Tony Ganios : The 90's tough-guy 'Perry' With Pictures
One of America’s most loved actors of the late seventies, Tony Ganios was born on October 21, 1959. He is best known for the role of tough guy Perry in the movie, ‘The Wanderers’.
Ganios never aspired to become an actor, rather he was fascinated with power-lifting. Acting was a stroke of fate as his uncle Pete forced him to audition for an acting role at the age of 18 for Philip Kauffman.
But that's not the end of the story, at 18, Ganios was accepted into the School of Visual Arts in New York and at one point, he wanted to have a career as a comic book artist.
He also wanted to explore working as a commercial diver and a chef. Surely a man of varied interests, he recalls the role of 'The Punisher' being his dream job.
The ‘Porky’s’ actor found stable fame in Hollywood with ‘Porky’s’ sequels and ‘Die Hard 2’. But the 6ft, 4inches tall actor took semi-retirement from acting after ‘Rising Sun’ for a career in insurance.
Even after his career took off as an insurance agent in New York City, he kept his involvement in Hollywood as he started a Kickstarter campaign to fund his project, ‘Daddies’ Girls’ which never saw the light of the day but was supposed to mark his debut as a producer and screenwriter as well.
10 Interesting Facts About Tony Ganios:
1. Origins in Greece:
Although he holds American citizenship, he is of Greek and Italian descent.
2. An ardent lover of art:
His social media accounts, esp. twitter where he is quite active, is full of informative old-art appreciation posts.
3. His unique trademark:
He is known by his trademark matchstick that he continually chewed on both off and on-screen since his teenage days. It has become a part of his identity.
4. An expert on ancient military history and period weapons.
He is a sincere student of ancient history and civilizations, particularly Roman and Greek. His curiosity doesn't limit to only those things though, he is fascinated with the origin of various herbs and posts his findings on Twitter.
5. Rorion Gracie’s student:
Rorion Gracie is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu pioneer and UFC founder. Ganios is one of Gracie’s original students and has had opportunities to learn various martial art techniques directly from the famous veteran.
6. Worked as a voice actor:
Even after retirement, he worked as a voice actor for the animated low-budget you-tube series, ‘Bad Vlad’. He describes his performances in the 2000 project as the most fun thing he has ever done.
7. Attended Salesian High School in New Rochelle in New York.
8. A dedicated martial artist:
He is an expert at Balisong butterfly knives. On the sets of ‘Porky’s II -The Next Day’, he was observed with cuts on his hands sustained from practice from the same.
He was fascinated with fitness from a young age and was even able to do bench press double body weight by age 21. It is hard to even for long-time fitness trainers to do those bench presses drug-free.
9. He lives in Los Angeles and works as an insurance agent:
After deciding to semi-retire from acting, he appeared in the Emmy Award-winning series, ‘Wiseguy’. ‘The Taking of Beverly Hills’, ‘Ring of the Musketeers’ and ‘Continental Divide’ were some of his noteworthy performances.
10. Net Worth:
Although under review, he is currently estimated to have a net worth of $1million. As a veteran insurance agent, he has a decent earning from his side career involvements.
