FITZPATRICK, Jim (James Fitzpatrick, Jimmy Fitzpatrick)

PERSONAL:

Full name, James Fitzpatrick; born in Omaha, NE; son of James and Cookie Fitzpatrick; married Jodi Knotts; children: Jamieson "J. J." (son), Jadon (son).

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Agent—Becsey, Wisdom & Kalajian Literary Agency, 9200 Sunset Blvd., Suite 820, Los Angeles, CA 90069-3603.

CAREER:

Actor, director, producer, and writer. Sometimes credited as James Fitzpatrick or Jimmy Fitzpatrick. Actor in films, including (as Steve Street) Glory Days (also known as The Best Days of Our Lives), Florida Films/Livelyhood Films, 1979; (as dock worker) Cocoon, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1985; (as Tascom security guard) D.A.R.Y.L., Paramount, 1985; (as young street gangster) Band of the Hand, TriStar, 1986; (as River) Shelter in the Storm (also known as Small Town Proud), Klassy Pictures/SC Films, 1987; (credited as James Alt; as young father) Ski Patrol, Triumph Releasing, 1990; (as Emerson) Curse of the Starving Class, Trimark Pictures, 1994; (as John) WormKiller's Last Spring (also known as The Last Spring), 1994; (as Jim Ryan) The Glass Shield (also known as The Johnny Johnson Trial), Miramax, 1994; (as Tony) Little Ghost, Paramount Home Video, 1997; (as NORAD technician) Armageddon, Buena Vista, 1998; (as Skip Lang) Operation Delta Force III: Clear Target (also known as Clear Target), Nu World, 1998; (as Mike Bradley) U.S. Seals, Martien Holdings, 1999; (as John Davis) The Code Conspiracy, Showcase Entertainment, 2001; (as Larry) Soulmates (also known as Sweet Dreamers), All American Movies/Five Star Studios, 2001; (as Tommy) A Hollywood Story, 51st West Productions, 2001; (as John David) The Code Conspiracy, 2001; and (as Jamie Tesch) An American Reunion (also known as Ten Year), 2002.

Actor in television series, including (as Dr. Pierce Dorman) General Hospital, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1994-1995; (as Pierce Riley) All My Children, ABC, 1995-1996; and (as wrestling coach Hardgrave) 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, Nickelodeon, 1999-2002. Also appeared (as third reporter) in When the Bough Breaks (movie), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1986; (as officer) Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North (miniseries), CBS, 1989; and (as Commander Williams) Enterprise: Broken Bow (pilot), UPN, 2001. Guest star on television shows, including Days of Our Lives, Santa Barbara, Miami Vice, Designing Women, Tour of Duty, Sweating Bullets, E.R., and JAG.

Appeared in more than thirty plays, including Merton of the Movies, Barefoot in the Park, Love Is a Demon, Seascape, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Former football player with the Tampa Bay Bandits (USFL); formerly played Tarzan at the Busch Gardens theme park.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS

(And director and executive producer) An American Reunion (also known as Ten Year; based on his stage play American Friends and Lovers), All American Movies/Five Star Studios, 2001.

(And producer and director) Soulmates (also known as Sweet Dreamers), All American Movies/Five Star Studios, 2001.

(And coproducer and director) The Last Guy on Earth, All American Movies/Five Star Studios, 2002.

(And director and executive producer) Brain Child (television movie), 2003.

Also author of numerous other unproduced and unpublished screenplays. Author, producer, and director of six plays produced in Los Angeles, including American Friends and Lovers. Author of children's books and music.

SIDELIGHTS:

Although best known as an actor, soap-star and action-movie hero Jim Fitzpatrick has also written several plays for stage and screen. His best-known film may be An American Reunion, an adaptation of his play American Friends and Lovers. Both the film and the play sprang from an actual incident in Fitzpatrick's life, the suicide of his high school girlfriend, Lori, in the early 1990s. The film and play don't discuss this suicide per se; instead, they feature a group of friends (based on Fitzpatrick's and Lori's actual high school compatriots) at their ten-year high school reunion,"fac[ing] realities about how their friendships and promises have dissipated," Fitzpatrick explained to Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times.When it is revealed that one member of the group is seriously suicidal, the others have the opportunity to confess all of the things about their pasts that they too have been carrying with them for ten years. The film premiered in the Tampa, Florida, rea, where Fitzpatrick went to high school, at a fundraiser for the suicide prevention program at the hospital where Lori's body was taken after her death. "I wanted to play [the film] in my hometown so everybody who is depicted in the film can say, 'Yeah, that's what I was feeling and I wonder if someone is out there thinking the way [Lori] did, and I have to talk to these people,'" Fitzpatrick told Persall.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Floridian (St. Petersburg, FL), August 2, 2002, Steve Persall, interview with Fitzpatrick.

New York Times, April 13, 1980, Richard F. Shepard, review of Merton of the Movies, p. 46.

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, FL), August 1, 2002, Steve Persall, "Reunion for a Cause," p. 15W.

ONLINE

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (May 23, 2003), "Jim Fitzpatrick (IV)."*