Anthony Genovese(1953-2023)
- Additional Crew
- Actor
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.