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| {{Short description|American writer and actor (born 1953)}} | |||
| {{semiprotect}} | |||
| {{BLP sources|date=April 2010}} | |||
| '''Geoffrey Giuliano''' (born September 11,]) is an American author, radio personality and film actor, best known for his biographies of ] members ], ], and ], and of musician ]. | |||
| {{Infobox person | |||
| ⚫ | |name = Geoffrey Giuliano | ||
| |image = | |||
| |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|9|11}} | |||
| |birth_place = ], U.S. | |||
| |othername = | |||
| |occupation = {{flatlist| | |||
| * author | |||
| }} | |||
| |website = {{URL|www.geoffreygiuliano.com}} | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Geoffrey Giuliano''' (born September 11, 1953)<ref name="tell"> ''Tell Me What You See - Biography - A Brief Life Sketch of Geoffrey Giuliano/Jagannatha Dasa'', downloaded from internet on May 13, 2011</ref> is an American author of biographies of rock musicians. | |||
| == |
==Literary work== | ||
| Giuliano has written extensively on popular music, particularly ]. By 1999, he had authored 20 books, including ''Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison'' (1990) and ''Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney'' (1991). | |||
| In an interview for '']'' in September 1992, Giuliano offended ]'s wife ] by referring to the Beatles as "real shits in real life" and dismissing ] as "just shallow and vacuous".<ref>{{cite book|last=Badman|first=Keith|title=The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001|publisher= Omnibus Press|location=London|year=2001|isbn=978-0-7119-8307-6|page=486}}</ref> On October 5 that year, ''The Guardian'' published a letter from Olivia Harrison in which she wrote that "like a starving dog he scavenges his heroes, picking up bits of gristle and sinew along the way."<ref>{{cite news|first=Will|last=Woodward|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/31/willwoodward1|title='Mrs George' Shares Husband's Interests|newspaper=]|date=December 31, 1999|access-date=February 28, 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=487}} She also complained about Giuliano's use of a quote by Harrison on the cover of ''Dark Horse'', saying: "My husband once made the remark: 'That guy knows more about my life than I do.' Giuliano missed the joke and used it to endorse his book."{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=487}} When interviewed in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992, Harrison said of Giuliano: "Yeah, I met him briefly. I have no way of recalling what year it was. I met him at the home of ] for possibly thirty minutes."<ref> by Geoffrey Giuliano and Vrnda Devi, Da Capo Press, published 1999, pp. 179-180.</ref> | |||
| Giuliano was born in ] and raised in the villages of ] and ]. He was the youngest of five children. He and his mother, Myrna Oneita Juliana, moved to ] when he was twelve. There he first became interested in acting, Vedic philosophy and fine art seriography. Giuliano has stated that "Giuliano" was his birth name.<ref></ref> One newspaper, however, has reported that he was born "Jeffrey Juliana", that he adopted "Geoffrey Giuliano" as a pen name, and that in 1997 he changed his legal name to "Jagannatha Dasa". For a brief period the honorific title of "Puripada" was awarded him by several of his Indian yoga students, but Giuliano/Dasa ultimately rejected the title as inappropriate.<ref> Buffalo News, April 25, 1999</ref><ref name ="Lennon, imagined"> Buffalo News, May 28, 2000</ref> | |||
| Giuliano attended ] in Tampa and, in the mid-1970s, ] (class of 1976).<ref> - SUNY Brockport Division of Institutional Advancement, 2006</ref> On August 6, 1977, Jeffrey Joseph Juliana married Brenda Lee Black (later author/animal rights activist Vrnda Devi) in Hillsborough County, Florida,<ref>Florida Department of Health marriage records, Ancestry.com</ref> and together they had four children, Sesa Nichole, Devin Leigh, Avalon Oneita and India Skye. He also has a young son from another relationship, Tulsi Mala Kuptsov born in Bangkok in mid July 2003.{{Fact|date=April 2007}} | |||
