McGinley has previously appeared on Broadway in Requiem for a Heavyweight and played Stu in the Public Theater and film versions of Talk Radio.
His many screen credits include "Platoon," "Wall Street," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Nixon," "Any Given Sunday," "Alex Cross," "42," "Wild Hogs," "Identity," "The Animal," "The Rock," "Nothing to Lose," "Set It Off," "Se7en," "Office Space," "Mother," "Point Break," "A Midnight Clear," "Fat Man and Little Boy," “Burn Notice,” “Scrubs,” “Intensity” and “The Jack Bull.”
| Full given name: | John Christopher McGinley |
| Where you were born/where you were raised: | Born in Greenwich Village, NYC. Grew up in Short Hills, NJ. |
| Zodiac Sign: | Leo |
| What your parents did/do for a living: | Father: Businessman Mother: Teacher |
| Siblings | Two brothers and two sisters |
| Special skills: | Advocating for the special needs community |
| Something you're REALLY bad at: | Suffering bullies |
| First Broadway show you ever saw: | Harry Chapin's The Night That Made America Famous |
| If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway show, what would it be? | The Petrified Forest with Humphrey Bogart |
| Where did you train and were there any particularly memorable college productions? | NYU Graduate Theatre Program (M.F.A. '84) Camino Real |
| Did you have any particular mentors or inspirations as a young actor? | Mentor: Ron Van Lieu |
| Favorite showtune(s) of all time: | "Not While I'm Around" "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" |
| Favorite musicals: | Sweeney Todd The Mikado Dreamgirls Camelot |
| Some favorite modern plays: | Speed-the-Plow Danny and the Deep Blue Sea M. Butterfly Angels in America |
| Some favorite modern playwrights: | David Mamet, John Patrick Shanley, Tony Kushner and David Henry Hwang |
| Stage or screen stars of the past you would most have loved to perform with: | Spencer Tracy, Robert Shaw, Anna Magnani, Rita Hayworth, Richard Farnsworth |
| The one performance – attended - that you will never forget: | David Dukes and Richard Gere in Bent |
| Music that makes you cry or moves you, any genre: | "Kentucky Ave" by Tom Waits "The Fixer" by Eddie Vedder "Do Ya" by E.L.O. |
| Your personal acting idols: | Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Walter Huston |
| MAC or PC | MAC |
| Most-visited websites: | Huffington Post Sports Illustrated NY Times |
| Most played song on your iPod: | The Prelude to Lohengrin |
| Last book you read: | "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
| Must-see TV show(s): | "Homeland" "Dexter" "Boardwalk Empire" |
| Last good movie you saw: | "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" |
| Some films you consider classics: | "The Grey Fox" "Field of Dreams" "Casablanca" "Butch Cassidy…" "There Will Be Blood" "Gilda" "The Godfather" |
| Performer you would drop everything to go see: | Luciano Pavarotti |
| Pop culture guilty pleasure: | Vanity Fair |
| Three favorite cities: | Dublin, Florence, San Francisco |
| Favorite sport/team/player: | Football The New York Giants! Lawrence Taylor |
| First CD/Tape/LP you owned: | Steve Miller's "The Joker" |
| How you got your Equity card: | A summer stock production of Carousel in Auburn, NY. |
| Favorite liquid refreshment: | Coffee |
| What was your most recent stage production? | Breast Men in the Los Angeles One-Act festival |
| What do you most appreciate about the stage? | No one can call "Cut!" |
| What drew you back to Broadway after 25 years? | David Mamet… and Al Pacino… and Daniel Sullivan |
| Have you seen any previous productions of Glengarry? | The original with Joe Mantegna |
| How did you research for this role? | Worked with my acting coach David Allen Warshofski! |
| Any upcoming projects you can talk about? | "Burn Notice" "Alex Cross" with Tyler Perry "42" with Harrison Ford |
| Will there be hockey this year, and why or why not? | Not so much. Because of short-sighted, greedy owners. |
| How's your golf game these days? | My sticks have been put away for the winter! |
| How are you enjoying your extended time in New York? | It has been spectacular! |
| Worst flubbed line/missed cue/onstage mishap: | I "went up" during my monologue in Talk Radio at the Public. After a few seconds I turned upstage and sat back down in my seat… brutal!! |
| Worst costume ever: | The dolphin shorts in "Are We Done Yet?" |
| Most challenging role you have played onstage: | "Heracles" directed by Tony Kushner |
| Out of so many, do you have any favorite screen roles? | Sergeant O'Neil in "Platoon" Dr. Cox in "Scrubs" Bob Slydell in "Office Space" Marvin in "Wall Street" |
| Other Mamet plays you'd like to take on: | Lakeboat |
| Something about you that surprises people: | That I will not abide even the most casual use of the words "retard" or "retarded." |
| Three things you can't live without: | Max Billie Grace Kate |
| Career you would want if not a performer: | Stone mason |
| Words of advice for aspiring performers: | 1. Train until you are blue in the face 2. Learn your lines!! |
