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Geoffrey Giuliano (born September 11,1953) is an American author, radio personality and film actor, best known for his biographies of The Beatles members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, and of musician Pete Townshend.

Biography

Giuliano was born in Rochester, New York and raised in the villages of Albion and Olcott Beach, New York. He was the youngest of five children. He and his mother, Myrna Oneita Juliana, moved to Tampa, Florida 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. 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.

Giuliano attended Hillsborough Community College in Tampa and, in the mid-1970s, SUNY Brockport (class of 1976). On August 6, 1977, Jeffrey Joseph Juliana married Brenda Lee Black (later author/animal rights activist Vrnda Devi) in Hillsborough County, Florida, 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. 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.

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.

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 Pete Townshend. "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. A research assistant of Giuliano's subsequently wrote to the newspaper to defend him.

Hindu beliefs

In the March, 1991 edition of Hinduism Today, 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 sannyasa at a Hare Krishna 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 Hindus.

Giuliano explained his relationship to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in an editorial in the September 10, 1999 edition of Vaishnava News, 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

Giuliano co-directed the DVD "The Beatles A Celebration." 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." 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." 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". On November 19, 2005, a film, "Stoned: The Wild & Wicked World of Brian Jones," premiered in London. The film was "based on and inspired by" Guiliano's book "Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones," as well as Terry Robbins' "Who Killed Christopher Robin" and Anna Wohlin's "The Murder of Brian Jones." The movie was directed by Stephen Woolley and co-produced by Nik Powell, the producing team behind such films as "Mona Lisa," "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Crying Game."

As a singer songwriter Giuliano has released two CDs, "Chocolate Wings" (2001)and the Indo fusion work, "God Dwells Within" (2006). 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.

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 Canada. The shows produced so far have highlighted such classic rock acts as the Beatles, U2, and Jimi Hendrix.

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." 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. 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. In 2001 Giuliano published the book, "Compassionate Cuisine," authored by then wife Vrnda Devi.

References

2. Lockport's prolific rock biographer reincarnates as leader of Hindu temple Buffalo News, April 25, 1999
3. Lennon, imagined Buffalo News, May 28, 2000
4. Alumni Spotlight - SUNY Brockport Division of Institutional Advancement, 2006
5. Florida Department of Health marriage records, Ancestry.com
6. News article: "Infamous Beatles hack remains unrepentant" Eye Weekly, May 11, 2000.
7. "Letter to the Editor, The Mother Teresa of Rock Journalism" - Eye Weekly, June 29, 2000
8. ^ ""Former Ronald McDonald Turns Vegetarian Activist"". Hinduism Today. March 1991. Retrieved 2007-02-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
9. Poison CD Hoax by Jagannatha Dasa, Vaishnava News, September 10, 1999
10. ""The Beatles: Celebration" at imdb". Internet Movie Database.
11. "Beatles Celebration - Geoffrey Giuliano, Review by Sooz". Sumaree Promotions.
12. ""Mysterious Island" at imdb". Internet Movie Database.
13. http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2006/03/24/stoned/Salon.com, Stoned (movie review)] March 24, 2006]
14. "Geoffrey Giuliano's Roots of Rock". geoffreygiuliano.com.
15. CONFESSIONS OF A CORPORATE CLOWN, McSpotlight.org website]
16. "CONFESSIONS OF A CORPORATE CLOWN McSpotlight.org website
17. "Interview," One-Off Productions, 1997
18. ""Clowns - Ronald McDonald"". Tv Acres. Retrieved 2007-02-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

• www.geoffreygiuliano.com
• Geoffrey Giuliano at IMDb

• American biographers
• American actors
• People from Rochester, New York
• 1953 births
• Living people