| Giuliano has resided primarily in Southeast Asia since 2000 with his two grandchildren, Kashi and Varsana Jones. In April of 2007 he married Kesorn Faunmaong, a Bangkok executive at Citicorp of Issan descent. {{Fact|date=April 2007}} | |||
| Giuliano's biography of ], ''Lennon in America: 1971–1980'' (], 2000), was controversial. Giuliano said the book was based in part on transcripts of Lennon's diaries given to him by the late American singer ] and on audio tapes recorded by Lennon. Several people close to Nilsson said they did not believe that he ever had the transcripts in his possession; others familiar with the journal and the tapes disputed the accuracy of Giuliano's interpretation.<ref name="Heaney/BuffaloNews">{{cite news|first=James|last=Heaney|title=Lennon, Imagined|url=http://213.87.37.135/oea/millennium/news/00_may/28_buffalonews_1025088.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928094923/http://213.87.37.135/oea/millennium/news/00_may/28_buffalonews_1025088.htm|newspaper=]|date=May 28, 2000|archive-date=September 28, 2007|access-date=February 28, 2019}}</ref> Writing in '']'', ] described Giuliano's text as "a highly critical, luridly detailed account"; he quoted Giuliano's response when he was asked to corroborate his claim that Nilsson gave him the diaries: "It's obvious that I'm going to do things in an ethical manner." Steven Gutstein, a former New York assistant district attorney who read the diaries during an early 1980s larceny lawsuit, recalled that they contained "a lot of philosophical musings combined with mundane details of everyday life".<ref>{{cite news|first=David|last=Segal|title=Lennon's Disputed Days in the Life; Yoko Ono Spokesman Rejects as 'Fiction' Bio Allegedly Based on Ex-Beatle's Lost Diaries|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/408618874|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913044526/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/doc/408618874.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Apr%2018,%202000&author=David%20Segal&pub=&edition=&startpage=&desc=Lennon%27s%20Disputed%20Days%20in%20the%20Life|newspaper=]|date=April 18, 2000|page=C01|archive-date=September 13, 2017|url-status=live|access-date=February 28, 2019}}</ref> Colin Carlson of ''Library Journal'' said of ''Lennon in America'', "Non-fans will be put off by this image of Lennon as cad, drug addict, and paranoiac; this often sensationalized account is for voyeurs and fans with deconstructive tendencies and is one of the best, most detailed books available on this subject."<ref>Book Review, Lennon in America, ''Library Journal'', May 1, 2000</ref> Less impressed, a ''Publishers Weekly'' reviewer commented, "If Giuliano's own double-talk isn't enough to diminish this work's credibility, his endless, voyeuristic descriptions of Lennon's sexual encounters are."<ref>Book Review, Lennon in America, Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2000</ref> | |||
| ==Literary work== | |||
| Giuliano has written some thirty five often controversial biographies on 1960's musicians and several audio works (100 to date) on subjects as diverse as Frank Sinatra as well as archival interviews with survivors of the Titanic entitled, "That Fateful Night: True Stories of Titanic Survivors In Their Own Words." Giuliano has also authored two London Sunday Times bestselling biographies, "Dark Horse: The Secret Life of George Harrison" and "Blackbird: The Life And Times Of Paul McCartney." Along the way, he has collaborated with John Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird and British BBC TV personality Gloria Hunniford. Steve Holly wrote the backword to his Blackbird book, and Timothy Leary penned the backword to Giuliano's the Lost Beatles Interviews. In late 1998, Random House Audio asked Giuliano to form a company for them called Tribute Audio (see information regarding Giuliano's many audio releases on Amazon.com), which produced a line of celebrity, interview laced, original spoken word CDs, all written, produced and narrated by the author. He worked in that capacity for some five years. | |||
| ===Selected bibliography=== | |||
| Giuliano has been a likely target for many fans of his biographical subjects due to his unrelenting warts and all writing style. On August 11, 1996 the Calgary Sun made the point in a review of his work on the life of the Who's ]. | |||
