Charlie Picerni

Charlie Picerni was born in Corona Queens, New York. The fourth of five children to Italian parents. After high school, he worked different jobs, one being construction work on high-rise buildings in Manhattan. He married, at a young age, his childhood girlfriend, Marie. He had a son after one year of marriage and decided he didn’t want to work in construction, anymore. So, he headed west to try his luck in the movie business!

His brother, Paul Picerni, was an actor on a hit TV show at that time called “The Untouchables (1959)”. Charlie worked as a stand-in, an extra and started doing stunt double work. Charlie immediately fell in love with this work and moved his family to California. Charlie excelled as a stuntman and then moved up to stunt-coordinating TV shows. He got his big break on “Starsky and Hutch (1975)”, he was the stunt coordinator and Paul Michael Glaser’s stunt double. Aaron Spelling and Duke Vincent saw what direction Charlie was heading in – Directing”!

He started second unit-directing “Starsky and Hutch (1975)” and then moved up to directing episodes of “Starsky”. He continued stunt-coordinating and second unit-directing such shows as “Kojak (1973)” and “Magnum, P.I. (1980)”. He then started directing television for producers Aaron Spelling, Leonard Goldberg and Stephen J. Cannell, for such shows as “T.J. Hooker (1982)”, “Matt Houston (1982)”, “Vega$ (1978)”, “Hardcastle and McCormick (1983)”, “Hunter (1984)”, “Stingray (1985)”, “Finder of Lost Loves (1984)”, “The A-Team (1983)”, “J.J. Starbuck (1987)”, “Spenser: For Hire (1985)”, “Blue Thunder (1984)”, “Gavilan (1982)” and HBO’s “Tales from the Crypt (1989)”.

At that time, Charlie caught Warner Brothers producer Joel Silver’s eye. Joel hired Charlie to stunt-coordinate “Die Hard (1988)”. This led to second unit-directing and stunt-coordinating on the films, “Die Hard 2 (1990)”, “Road House (1989)”, “Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)” & “Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)”, “Hudson Hawk (1991)”, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)”, “The Last Boy Scout (1991)”, “Demolition Man (1993)”, “Ghost (1990)”, “Ricochet (1991)”, “Basic Instinct (1992)”, “A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994)”, “True Romance (1993)”, “2 Days in the Valley (1996)”, “15 Minutes (2001)” and many more. Charlie also, during this time, directed multiple episodes on a TV series, called “Seven Days (1998)”, for Paramount studios.

Charlie also worked as an actor in many TV and film projects throughout his career. Realizing he wanted to further his career as a director, he studied at the “Beverly Hills Playhouse” in the Master class for two years. In 2007, he directed, produced and co-wrote a feature film entitled “Three Days to Vegas (2007)”, starring Peter Falk, Rip Torn and George Segal. In 2010, Charlie directed Ayn Rand’s play, “Night of January 16th”, at the Odyssey Theatre to rave reviews! While continuing to work in all avenues of the motion picture business, he is developing and writing his own project called “Spaghetti Park”, which he will produce and direct.

Charlie is a proud member of “The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences”.