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Geoffrey Giuliano (born September 11, 1953 ) is an American author, radio personality and film actor, best known for his biographies of The Beatles members John Lennon , Paul McCartney , and George Harrison , and of musician Pete Townshend . BIOGRAPHY Giuliano was born in Rochester, New York and raised in the villages of Albion and Olcott Beach, New York . He was the youngest of five children. He and his mother, Myrna Oneita Juliana, moved to Tampa, Florida when he was twelve. There he first became interested in acting, Vedic philosophy and fine art seriography. Giuliano has stated that "Giuliano" was his birth name. One newspaper, however, has reported that he was born "Jeffrey Juliana", that he adopted "Geoffrey Giuliano" as a pen name, and that in 1997 he changed his legal name to "Jagannatha Dasa". For a brief period the honorific title of "Puripada" was awarded him by several of his Indian yoga students, but Giuliano/Dasa ultimately rejected the title as inappropriate. [http://www.vnn.org/usa/US9908/US30-4615.html Lockport's prolific rock biographer reincarnates as leader of Hindu temple Buffalo News, April 25, 1999 Lennon, imagined Buffalo News, May 28, 2000 Giuliano attended Hillsborough Community College in Tampa and, in the mid-1970s, SUNY Brockport (class of 1976). Alumni Spotlight - SUNY Brockport Division of Institutional Advancement, 2006 On August 6, 1977, Jeffrey Joseph Juliana married Brenda Lee Black (later author/animal rights activist Vrnda Devi) in Hillsborough County, Florida,Florida Department of Health marriage records, Ancestry.com and together they had four children, Sesa Nichole, Devin Leigh, Avalon Oneita and India Skye. He also has a young son from another relationship, Tulsi Mala Kuptsov born in Bangkok in mid July 2003. Giuliano has resided primarily in Southeast Asia since 2000 with his two grandchildren, Kashi and Varsana Jones. In April of 2007 he married Kesorn Faunmaong, a Bangkok executive at Citicorp of Issan descent. LITERARY WORK Giuliano has written some thirty five often controversial biographies on 1960's musicians and several audio works (100 to date) on subjects as diverse as Frank Sinatra as well as archival interviews with survivors of the Titanic entitled, "That Fateful Night: True Stories of Titanic Survivors In Their Own Words." Giuliano has also authored two London Sunday Times bestselling biographies, "Dark Horse: The Secret Life of George Harrison" and "Blackbird: The Life And Times Of Paul McCartney." Along the way, he has collaborated with John Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird and British BBC TV personality Gloria Hunniford. Steve Holly wrote the backword to his Blackbird book, and Timothy Leary penned the backword to Giuliano's the Lost Beatles Interviews. In late 1998, Random House Audio asked Giuliano to form a company for them called Tribute Audio (see information regarding Giuliano's many audio releases on Amazon.com), which produced a line of celebrity, interview laced, original spoken word CDs, all written, produced and narrated by the author. He worked in that capacity for some five years. Giuliano has been a likely target for many fans of his biographical subjects due to his unrelenting warts and all writing style. On August 11, 1996 the Calgary Sun made the point in a review of his work on the life of the Who's Pete Townshend . "Unlike so many fawning rock biographers who lavish false praise on a bunch of worthless morons, Giuliano has the ability to get to the heart of the man and by doing so gives readers a glimpse of a period in history. Fans will never get closer to the man than in "Behind Blue Eyes" Unfortunately, Giuliano does such a magnificent job that many fans may wish they had never searched so hard." Giuliano told ''Eye Weekly'' that he briefly worked for Townshend, but was fired after stealing a tape from him. News article: "Infamous Beatles hack remains unrepentant" ''Eye Weekly'', May 11, 2000. A research assistant of Giuliano's subsequently wrote to the newspaper to defend him. "Letter to the Editor, ''The Mother Teresa of Rock Journalism''" - ''Eye Weekly'', June 29, 2000 A biography Giuliano authored about John Lennon (released in 2000) was similarly controversial. Giuliano claimed the book was based in part on transcripts of Lennon's journal given to him by the singer Harry Nilsson, who died on January 16, 1994. Harry Nilsson Obituary alt.obituaries usenet group,posted January 15, 2006 The claim was made after Nilsson's death, and several people close to Nilsson do not believe he ever had the transcripts in his possession. ''Washington Post'' reporter David Segal quoted Giuliano's response when he was asked to corroborate his claim that Nilsson gave him the diaries. "My wife knows, my son knows," Giuliano snapped yesterday, his voice rising in anger. "Look, I'm already a rich man. I own a $700,000 home that's paid for. It's obvious that I'm going to do things in an ethical manner." Segal also reported the view of Steven Gutstein, a former New York assistant district attorney who was asked to read the diaries during an early 1980's larceny lawsuit against former Lennon personal assistant Fred Seaman. After reading some of the more sensational claims in Giuliano's book, Gutstein commented, "This