Bob Giraldi

Bob Giraldi (born January 17, 1939) is an American film and television director, educator, and restaurateur. He is known for directing the film Dinner Rush (2000) and the music video for Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (1983). Giraldi has been inducted into the Art Director's Hall of Fame, one of the few film directors to be honored; and, in 2014, was the first director ever to be inducted to the Advertising Hall of Fame. His work has garnered several London International Awards, Cannes Advertising Awards, NY International Awards, Addy Awards, Chicago Film Festival Awards, and dozens of Clio Awards. He has been named one of the 101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising. Early life Giraldi was born on January 17, 1939, in Paterson, New Jersey, to a working-class Italian-American family. He attended Eastside High School. Giraldi attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1960. He was a student of Herschel Levit. In 1960, he worked as a graphic designer at General Motors in Detroit, then spent the next nine years as an art director and creative supervisor at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam and Della Femina & Partners. In 1965, teaching advertising at The School of Visual Arts in New York he became the chair of the Advertising Department. In 1968, President Silas Rhodes appointed him the Assistant Director of the school. During the Vietnam War, Giraldi stepped down and remained on the school's board of directors, and today is the chair of the Masters in Director's Program. Then in 1981 he directed and produced a film "Burnt Umber", a recruitment film featuring a then-unknown actor Denzel Washington for SVA's recruitment program.