Geoffrey Giuliano

Geoffrey Giuliano (born September 11, 1953)^[1] 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. He is also known for his involvement in the Mclibel case

Biography

Giuliano was born in Rochester, New York^[1] and raised in the villages of Albion and Olcott Beach, New York. He was the youngest of five children. His father was a heating contractor, Joseph Robert Juliana. 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. He was born "Jeffrey Juliana", but uses "Geoffrey Giuliano" as a pen name.

Giuliano attended Madison Junior High School, H.B Plant High School and Hillsborough Community College (all in Tampa) and, in the mid-1970s, the State University of New York at Brockport.

Literary work

A biography Giuliano wrote, Lennon In America (released in 2000), was controversial. Giuliano said the book was based in part on transcripts of Lennon's journal given to him by the singer Harry Nilsson. The book was issued after Nilsson's death, and several people close to Nilsson do not believe he ever had the transcripts in his possession.^[2] Washington Post reporter David Segal 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." Segal also reported the view of Steven Gutstein, a former New York assistant district attorney who was asked to read the diaries during an early 1980s larceny lawsuit against former Lennon personal assistant Fred Seaman. Gutstein described his own memory of the diaries as "a lot of philosophical musings combined with mundane details of everyday life." ^[3]

Both the public and reviewers were torn over the book. On July 15, 2000, Colin Carlson of the Library Journal commented, "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."^[4] A Washington Post review of Giuliano's Lennon book said, "In exhaustive detail, using information purportedly gleaned from an unpublished Lennon diary (a text never directly quoted from), Giuliano reveals the not-so-shocking news that Lennon was not an altogether happy man."^[5] A "Publisher's 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.".^[6]

A September 15, 2006 review of Giuliano's book Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles in Kirkus Reviews^[7] said: "The few scraps of new information presented emanate from Giuliano's connection to George Harrison, but he fails to adequately explain his relationship with the former Beatle." George Harrison, interviewed in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992, was asked if he had ever met Giuliano. He replied, "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. I visited with Mr. Smith and he was in his flat."^[8] Harrison's wife Olivia wrote a letter to the newspaper The Guardian in 1992 attacking Giuliano. She wrote, "like a starving dog he [Giuliano] scavenges his heroes, picking up bits of gristle and sinew along the way."^[9] She specifically objected to a George Harrison quote that Giuliano used on the cover of one of his books, stating: "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."^[10]

Newspapers in Great Britain reported in April 2009 that Giuliano had stated that he was instructing lawyers to file suit against John Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird. "There's only one reason she did it, and that's to screw me out of my share," Giuliano was quoted as saying. He was referring to Ms. Baird's deal with Miramax to film a screen version of her 2007 book, Imagine This. Giuliano stated that his lawsuit would request the recall and destruction of Ms. Baird's book, as well as a halt to the production of the Miramax film entitled Nowhere Boy. Guiliano contended that Baird based her 2007 book on an earlier book about Lennon which she co-authored with Giuliano. A spokesman connected with the film production issued a statement that "There is no merit to this claim. We are looking forward to the release." ^[11] The film's producer, Kevin Loader, commenting on the story, was quoted in May, 2009 as saying, "It's nothing to do with us. I haven't heard from anyone's lawyers."^[12]

In early 2010 Giuliano set about re-launching his literary career, founding Icon Editions^[13] to publish his extensive backlist and several new books authored with his middle daughter Avalon Oneita Juliana. The author, redesigned, updated and re-recorded his over 200 audio books for download establishing the website: http://www.iconaudiobooks.com. Another Giuliano endeavor is to get his book, Lennon In America made into a feature film.

Selected Bibliography

Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney
The Lost Beatles Interviews
Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison
Behind Blue Eyes: The Life of Pete Townshend^[14]

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."^[15] 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 Mechanic Resurrection, also in "Scorpion King 3" and the costume drama Vikingdom. In August 2010, Guiliano was quoted by CNNGO.com as stating: "In Thailand, there are no more than perhaps five real professional (foreign) film actors, in a sea of aging psychotic steroid-junkie gym rats, towering old queens in love with Judy Garland, out-of-work English teachers who acted a bit in high school and other assorted human oddities." .^[16]

On November 19, 2005, a film, Stoned: The Wild & Wicked World of Brian Jones, premiered in London. The movie was directed by Stephen Woolley and co-produced by Nik Powell, the producing team behind Mona Lisa, Interview with the Vampire and The Crying Game. The film was "based on and inspired by" Guiliano's book Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones, as well as Terry Rawlings' Who Killed Christopher Robin and Anna Wohlin's The Murder of Brian Jones.^[17] Producer/director Stephen Wooley has said that he saw Giuliano's book in a bookstore and brought it to the attention of his screenwriters. The screenwriters responded by asking if he had seen Rawlings' book, which Wooley then read and found to be much more detailed than Giuliano's. Wooley also interviewed Anna Wohlin, Brian Jones' last girlfriend; she wrote her own book after the interview, causing Wooley to buy the rights to her book as well as the others. Commenting on the relative importance of the diverse source material for the movie, Wooley said, "In the end it wasn't so much the books, it was talking to both Anna about the state of Brian's mind that night, and Janet (a nurse who was present at Brian Jones' home on the day he died), about Frank's (the alleged murderer of Jones) state of mind that night - his instability and the fact he just been fired that day without being properly paid - that confirmed in my mind there was a movie here." ^[18]

As a singer/songwriter Giuliano, has released two CDs—Chocolate Wings (2001) and the Indo-fusion work, God Dwells Within (2006). Giuliano's website includes a song called "Food For All/Homes For All" which he 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, Richie Havens, Ginger Baker and Ben E. King.

In late 2005 Giuliano was hired by an American radio syndicator, Laurence Kahn of KGB Radio 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 have highlighted such classic rock acts as the Beatles, U2, and Jimi Hendrix.^[19]

Ronald McDonald and animal rights

Giuliano worked for an advertising agency,Vickers & Bensons in Toronto, Canada, portraying McDonald's advertising figurehead Ronald McDonald for "basically a year and a half" for "The Ronald McDonald Safety Show."^[20] 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.^[20] Giuliano also played the Marvelous Magical Burger King for the Burger King Corporation. Giuliano has been a vegetarian since 1970.^[20][21] In 2001, Giuliano published Compassionate Cuisine, authored by his then-wife, Vrnda Devi.

References

External links

• Official website
• Geoffrey Giuliano at the Internet Movie Database