Vincent Van Patten
Encyclopedia
Vincent Van Patten is an American
actor and former tour professional tennis player.
, New York
. He is the youngest son of actor Dick Van Patten
and his wife, Pat, née Poole, a former June Taylor
dancer. He is of Dutch and Italian descent. Van Patten was first urged into show business at age nine by his father’s agent. A commercial for Colgate toothpaste
was followed by more than thirty other commercials before his father was cast in the TV series, Arnie
, and moved his family from Long Island
to Los Angeles
.
From his first marriage to Betsy Russell
he has two sons: Richard and Vince. His second marriage, on April 15, 2003, was to The Young and the Restless
actress Eileen Davidson
. They have 1 child: Jesse (born in 2003). They met when he appeared briefly on The Young and the Restless as a man she met on a cruise. Her character Ashley pretended he was the father of her baby when, in fact, it was Victor Newman
.
Vince is related to several other well-known actors, actresses, and singers through blood and by marriage. Vince is brother of James Van Patten and Nels Van Patten, nephew of actress Joyce Van Patten
, nephew of Timothy Van Patten, and cousin of actress Talia Balsam
. Talia Balsam's first marriage was to actor George Clooney
. Talia Balsam's second husband is actor John Slattery
(where Talia and John appear together as husband and wife on Mad Men
).
, The High Chaparral
, Medical Center
, Adam-12
, The Courtship of Eddie's Father
, Wonder Woman
and a variety of television movies. At the age of sixteen, he was cast in Apple's Way
, a CBS
drama series in which he played the son of an architect who leaves the big city to rear his family in rural Appleton, Iowa
.
In the fall of 1975, Van Patten, at eighteen, appeared in the role of John Karras in a 12-week CBS drama series Three for the Road
, with Alex Rocco
as his father, Pete Karras, and Leif Garrett
as his younger brother, Endy Karras. The story line is that of a father and two sons, grief stricken over the death of their wife and mother sell their house, buy a recreational vehicle, and roam throughout the United States
.
Three years later, Van Patten co-starred in The Bionic Boy, a two-hour ABC
spinoff of the popular Lee Majors
vehicle, The Six Million Dollar Man
. In 1978, he starred in the cult film
classic, Rock 'n' Roll High School
. He starred in several other films in the 1970s and 1980s, including Yesterday
as a Vietnam war veteran with Cloris Leachman
and Eddie Albert
. More recently, he starred wrote and produced in The Break distributed by Lions Gate with Martin Sheen
, and directed the feature film "The Flunky" with Farrah Fawcett
. He is currently the host and commentator of the World Poker Tour going in to season ten for Fox Sports and is also the host of "Celebrity Tennis" for the Tennis Channel.
Rookie of the Year award. The highlight of his career came in 1981 when he defeated John McEnroe
and two other top ten world ranked pros to win the Seiko World Super Tennis tournament in Tokyo, Japan. His career high ranking in singles was World No.26, which he reached on February 11, 1982. In singles, Van Patten reached the third round of the U.S. Open
twice, in 1982 and 1983, and Wimbledon once, in 1985. In doubles his best Grand Slam event result was reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open in 1981, partnering Mel Purcell
. His high doubles ranking was World No. 24, reached in September, 1986.
He also appears in commercials for Milwaukee
's Potawatomi Bingo Casino
and the WPT World Poker Room at Foxwoods Casino
in Ledyard, Connecticut
. He has also written a fictional novel about Vegas poker with Robert J Randisi
, titled The Picasso Flop (ISBN 0892960701).
Recently,Van Patten finished high in the money at the 2010 world series of poker main event.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor and former tour professional tennis player.