is a Mad magazine version of the diaries." Gutstein described his own memory of the diaries as "a lot of philosophical musings combined with mundane details of everyday life." Lennon's Disputed Days in the Life: Yoko Ono Spokesman Rejects as 'Fiction' Bio Allegedly Based on Ex-Beatle's Lost Diaries The Washington Post, Style Section, April 18, 2000 Asked how she would respond to the book, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono commented, "Ugh, Geoffrey Giuliano, oh, I don't want to comment on him. If you follow all his other writings, you know all about him." 21 Minutes With Yoko Ono Lou Carlozo, Chicago Tribune, Tempo Section, November 17, 2000 Both the public and reviewers were torn over the controversial tome. On July 15, 2000 Colin Carlson of the ''Library Journal'' commented, "Non-fans will be put off by this image of Lennon as cad, drug addict, and paranoiac; this often sensationalized account is for voyeurs and fans with deconstructive tendencies and is one of the best, most detailed books available on this subject." Book Review, Lennon in America, Library Journal, May 1, 2000 A ''Washington Post'' review of Giuliano's Lennon book said, "In exhaustive detail, using information purportedly gleaned from an unpublished Lennon diary (a text never directly quoted from), Giuliano reveals the not-so-shocking news that Lennon was not an altogether happy man. In other words, we get more of the character assassination that was begun in such high style by Albert Goldman's notorious The Lives of John Lennon." Love Them Do The Washington Post, Book World Section, October 8, 2000 A "Publisher's Weekly" reviewer commented, "If Giuliano's own double-talk isn't enough to diminish this work's credibility, his endless, voyeuristic descriptions of Lennon's sexual encounters are." Book Review, Lennon in America, Publisher's Weekly, May 1, 2000 A September 15, 2006 review of Giuliano's book ''Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles'' in ''Kirkus Reviews'' Review of ''Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles'' - ''Kirkus Reviews'', September 15, 2006 said: "The few scraps of new information presented emanate from Giuliano's connection to George Harrison, but he fails to adequately explain his relationship with the former Beatle." George Harrison, interviewed in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992, was asked if he had ever met Giuliano. He replied, "Yeah, I met him briefly. I have no way of recalling what year it was. I met him at the home of "Legs" Larry Smith for possibly thirty minutes. I visited with Mr. Smith and he was in his flat." In the same interview, he stated, "There is a certain trick to the way Giuliano goes about his work. He acts as if he is kind of authorized, and these people, not just him, but all these type of people, have a skill of wheedling their way into places that are going to be some benefit to them in getting their books written."[http://books.google.com/books?id=EMGM5GkGIZkC&pg=RA2-PA179&lpg=RA2-PA179&dq=geoffrey+giuliano+los+angeles+george+harrison&source=web&ots=Y2H0N09bEZ&sig=qhez3a5SWkIc6b2gIrPOqZRP9sc#PRA2-PA180,M1 ''Glass Onion: The Beatles in Their Own Words'' by Geoffrey Giuliano and Vrnda Devi, Da Capo Press, published 1999, pp. 179-180. Harrison's wife Olivia wrote a letter to the newspaper ''The Guardian'' in 1992 attacking Giuliano. She wrote, "like a starving dog he scavenges his heroes, picking up bits of gristle and sinew along the way."[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,245262,00.html News article: "'Mrs. George' shares husbands interests" ''The Guardian'', December 31, 1999. She specifically objected to a George Harrison quote that Giuliano used on the cover of one of his books, stating: "My husband once made the remark: "That guy knows more about my life than I do." Giuliano missed the joke and used it to endorse his book."[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.beatles/browse_frm/thread/f9a5e423d715f40f/d6015b9b0cb5c441? rec.music.beatles usenet post of Olivia Harrison October 8, 1992 letter to ''The Guardian'', posted July 24, 2001 David Pitt reviewing for Booklist, published by the American Library Association looked far more kindly on the work however. "Drawing on a variety of exclusive interviews with many of the principals, this latest Beatles bio focuses on an aspect of the group with which some fans may not be sufficiently familiar. Although the group's public image was one of playfulness and big smiles, the Fab Four were often mired in internal politics and conflict. The book details the enormous pressures the Beatles operated under and shows that, in addition to musicians, they very quickly had to become businessmen and diplomats. The Giulianos also offer up an assortment of trivia tidbits that may come as a surprise to some readers. For instance: Paul sang lead vocals on "Love Me Do," although it was supposed to be John; a key line in "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was a blooper; John, not Ringo, played drums on "Back in the USSR." The book's usefulness to Beatle fans will depend entirely on how much they have already read about the group, but one thing is certain: for the average reader, it's an eye-opener." HINDU BELIEFS |
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