| *''Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison'' (1990) | |||
| "Unlike so many fawning rock biographers who lavish false praise on a bunch of worthless morons, Giuliano has the ability to get to the heart of the man and by doing so gives readers a glimpse of a period in history. Fans will never get closer to the man than in "Behind Blue Eyes" Unfortunately, Giuliano does such a magnificent job that many fans may wish they had never searched so hard." Giuliano told ''Eye Weekly'' that he briefly worked for Townshend, but was fired after stealing a tape from him.<ref> ''Eye Weekly'', May 11, 2000. </ref> | |||
| *''Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney'' (1991) | |||
| A research assistant of Giuliano's subsequently wrote to the newspaper to defend him.<ref> - ''Eye Weekly'', June 29, 2000 </ref> | |||
| *''The Lost Beatles Interviews'' (1994) | |||
| *''Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones'' (1994) | |||
| ==Hindu beliefs== | |||
| *''Behind Blue Eyes: The Life of Pete Townshend'' (1996)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-553-52589-2 |title = Audio Book Review: GEORGE HARRISON: A Tribute by Geoffrey Giuliano, Author, Geoffrey Giuliano, Narrated by, Various, Read by , read by the author. Random $18 (0p) ISBN 978-0-553-52589-2}}</ref> | |||
| In the March, 1991 edition of ''Hinduism Today'',<ref name="Hinduism Today">{{cite web | |||
| *''Lennon in America: 1971–1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries'' (2000) | |||
| | title = "Former Ronald McDonald Turns Vegetarian Activist" | |||
| | publisher = ''Hinduism Today'' | |||
| |date=March 1991 | |||
| | url = http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1991/03/1991-03-03.shtml | |||
| | accessdate = 2007-02-06}}</ref> | |||
| Giuliano was quoted as saying: "I'm very orthodox. The only books I read are religious Indian texts." The article also stated that while still working for McDonald's Giuliano met a ] at a ] temple in Toronto, and became his disciple. It also mentioned that Geoffrey and his first wife Vrnda Devi were raising their four children as vegetarian ]s.<ref name="Hinduism Today" /> | |||
| Giuliano explained his relationship to the ] (ISKCON) in an editorial in the September 10, 1999 edition of ''Vaishnava News'',<ref>, Vaishnava News, September 10, 1999</ref> stating that he had been "vaguely" critical of ISKCON over the years, but adding, "Can I ever repay the personal debt to ISKCON that I've had? Absolutely not, nor can now my children, in the second generation." | |||
| According to the official website of SRI (srilotus.com) in the late 1990s Giuliano founded the umbrella charity, SRI/The Spiritual Realization Institute (and later Sri Radhe International Inc.) which manifested as a free veggie food pantry (Dasa Food For All) in Lockport, New York, as well as an animal sanctuary, Devotional Yoga center, spiritual retreat and not-for-profit publishing house. | |||
| ==Films and other media == | ==Films and other media == | ||
| He had a role in '']'' and the costume drama '']''. In 2021 he played "VIP #4" in ]. | |||
| Giuliano co-directed the DVD "The Beatles A Celebration."<ref>{{cite web|title="The Beatles: Celebration" at imdb.|publisher=Internet Movie Database|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208724/}}</ref> A review on Beatles Collectors.com stated that "the production itself is very unprofessional," and that its content consists of "a tabloid style account covering only the negative publicity that cropped up during the Beatles career."<ref> {{cite web|title=Beatles Celebration - Geoffrey Giuliano, Review by Sooz|publisher=Sumaree Promotions|url=http://incolor.inebraska.com/sumaree/beatles/celebration.htm}} </ref> Giuliano went on to play a supporting role as pirate Captain Li in a made-for-television movie that aired on the Hallmark Channel cable network called "Mysterious Island."<ref>{{cite web|title="Mysterious Island" at imdb.|publisher=Internet Movie Database|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448965/}}</ref> Since that time he has co-starred in the about to be released film "Lost At Sea" and is currently starring in the action thriller, "Bangkok Adrenaline". | |||