Personal life
Van Patten was born in BelleroseBellerose, New York
Bellerose is a village in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. The population was 1,193 at the 2010 census.Bellerose is in the town of Hempstead near the western county line.- History :...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He is the youngest son of actor Dick Van Patten
Dick Van Patten
Richard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...
and his wife, Pat, née Poole, a former June Taylor
June Taylor
June Taylor was an American choreographer, best known as the founder of the June Taylor Dancers, who were featured on Jackie Gleason's various television variety programs.-Early life and career:...
dancer. He is of Dutch and Italian descent. Van Patten was first urged into show business at age nine by his father’s agent. A commercial for Colgate toothpaste
Colgate (toothpaste)
Colgate is an oral hygiene product line of toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes and dental floss.-Duraphat:Duraphat is a professional strength paste intended for the treatment and prevention of dental caries....
was followed by more than thirty other commercials before his father was cast in the TV series, Arnie
Arnie (TV series)
Arnie was a television sitcom that ran for two seasons on the CBS network. It starred Herschel Bernardi, Sue Ane Langdon, and Roger Bowen....
, and moved his family from Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
From his first marriage to Betsy Russell
Betsy Russell
Betsy Russell is an American actress who is best known for her role in Private School, and as Jill Tuck, the ex-wife of the Jigsaw Killer in the Saw film series.-Early life:...
he has two sons: Richard and Vince. His second marriage, on April 15, 2003, was to The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
actress Eileen Davidson
Eileen Davidson
Eileen Davidson is an American film and soap opera actress. She is known for her role as Ashley Abbott on The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful and for the multiple roles she portrayed on Days of our Lives....
. They have 1 child: Jesse (born in 2003). They met when he appeared briefly on The Young and the Restless as a man she met on a cruise. Her character Ashley pretended he was the father of her baby when, in fact, it was Victor Newman
Victor Newman
Victor Newman is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless played by actor Eric Braeden from February 1980 through November 2, 2009 and again from January 15, 2010 to present. The character briefly appeared on The Bold and the Beautiful in 1999...
.
Vince is related to several other well-known actors, actresses, and singers through blood and by marriage. Vince is brother of James Van Patten and Nels Van Patten, nephew of actress Joyce Van Patten
Joyce Van Patten
Joyce Benignia Van Patten is an American stage, film and television actress.-Personal life:Van Patten was born in New York City, the daughter of Josephine Rose , an Italian American magazine advertising executive, and Richard Byron Van Patten, a Dutch American interior decorator.She is the younger...
, nephew of Timothy Van Patten, and cousin of actress Talia Balsam
Talia Balsam
Talia Balsam is an American actress.-Early life:Balsam was born in New York City to actors Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten.-Career:...
. Talia Balsam's first marriage was to actor George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
. Talia Balsam's second husband is actor John Slattery
John Slattery
John M. Slattery, Jr. is an American actor and director, best known for his role as Roger Sterling on AMC's series Mad Men. He has been nominated for many awards, and has won two SAG Awards with the Mad Men ensemble....
(where Talia and John appear together as husband and wife on Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
).
Acting
Throughout the 1970s, child actor Vincent Van Patten guest-starred in over three dozen classic television series including BonanzaBonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral is a Western-themed television series starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network...
, Medical Center
Medical Center (TV series)
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.-Synopsis:The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors...
, Adam-12
Adam-12
Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...
, The Courtship of Eddie's Father
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
The Courtship of Eddie's Father is an American television sitcom based on the 1963 movie of the same name, which was based on the book written by Mark Toby...
, Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
and a variety of television movies. At the age of sixteen, he was cast in Apple's Way
Apple's Way
Apple's Way is a television dramedy which aired on CBS from 1974-1975. It was created by Earl Hamner, Jr..-Premise:The Apples, a family from Los Angeles, seek refuge from the hectic pace of city living and relocate to the father's hometown of Appleton, Iowa, which was founded by the father's...
, a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
drama series in which he played the son of an architect who leaves the big city to rear his family in rural Appleton, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
.
In the fall of 1975, Van Patten, at eighteen, appeared in the role of John Karras in a 12-week CBS drama series Three for the Road
Three for the Road (TV series)
Three for the Road was a 12-episode CBS drama television series about a recently widowed father and his two sons who in an attempt to assuage their grief, sell their house, procure a recreational vehicle, called the "Zebec", and travel around the United States...
