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Do you remember Joe Penny?
Joe Penny is an American actor, who has an impressive filmography of film and television roles from 1977 to 2016. He is best known for the detective series “Riptide” which aired in the 1980s, “Jake and the Fatman” from the late 1980s. ’80s to early ’90s, and from 2005 in the mysterious TV movie series ‘Jane Doe’.
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Joe Penny’s Family and Education
He was born Joseph Edward Penny Jr. at 24e Jun 1956, in Uxbridge, London, UK under the zodiac sign Cancer, so is now 63 years of age. His father was American Joseph Edward Penny Sr., and his mother, Anne Teresa Rita Cox, was Italian.
#JoePenny was a #80s heartthrob on RIPTIDE.
See him on WALKER, TEXAS RANGER — 6p ET on @getTV #WalkerongetTV
What else do you recognize him from?https://t.co/0wd1OReTfW pic.twitter.com/F0sfonf4EC
— getTV (@gettv) March 5, 2019
Joe spent his childhood in Marietta, Georgia, USA, and when his parents divorced, Joe and his six sisters and brother moved with their mother to Huntington Beach, California. Joe’s mother has remarried and divorced a few times, so Joe has three half-siblings. He remembers one of the hardest things in his life was being separated from his father at a young age, and although his father kept in touch, Joe didn’t see him; it wasn’t until 13 years later that they reconnected.
Joe was never very academic, but loved to play football and basketball at Marina High School in Huntington Beach. He left home at the age of 15, which he said made it harder for him.
When he got out of school he had no big ambitions what to do with his life, and when he was 18 years old he would just hang out on Sunset Boulevard. One day, Joe was waiting for a friend who was into acting, and as he watched the class at work, he became quite intrigued by the whole thing. The teacher invited him to take up acting, and after thinking about it for a while, he joined a week later. That was a turning point in his life and set him on the road to stardom.
Is Joe Penny married?
At six feet tall, with his dark hair, blue/green eyes, good build and known as the ‘handsome, handsome, tough actor’, Joe was often harassed by women. It’s understandable, then, that he chose to keep his private life completely out of the limelight.
There were rumors that he dated his co-star, Melissa Gilbert, in 1987 while on the set for the crime film “Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife”. Joe’s beautiful protagonists of the time, including Loni Anderson, Lynda Carter and Morgan Fairchild, saw him as one of the sexiest, most beautiful actors. Again, stories were circulating that he was in a relationship with a range of other co-stars such as Kim Zimmer, Jenny Robertson etc but no real facts can be found anywhere. He reportedly married Cindy M. Penny in 2004 after they dated for a while, and they are still together.
How Joe Penny’s Acting Career Evolved
Joe studied acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, which influenced several generations of actors.
In those early years, when he took small acting jobs in LA theaters, he supported himself by working as a truck driver, dishwasher and maintenance crew foreman.
Joe’s first small roles were in 1977, in the TV series “Forever Fernwood” and the TV movie “Delta County, USA”. Shortly thereafter, he starred in the “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries” series, which ran from January 1977 to January 1979, as well as starring in the drama film, “Our Winning Season”, and made a single episode/guest appearance on several TV shows. movies and series, such as “CHiPs”, “Deathmoon”, “Mother, Juggs & Speed”, “The Girls in the Office”, “Samurai” and “Lou Grant”.
In the early 1980s, Joe appeared in several TV series and sitcoms, but most notable was his star portrayal of notorious American mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in the miniseries “The Gangster Chronicles” in 1981.
Leading up to 1983, he starred in the movie “Lifepod” and TV series, “The Gossip Columnist”, “Vega$”, “Archie Bunker’s Place”, “Matt Houston” and “TJ Hooker”, among several others,
What was the turning point in Joe Penny’s career?
It was around this time that Joe had also read the script for the upcoming series “Riptide” and was asked to come in for a second audition. He was hesitant because he really wanted to be a movie actor and he had auditioned for and hoped to get a part in the movie “Purple Hearts” starring Cheryl Ladd (best known as one of Charlie’s Angels). “Riptide” producer Stephen Cannell actually called Joe directly and said he really wanted him to play the character Nick Ryder, and convinced him that a TV series would bring more benefit and ultimately bring Joe a lot more exposure. .