| The 2005 film ''Stoned: The Wild & Wicked World of Brian Jones'' was "based on and inspired by" the book, one of which was Guiliano's ''Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones''.<ref> March 24, 2006]</ref><ref> by Chris Payne, Channel4.com</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | ==References== | ||
| As a singer songwriter Giuliano has released two CDs, "Chocolate Wings" (2001)and the Indo fusion work, "God Dwells Within" (2006).{{Fact| date = April 2007}} Giluiano's website includes a song called "Food For All/Homes For All" which co-wrote with former Moody Blues and Wings guitarist Denny Laine. According to the website the song was recorded at Mark Recording Studios in Clarence, New York, by Laine, Ritchie Havens, Ginger Baker and Ben E. King. | |||
| {{Reflist|30em}} | |||
| ⚫ | == External links == | ||
| In late 2005 Giuliano was hired by an American radio syndicator, KGB, to host a series of two-hour radio shows, "Geoffrey Giuliano's Roots Of Rock", which aired on more than 60 stations in the United States and ]. The shows produced so far have highlighted such classic rock acts as the Beatles, ], and ].<ref>{{cite web|title=Geoffrey Giuliano's Roots of Rock |publisher= geoffreygiuliano.com|url=http://www.geoffreygiuliano.com/New/radioshow.htm}}</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | * {{Official website|http://www.geoffreygiuliano.com}} | ||
| *{{IMDb name|id=0321325|name=Geoffrey Giuliano}} | |||
| {{Authority control}} | |||
| ==Ronald McDonald and animal rights== | |||
| Giuliano worked for an ad agency in Toronto, Canada portraying McDonald's advertising figurehead Ronald McDonald for "basically a year and a half," travelling to personal appearances for "The Ronald McDonald Safety Show."<ref> CONFESSIONS OF A CORPORATE CLOWN, McSpotlight.org website]</ref> | |||
| A statement dated "Fall/Summer 1990" in which Giuliano decried "concerns who make their millions off the murder of countless animals and the exploitation of children for their own ends" was submitted on behalf of the plaintiffs in the 1991 London McLibel case. <ref> McSpotlight.org website</ref> | |||
| In an interview he gave in London some years later, Geoffrey summed up his bad experience playing Ronald north of the border. "There's no question that I was manipulating these children. I was a highly paid, highly trained, highly polished actor. Every show was a performance and I had a mandate to get that message out there, and yeah, it was not too hard - anybody can manipulate a child. I just went home one night, and I said, 'I cannot do this, I can't live with myself if I continue to do this.' Giuliano also played the Marvelous Magical Burger King for the Burger King Corporation doing shows and other appearances throughout New England. The author /actor has spoken widely regarding his turbulent term as the McDonald's clown and the shadowy ethical implications of factory farming and animal rights for such groups as PETA. Giuliano has been an ardent vegetarian abstaining from meat, fish or eggs since 1970.<ref> One-Off Productions, 1997</ref><ref>{{cite web | |||
| | title = "Clowns - Ronald McDonald" | |||
| | publisher = ''Tv Acres'' | |||
| | url = http://www.tvacres.com/clowns_ronald.htm | |||
| | accessdate = 2007-02-08}}</ref> | |||
| In 2001 Giuliano published the book, "Compassionate Cuisine," authored by then wife Vrnda Devi. {{Fact|date=April 2007}} | |||
| ⚫ | ==References== | ||
| <references/> | |||
| ⚫ | ==External links== | ||
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Latest revision as of 00:31, 9 December 2024
American writer and actor (born 1953) | This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Geoffrey Giuliano" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Geoffrey Giuliano | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1953-09-11) September 11, 1953 (age 71) Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Website | www |
Geoffrey Giuliano (born September 11, 1953) is an American author of biographies of rock musicians.
Literary work
Giuliano has written extensively on popular music, particularly the Beatles. By 1999, he had authored 20 books, including Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison (1990) and Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney (1991).