, with Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco is an American actor. His roles have ranged from comedy to playing gangsters in Mafia movies.-Early life:...
as his father, Pete Karras, and Leif Garrett
Leif Garrett
Leif Garrett is an American singer and actor. He became famous in the late 1970s as a teen idol, but received much publicity in later life for his drug abuse and legal troubles.-Early life:...
as his younger brother, Endy Karras. The story line is that of a father and two sons, grief stricken over the death of their wife and mother sell their house, buy a recreational vehicle, and roam throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Three years later, Van Patten co-starred in The Bionic Boy, a two-hour ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
spinoff of the popular Lee Majors
Lee Majors
Lee Majors is an American television, film and voice actor, best known for his starring role as Colonel Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man and as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy ....
vehicle, The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a former astronaut with bionic implants working for the OSI...
. In 1978, he starred in the cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
classic, Rock 'n' Roll High School
Rock 'n' Roll High School
Rock 'n' Roll High School is a 1979 musical comedy film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Allan Arkush, and featuring the Ramones.The film starred P. J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard...
. He starred in several other films in the 1970s and 1980s, including Yesterday
Yesterday (1981 film)
Yesterday is a 1981 film directed by Lawrence Kent, starring Vincent Van Patten and Claire Pimparé. It is a love story of a young soldier maimed in Vietnam, who allows his former girlfriend to believe he's dead to spare her anguish.-Cast:...
as a Vietnam war veteran with Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
and Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
. More recently, he starred wrote and produced in The Break distributed by Lions Gate with Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
, and directed the feature film "The Flunky" with Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
. He is currently the host and commentator of the World Poker Tour going in to season ten for Fox Sports and is also the host of "Celebrity Tennis" for the Tennis Channel.
Tennis
Van Patten was also a professional tour tennis player who in 1979 was awarded the ATPAssociation of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...
Rookie of the Year award. The highlight of his career came in 1981 when he defeated John McEnroe
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
and two other top ten world ranked pros to win the Seiko World Super Tennis tournament in Tokyo, Japan. His career high ranking in singles was World No.26, which he reached on February 11, 1982. In singles, Van Patten reached the third round of the U.S. Open
U.S. Open
The term U.S. Open or US Open is applied to "open" United States-hosted championships in a particular sport , in which anyone, amateur or professional, American or non-American, may compete....
twice, in 1982 and 1983, and Wimbledon once, in 1985. In doubles his best Grand Slam event result was reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open in 1981, partnering Mel Purcell
Mel Purcell
Mel Purcell is a former World No. 17 tennis player in the ATP tennis rankings. He is the head coach of the Murray State University men's tennis team...
. His high doubles ranking was World No. 24, reached in September, 1986.
Poker
Van Patten learned to play poker from his father actor Dick Van Patten at age 14. He's played in some of the biggest cash games in the world and was crowned " king of the Hollywood home games"as the host of the " World Poker Tour" which he has commentated on for nine seasons. The first four seasons were on travel channel, seasons five and six were on GSN and seventh season-Current Season on Fox Sports.He also appears in commercials for Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
's Potawatomi Bingo Casino
Potawatomi Bingo Casino
Potawatomi Bingo Casino is a Native-American casino located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, run by the Potawatomi tribe. It first opened its doors in 1991...
and the WPT World Poker Room at Foxwoods Casino
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel-casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States. Together with the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, it is one of the largest casino complexes in the world in terms of floor space for gaming. The entire resort comprises of space. The casino has over 380 gaming tables...
in Ledyard, Connecticut
Ledyard, Connecticut
As of the census of 2000, there were 14,687 people, 5,286 households, and 4,101 families residing in the town. The population density was 385.1 people per square mile . There were 5,486 housing units at an average density of 143.8 per square mile...
. He has also written a fictional novel about Vegas poker with Robert J Randisi
Robert J Randisi
Robert J. Randisi is an American author who writes in the detective and Western genres.He has authored more than 500 published books and has edited more than 30 anthologies of short stories. Booklist magazine said he "may be the last of the pulp writers."...
, titled The Picasso Flop (ISBN 0892960701).
Recently,Van Patten finished high in the money at the 2010 world series of poker main event.