Born in Texas, reared in Missouri and New York, educated at Syracuse University, Robert C. Fleet is a writer, actor and filmmaker currently residing in Southern California with his wife Alina and their dog, Charlie Chaplin.
* * * * *
Robert Fleet took a youth in Texas, Missouri & New York, a university education in Syracuse, Amsterdam & London, and spent the first years of his career as an actor with the Chinese "Zignal Theater Ensemble" at La Mama E.T.C. in New York City.
His writing career began simultaneously, earning his first job as editor/ghost writer of a mathematics textbook: "God's punishment for not taking math in college." He has continued that type of writing/editing intermittently, producing a slew of educational and industrial media - and co-editing/contributing to the 2012 humorous non-fiction satire NOTES FROM THE CUBE: A Year in the Office (Red Frog Publishing).
A summer in Poland at Jerzy Grotowski's Teatr Laboratorium lengthened into an extended stay -- and writing a Polish-serialized crime novel, the Chandleresque SALT CITY (Red Frog Publishing), in order to obtain a visa to remain in the then-Communist country to marry the woman he saw on his first day there: his artistic collaborator-wife ever since, Alina. In America, Robert's further NYC theater activities included directing children's theater, Yiddish historical dramas, Irish repertory, full-fledged spectacles, and his own works.
Teamed with Alina, Robert turned to film and video, directing-acting in the 1980 drama "Unveiling," about life in Manhattan's SoHo society. Script doctoring a wilderness documentary in California led to production of his own feature script, 1984's "Brothers of the Wilderness." In 1984-86, Robert adapted his fantasy novel, WHITE HORSE, DARK DRAGON (Putnam/Berkley/Ace) into the screenplay for the feature film "White Dragon" (aka "Legend of the White Horse" aka "Bialy Smok"), which he also co-produced with Alina.
Forays into journalism have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Commonweal, and other venues. Robert has translated/adapted plays from the Chinese, Polish, Russian and French originals -- often in collaboration with Alina. His 1994 magic realism/fantasy novel, LAST MOUNTAIN (Putnam/Berkley/Ace) was nominated for an American Library Association award.
In 1999-2001, Robert directed the feature version of "Last Mountain," co-adapting the screenplay with his son, Stephan Szpak-Fleet. Trailer @ www.legend44.com/lastmountain
After the L.A. Riots, Robert collaborated with Soon-Tek Oh and the Korean-American "Society of Heritage Performers," adapting "Contemporary Korean Short Stories" for NPR, writing "Behind The Walls" ("that pointed nowhere familiar from Orwell, Koestler, Pinter, Dorfman...a Godot-like romp" BackStage), and "Don Juan, a tragic-comedy of errors" ("reminiscent of Cyrano" L.A. Weekly). He co-directed, with Alina, "Have You Heard," one of only three American productions invited to the Theater of Nations Festival '97.
Screenwriting recently, Robert wrote the shorts "A Good War," Texas Waltz," "The First Person" and "Zaufanie (Trust") - the last two appearing at the Cannes Film Festival. His feature-length docudrama "To Die For Words: the Last Days of Ken Saro-Wiwa" is optioned, with acclaimed director Charles Burnett ("To Sleep with Anger") committed to direct. In recent years, two of Robert's feature screenplays were produced independently: "My Best Friend's Deception," a black comedy/mystery (Cinegraphe Pictures, Canada) -- and "Player," a drama, directed by Alina Szpak (Legend 44 Productions, his own company - trailer at www.playerthemovie.us).
Acting, recently: In addition to playing the lead in "Player," Robert Fleet appeared in Clint Eastwood's 2011 "J. Edgar" opposite Dame Judi Dench and Leonardo DiCaprio. He is a familiar face on the festival circuit, appearing in over three dozen shorts. He is the face of rotoscoping on Adobe's VFX spectacular "Paladin" ("Robert Fleet in Paladin" on YouTube). On stage, Robert appeared in award-winning Los Angeles productions of "Cabaret," "LULU, a Play with Music," in Stephan Szpak-Fleet's "Pilate" at the L.A. Theatre Center, and recently worked with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and actress Lee Meriwhether in a reading of the original comedy "The Lullaby League". In 2014 he became a regular for Season 3 of the hit comedy/action web series "Video Game High School."
Back in the writing world, working in a new genre, 2013 saw published HEART OF STONE, a John Le Carre-type literary thriller based on true stories during his time living in Germany and Poland in the 1970s -- and 2014 debuted with HAPPY NEW YEAR, a Le Carre-meets-Joseph Wambaugh thriller set in L.A., China and Europe. (Both issued by Red Frog Publishing)
A ridiculously under-trained carpenter, Robert is constantly renovating his house under the despotic instructions of his producer/director wife, with no assistance from his son. They have been owned by several pets.
Read more
Read less