In an interview for The Guardian in September 1992, Giuliano offended George Harrison's wife Olivia by referring to the Beatles as "real shits in real life" and dismissing Paul McCartney as "just shallow and vacuous". On October 5 that year, The Guardian published a letter from Olivia Harrison in which she wrote that "like a starving dog he scavenges his heroes, picking up bits of gristle and sinew along the way." She also complained about Giuliano's use of a quote by Harrison on the cover of Dark Horse, saying: "My husband once made the remark: 'That guy knows more about my life than I do.' Giuliano missed the joke and used it to endorse his book." When interviewed in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992, Harrison said of Giuliano: "Yeah, I met him briefly. I have no way of recalling what year it was. I met him at the home of "Legs" Larry Smith for possibly thirty minutes."
Giuliano's biography of John Lennon, Lennon in America: 1971–1980 (Cooper Square Press, 2000), was controversial. Giuliano said the book was based in part on transcripts of Lennon's diaries given to him by the late American singer Harry Nilsson and on audio tapes recorded by Lennon. Several people close to Nilsson said they did not believe that he ever had the transcripts in his possession; others familiar with the journal and the tapes disputed the accuracy of Giuliano's interpretation. Writing in The Washington Post, David Segal described Giuliano's text as "a highly critical, luridly detailed account"; he quoted Giuliano's response when he was asked to corroborate his claim that Nilsson gave him the diaries: "It's obvious that I'm going to do things in an ethical manner." Steven Gutstein, a former New York assistant district attorney who read the diaries during an early 1980s larceny lawsuit, recalled that they contained "a lot of philosophical musings combined with mundane details of everyday life". Colin Carlson of Library Journal said of Lennon in America, "Non-fans will be put off by this image of Lennon as cad, drug addict, and paranoiac; this often sensationalized account is for voyeurs and fans with deconstructive tendencies and is one of the best, most detailed books available on this subject." Less impressed, a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented, "If Giuliano's own double-talk isn't enough to diminish this work's credibility, his endless, voyeuristic descriptions of Lennon's sexual encounters are."
Selected bibliography
- Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison (1990)
- Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney (1991)
- The Lost Beatles Interviews (1994)
- Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones (1994)
- Behind Blue Eyes: The Life of Pete Townshend (1996)
- Lennon in America: 1971–1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries (2000)
Films and other media
He had a role in Scorpion King 3 and the costume drama Vikingdom. In 2021 he played "VIP #4" in Squid Game.
The 2005 film Stoned: The Wild & Wicked World of Brian Jones was "based on and inspired by" the book, one of which was Guiliano's Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones.
References
- tell Tell Me What You See - Biography - A Brief Life Sketch of Geoffrey Giuliano/Jagannatha Dasa, downloaded from internet on May 13, 2011
- Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. p. 486. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.
- Woodward, Will (December 31, 1999). "'Mrs George' Shares Husband's Interests". The Guardian. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- ^ Badman 2001, p. 487.
- Glass Onion: The Beatles in Their Own Words by Geoffrey Giuliano and Vrnda Devi, Da Capo Press, published 1999, pp. 179-180.
- Heaney, James (May 28, 2000). "Lennon, Imagined". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- Segal, David (April 18, 2000). "Lennon's Disputed Days in the Life; Yoko Ono Spokesman Rejects as 'Fiction' Bio Allegedly Based on Ex-Beatle's Lost Diaries". The Washington Post. p. C01. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- Book Review, Lennon in America, Library Journal, May 1, 2000
- Book Review, Lennon in America, Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2000
- "Audio Book Review: GEORGE HARRISON: A Tribute by Geoffrey Giuliano, Author, Geoffrey Giuliano, Narrated by, Various, Read by , read by the author. Random $18 (0p) ISBN 978-0-553-52589-2".
- Stoned (movie review) March 24, 2006]
- Stephen Wooley on Stoned by Chris Payne, Channel4.com
External links
Categories:- 1953 births
- American biographers
- American male film actors
- American people of Italian descent
- Hillsborough Community College alumni
- Living people
- American male biographers
- Writers from Rochester, New York
- People from Albion, Orleans County, New York
- People from Niagara County, New York
- State University of New York at Brockport alumni
- Historians from New York (state)