Jan-Michael Vincent: Edge of Greatness

by David Grove

With his chiseled features, effortless screen presence, otherworldly vitality, striking blue eyes, Jan-Michael Vincent seemed destined for superstardom. However, the real Jan-Michael Vincent was a reluctant sex symbol plagued by doubt and low self-confidence, a perpetual misfit doomed to alcoholism. Jan-Michael Vincent: Edge of Greatness covers Vincent’s entire life, beginning in his hometown of Hanford, California, and details the difference between Jan Vincent, a shy, small town boy, and Jan-Michael Vincent, Hollywood’s golden boy, who was thought to be the next James Dean in the early to mid-1970s, a period in which Vincent delivered memorable performances in films such as Buster and Billie, The Mechanic, Tribes, and The World’s Greatest Athlete. Featuring interviews with Vincent’s childhood classmates and friends, as well as his former Hollywood colleagues, including Donald P. Bellisario, Alex Cord, and Robert Englund, Jan-Michael Vincent: Edge of Greatness reveals an eternal man-child, whose career and life symbolize the tragedy of unfulfilled potential.

David Grove is an author, film journalist, historian, and produced screenwriter. He is the author of the books Fantastic 4: The Making of the Movie, Jamie Lee Curtis: Scream Queen, Making Friday the 13th, and On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13th. He lives in British Columbia, Canada.

Genres: Biography

222 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2016

About the author

David Grove is an author, film journalist, and produced screenwriter from Vancouver. A film historian, he’s the author of the books Jamie Lee Curtis: Scream Queen, Making Friday the 13th, and On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13th. His book Jan-Michael Vincent: Edge of Greatness, a biography on the career and life of actor Jan-Michael Vincent, will be published in 2017. The Yearbook, his first novel, will be published by Black Opal Books in the fall of 2016.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have fond memories of watching the series Airwolf with my brother. Not knowing much about Jan's personal life and always being a bit curious in regards to his sporadic professional appearances, was hopeful this book would fill in the blanks. It only covers his life until 2016 when the book was written. The writing is far from the best, but the topic is intriguing and very sad. The internet filled in the years until his death in 2019.

[Richard Capogrosso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some years ago, never mind how many, I saw a movie called The Mechanic, starring Charles Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent. I do not recall ever seeing another movie with Jan Michael Vincent in it, though I suspect it is possible. Anyway, due to the continued interest in Charles Bronson, The Mechanic pops up semi-regularly on cable television, so I have watched it, or sometimes parts of it, over the years. It is an entertaining film and holds up better than some of the others by Mr. Bronson. I suppose that at times I have thought to myself while watching it, Whatever happened to the other guy in the film, Jan Michael Vincent? And here comes along this snappy little book which provides the answers. And what actually does happen to Jan Michael Vincent over the course of his life is so utterly and totally awful and beyond what I could have possibly imagined to have happened to this would be movie star, who, as the book's title intimates, was on the cusp of greatness several times, but always fell short, often with devastating results. It's too bad, really, because, at least as far as described in the book, he seemed like a pretty decent guy who got caught up in the Hollywood machine and let his demons get the better of him, over and over and over again. It's a well written book and a breezy read. It also is a concise history of some of the popular films and television programs of the 1970s and 80s.

[A Cesspool · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really ***½

Kinda blown away to learn about some of JMV’s missed opportunities...

Steven Soderbergh had grown up watching Jan and was, by 1997, looking to move from the arthouse space he had dominated throughout the decade into the mainstream, a transition that Soderbergh hoped to make with Out of Sight (1998).

Toward the end of the summer, 1997, Soderbergh called Jan's manager, Nick Miranda, to inquire about the possibility of giving Jan a role-an unspecified role, as it turned out-in the film. "He [Soderbergh] prefaced his phone call by telling me that, under normal circumstances, he would not even require an audition from Jan but in light of everything he had heard, regrettably, he had no choice," says Miranda. "After the meeting (the audition never occurred), Soderbergh called me, obviously most disappointed. He said he was brokenhearted, not that Jan was unfit to play the part-he was unfit-but by how much he had dissipated from the young virile actor he had become a great fan of."

[A Cesspool · Rating 3 out of 5]

meat & potatoes talent memoir; 
And yet the definitive JMV biography.

Author’s narrative his highly repetitive, e.g. frequently offers summations of significant milestones, only to immediately repeat same summation within interviewer's paraphrased [first-person] account(s) parroting same text.
Example: the words ‘…cocaine…’ + ‘…first time…’ are transcribed approx. 3 to 4 times, within the same chapter.