Vince Van Patten

Biography

Born into an entertainment family, the youngest son of actor Dick Van Patten, Vince was first thrust into the spotlight at age nine at the behest of his father's agent. A commercial for Colgate toothpaste was followed by more than 30 other commercials before Dick landed a role in the TV series, Arnie, and moved his family from Long Island to Los Angeles.

There, Vince's career as a child actor blossomed. Through the 1970s he guest-starred in all the classic TV series. At age 16, he starred in Apple's Way, a CBS series in which he played the son of an architect (Ronny Cox) who leaves the big city to raise his family in small-town Appleton, Iowa. Three years later Vince co-starred in The Bionic Boy, a two-hour ABC spin-off of the hugely popular Lee Majors vehicle, The Six Million Dollar Man.

Over the years Vince also co-starred with Bette Davies as her grandson, worked with legendary director Jon Sturgis in Chino, co-starring with Charles Bronson and starred in the cult classic, Rock and Roll High-school to name a few.

But Vince's other passion was tennis: he was a natural competitor who was self-taught and quickly progressed through the junior tournament ranks in Los Angeles. He went on to become pro and was ranked among the top 30 professional players in the world.

In 1979 he was awarded the Association of Tennis Professionals' Rookie of the Year award, beating out Ivan Lendl for the honor. The pinnacle of his career came in 1981 when he beat the first-, fourth- and fifth-seeded players in the world - Vitas Gerulaitis, Jose Louis Clerk and John McEnroe, respectively - to win the $300,000 Seiko World Super Tennis tournament in Tokyo. In fact, in eight years of professional play, Van Patten bested every major player in the game - including Ilie Nastase, Roscoe Tanner, Stan Smith, Bob Lutz, Tom Okkor and John McEnroe. At his peak he was ranked 25th in the world.

After putting down his racquet, Vince returned to the film world, and in 1995 he saw his first original feature film, The Break, distributed theatrically by Trimark Pictures and released on home video by Vidmark. Written and produced by Vince and his brother James under the banner of their production company, Autumn Winds Productions, The Break stars Vince as Nick Irons, a hard-drinking, burned-out tennis pro whose bookie (Martin Sheen), forgives his gambling debts but forces him to coach his son (Ben Jorgenson), an awkward but promising 17- year-old who dreams of conquering the satellite tennis circuit. A three-star review in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel said the film had "more court action than the O.J. Simpson trial," and praised Vince's "fiery, curiously persuasive performance."

Vince and James' most recent feature is The Flunky, which Vince wrote and directed. It stars Gena Lee Nolin, Farrah Fawcett, and James Van Patten, and is a comedy about an insane rock star and his sidekick. It earned Vince the prestigious Best Director award at the Port Hueneme International Film Festival in October 2000.

In 2001, Vince was in an ABC movie of the week entitled Battle of the Sexes, a dramatization of the memorable 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King at the Houston Astrodome. The film stars Holly Hunter and Ron Silver; Vince played Bobby Rigg's sidekick, Lornie. For the past few years Vince has also had a recurring role on The Young and the Restless as Christian Paige, the mysterious and unpredictable friend of Ashley (portrayed by actress Eileen Davidson). He just finished the feature film, entitled, Deal starring Burt Reynolds - a poker movie in which Vince plays himself.

These days, in addition to doing his regular World Poker Tour commentaries, Vince is playing in many of the major poker tournament events. On top of that, Vince has just finished co-writing two new novels to be distributed by Warner Publishing, the first one to be coming out in February 2007. The backdrop is the poker world where murder mysteries go down, along with a slice of humor.