Stephen said he would deposit $50,000 into Joe’s bank account and if Joe got the part, Joe would pay him weekly from his salary. If not, he was allowed to keep the money. Well Joe went for it and the rest is history!!
“torrent” ran through 56 episodes on NBC from January 1984 to August 1986. Joe Penny, as Nick Ryder, starred alongside Perry King as Cody Allen, opening a detective agency together and conducting business from Cody’s boat, the “Riptide,” which was moored at King Harbor Marina, LA. They enlisted Thom Bray (Murray “Boz” Bozinsky), a tech-savvy scientist and computer geek, to help them with their research. The series was very popular and was later released as a DVD package. In Germany the series ‘Trio mit vier Fausten’ ran from 1985. Ironically, Joe apparently suffered from seasickness while filming the series.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzR0ZQNl96o/
Joe Penny’s Career Takes Off After ‘Riptide’
Joe had made a name for himself as an accomplished actor, had big hits and was in high demand. From 1986 to 1987, Joe starred in the TV movies “Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star” and “Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife”, also in the TV series: “Matlock”, “The Twilight Zone” and “Roses are for the rich”.
In September 1987, “Jake and the Fatman” was launched on CBS, starring Joe in the role of Jake Styles, an easygoing special investigator who constantly collides with JL “Fatman” McCabe (William Conrad), a tough Los Angeles District Attorney. Angeles, ex-Hawaiian police officer. Initially, the series was set in LA, then from season two to midway through season four, in Honolulu, Hawaii. At that stage, Joe had a health crisis and lost a lot of weight.
There were many rumors about the suspected cause of his condition, but he actually had a gastrointestinal virus and was struggling to gain weight. Before the completion of the fourth season and the rest of the show, it returned to LA again, eventually for 103 episodes over five seasons. The TV series “Diagnosis: Murder” and three connected TV movies developed as an offshoot of the series.
At the same time, Joe also starred in three other TV movies, and from the 1990s through 2010, he appeared in many productions such as the films “BitterSweet”, “The Prophet’s Game” and “Jack of Hearts”. Some notable TV movies and series were “Walker, Texas Ranger”, “Family of Cops”, “The Sopranos”, “Days of our Lives”, “Double Jeopardy”, and “CSI: Miami”.
From 2005 to 2008, Joe co-starred with Lea Thompson as Frank Darnell in “Jane Doe”.
This was a series of nine mystery TV movies from Hallmark Channel, which were replayed several times after the original series. In 2008, he had a recurring role as Martino Vitali in six episodes of “Days of Our Lives”, followed by three episodes in “Cold Case” between 2009 and 2010, and then another TV movie, “Betrayed at 17” in 2011. Joe’s last film to appear in was “The Last Night Inn” in 2016.
What else do we know about Joe Penny and where is he now?
Throughout his career, Joe worked long days — often 15 hours a day non-stop — so when he had time out, he slept as much as possible. In between when he could grab some time, he enjoyed camping, traveling, bodybuilding, fishing, hunting and spending time with his family – he was never much of a party goer. Joe considers himself a pretty good cook and likes to make good spaghetti sauce.
He is said to have studied Nichiren Shōshū, a form of Buddhism. He is a lover of music, grew up with The Beatles and spent his teenage years in the dawning era of great rock bands.
Joe was inspired to form a blues/rock band called “Stray Dogs”. Their CD, “Blonde of this year” was released in 1994 and gained more popularity in Europe than in the US. Joe was not completely satisfied with the CD, nor with his musical prowess, and chose not to continue as a musician.
Joe has largely withdrawn from the public eye and cannot be found on social media platforms at all. His house is tucked away in the San Fernando Valley, California. He is known to have a big heart and has done many charity things over the years and occasionally performs at charity events.
Posted by JOE PENNY for toujours On Wednesday 15 June 2016
Furthermore, he is only occasionally seen, sometimes with his wife, Cindy, at red carpet events. Perry KingJoe’s co-star in “Riptide” recently launched his own movie called “The Divide” and he and Joe reunited at the LA premiere in February 2019, after not seeing each other for many years.
Joe Penny has stated, ‘The mark of a good actor is to play a difficult part and make it look easy’.
Since Joe has managed to keep his life a secret for more than four decades while riding the tide of success, it is difficult to determine his financial status, but according to valid sources, Joe Penny’s net worth is approximately $500,000 – apparently he prefers to play roles he is interested in, rather than chasing ‘the big money’.
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