, Craig Stevens, Kate Jackson, and Edward Albert. Getz then moved to New York City, where he became active in local theater while doing an 18-month stint as Neil Johnson on the soap opera Another World.[citation needed]
Getz appeared in The Happy Hooker (1975) and followed up with several other roles before starring in the Coen Brothers' neo-noir thriller Blood Simple (1984). He played the doomed lover of a married woman (Frances McDormand) who woefully misinterprets his increasingly complex circumstances.
In 1985, he co-starred in the unsuccessful police drama MacGruder and Loud. The pilot was given the post-Super Bowl time slot, contributing to its strong debut in the ratings. However, ABC rescheduled it repeatedly and finally relegated it to the "graveyard slot",[citation needed] 10:00 pm ET, Monday night.
Getz appeared in two different shows with the name "Maggie" in the title: 1984's Maggie Briggs, where he appeared as newspaper editor Geoff Bennett, and 1998's Maggie as the title character's husband, Dr. Arthur Day.
In 2007, he had a role in David Fincher's film Zodiac. Also in 2007, he appeared in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's documentary film Nanking as George Ashmore Fitch, head of the local YMCA and administrative director of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. Getz also had a role in Fincher's film The Social Network (2010), about the founding of Facebook. He appeared in the suspense thriller Elevator as a Wall Street executive trapped in an elevator with a group of strangers, one of whom has a bomb. Written and produced by Marc Rosenberg and directed by Stig Svendsen, Elevator was released in July 2012. He appeared in Trumbo (2015) as director Sam Wood.
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