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 rose to prominence mainly through the detective series “Riptide” broadcast in the 1980s, “Jake and the Fatman” from the late 80s. to the early 90s, and from 2005 in the mystery television series “Jane Doe”.
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Joe Penny’s family and upbringing
He was born Joseph Edward Penny Jr. on the 24the June 1956, in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom under the astrological sign of Cancer, is therefore now 63 years old. Her father was American Joseph Edward Penny Sr. and her mother Anne Teresa Rita Cox was Italian.
#JoePenny was a #80s crush on RIPTIDE.
See it on WALKER, TEXAS RANGER – 6p HE on @getTV #WalkerongetTV
How else do you recognize it? 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 one brother moved to Huntington Beach, California with their mother. Joe’s mother remarried and divorced several times, so Joe has three half-siblings. He remembers that one of the hardest things in his life was being separated from his father at a young age, and although his father stayed in touch, Joe didn’t see him. it wasn’t until 13 years later that they reconnected.
Joe was never very academic, but enjoyed playing football and basketball at Marina High School in Huntington Beach. He left home when he was 15, which he says made him tougher.
When he left school, he had no big ambitions for what to do with his life, and when he was 18, he was just hanging out on Sunset Boulevard. One day, Joe was expecting a friend who was busy in acting class, and while watching the class at work, he became quite intrigued by it all. The teacher invited him to try his hand at acting, and after thinking about it, he joined him a week later. It was a turning point in his life and put him on the path to stardom.
Is Joe Penny married?
At a height of 6 feet (1.83 m), with his black hair, blue/green eyes, good build, and known as “the handsome, handsome, tough actor”, Joe was often harassed by women. So it’s understandable that he chose to keep his private life entirely out of the spotlight.
There were rumors that he dated his co-star, Melissa Gilbert, in 1987 while on the set of the detective film “Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife.” Joe’s leading beautiful ladies of this era, including Loni Anderson, Lynda Carter, and Morgan Fairchild, considered him one of the sexiest and most handsome actors. Again, stories were circulating that he dated a slew of other co-stars, such as Kim Zimmer, Jenny Robertson, etc., but there are no real facts to be found anywhere. It is reported that he married Cindy M. Penny in 2004 after they were together for a while, and are still together.
How Joe Penny’s acting career evolved
Joe studied acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, which influenced several generations of actors.
During those early years when he took odd acting jobs in Los Angeles theaters, he supported himself by working as a truck driver, dishwasher, and maintenance crew foreman.
Joe’s first minor roles date back to 1977, in the TV series “Forever Fernwood” and the TV movie “Delta County, USA”. Soon after, he starred in “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries” series, which ran from January 1977 to January 1979, while starring in the drama film “Our Winning Season” and making guest appearances. in several episodes/guests in several TV movies and series, such as “CHiPs”, “Deathmoon”, “Mother, Juggs & Speed”, “The Girls in the Office”, “Samurai” and “Lou Grant”.
The early 1980s saw Joe perform in several other television series and sitcoms, but most notable was his starring portrayal of notorious American gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in the miniseries “The Gangster Chronicles” in 1981.
Before 1983, he acted in the movie “Lifepod” and the television series “The Gossip Columnist”, “Vega$”, “Archie Bunker’s Place”, “Matt Houston” and “TJ Hooker”, among others.
What was the turning point in Joe Penny’s career?
It was around this time that Joe also read the script for the upcoming series “Riptide” and was invited to audition for a second time. He was hesitant because he really wanted to be a movie actor and he had auditioned and hoped to get a role in the movie “Purple Hearts” with Cheryl Ladd (better known as one of Charlie’s Angels). “Riptide” producer Stephen Cannell actually called Joe directly saying he really wanted him to play the character, Nick Ryder, and convinced him that a TV series would be more beneficial and ultimately give Joe much more exposure. .
Stephen said he would deposit $50,000 into Joe’s bank account, and if Joe got the part, Joe could pay him back weekly from his salary. Otherwise, he could still keep the money. Well Joe went there and the rest is history!!
“Riptide” ran for 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 running their businesses from Cody’s boat, the “Riptide”, which was docked in King Harbor Marina, LA. They enlisted Thom Bray (Murray “Boz” Bozinsky), a tech-savvy scientist and computer geek to help them with their investigations. The series was very popular and was later released as a DVD package. In Germany, the series ran from 1985 and was called ‘Trio mit vier Fausten’. Ironically, Joe apparently suffered from seasickness while filming the series.
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Joe Penny’s career takes off after ‘Riptide’
Joe had made a name for himself as an accomplished actor, hit hard and was in high demand. From 1986 to 1987, Joe played in the TV movies “Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star” and “Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Woman”, also in the TV series:’ “Matlock”, “The Twilight Zone” and “Roses Are For The Rich”.
In September 1987, “Jake and the Fatman” premiered on CBS, starring Joe as Jake Styles, an easy-going special investigator who has ongoing run-ins with JL “Fatman” McCabe, (William Conrad), a prosecutor tough Los Angeles district ex-Hawaiian police officer. Initially, the series was set in Los Angeles, then from the second season until the middle of the fourth season, in Honolulu, Hawaii. At this point, Joe had a health crisis and lost a lot of weight.
Many rumors circulated about the alleged cause of his condition, but in reality he had a gastrointestinal virus and was struggling to gain weight. For the completion of the fourth season and the rest of the show, it once again returned to Los Angeles, eventually lasting 103 episodes over five seasons. The “Diagnosis: Murder” television series 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 90s to 2010 starred in many productions such as the films “BitterSweet”, “The Prophet’s Game” and “Jack of Hearts”. Among many others, 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 starred as Frank Darnell in “Jane Doe”, alongside Lea Thompson.
It was a series of nine Hallmark Channel mystery television movies, which were replayed multiple times after the original airing. In 2008, he played a recurring role as Martino Vitali in six episodes of “Days and Lives”, followed by three episodes in “Cold Case” between 2009 and 2010, then another TV movie, “Betrayed at 17”. in 2011. The last movie Joe appeared 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 hours – often 15 hours a day non-stop – so when he had free time he slept as much as possible. Between times when he could take time off, he enjoyed camping, traveling, weight training, fishing, hunting, and spending time with his family—he was never really a party animal. Joe considers himself a pretty good cook and likes to make good spaghetti sauce.
He is reported to have studied Nichiren Shōshū, a form of Buddhism. He is a music lover, having grown up with the Beatles and spent his teenage years in the burgeoning era of major rock bands.
Joe was inspired to start a blues/rock band called “Stray Dogs”. Their CD, “This Year’s Blonde” was released in 1994 and gained more popularity in Europe than in the United States. Joe was not entirely satisfied with the CD, or its musical abilities, and chose not to continue as a musician.
Joe has mostly retreated from the public eye and cannot be found on any social media platform. His home is nestled in the San Fernando Valley, California. He is known to have a big heart and has done a lot of charitable things over the years and makes occasional appearances at charity events.
Posted by JOE PENNY forever on Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
Otherwise, he is only seen occasionally, sometimes with his wife, Cindy, at red carpet events. Perry King, Joe’s ‘Riptide’ co-star, recently launched his own movie called ‘The Divide’ and he and Joe were reunited at the Los Angeles premiere in February 2019 after not seeing each other for many years.
Joe Penny said, “The mark of a good actor is to play a difficult part and make it easy”.
As Joe has managed to keep his life a secret for more than four decades, while riding the wave of success, it is difficult to determine what his financial status is, but according to reputable sources, Joe Penny’s net worth is around $500,000 – apparently he’s preferred to play roles that interest him, rather than chasing after “the big bucks”.
