Bob Giraldi

Bob Giraldi (born January 17, 1939) is a film and television director who is probably best known for directing the video for Michael Jackson's song "Beat It."

Giraldi was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to a working-class Italian-American family. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York on a basketball and baseball scholarship, graduating in 1960 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

He spent the next nine years as an art director and creative supervisor at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam, and, in 1965, he began teaching advertising at The School of Visual Arts in New York. He was soon appointed as the Head of the Department of Advertising and Design, and in 1968, was promoted to Assistant Director of the school.

In 1970, Giraldi became creative director of the advertising agency DellaFemina & Partners, and three years later formed his production company Giraldi-Suarez Productions with Phil Suarez, which has to-date produced and directed close to 3000 commercials, music videos and short films.

His advertising campaigns include the Pepsi-Cola campaign with Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, memorable for an incident in which Jackson’s hair caught on fire in an accident involving pyrotechnics on the set, and commercials for the Miller Brewing Company commercials that featured such celebrities as Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Uecker, Billy Martin, John Madden, Bubba Smith, Tommy Heinsohn, Mickey Spillane, Dick Butkus and Joe Piscopo. He was also responsible for commercials for the Broadway shows “A Chorus Line,” “Evita,” “Dream Girls,” “Sophisticated Ladies,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and “The Full Monty.”

In 1983, Giraldi wrote and directed the music video “Beat It” starring Michael Jackson. Arguably Giraldi's best-known work, the video won an American Music Award, the Billboard Video Award, a 1984 People’s Choice Award, and is included in Rolling Stone’s top ten examples of video art at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Other famous videos followed. “Say, Say, Say,” with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney won the 1984 Le Festival du Clip St. Tropez. “Love is a Battlefield,” with Pat Benatar won a 1984 MTV Award, and “Hello,” with Lionel Richie, won a 1985 American Music Award. Other notable music videos from the 1980s include: “Running with the Night” – Lionel Richie, “Pieces of Ice” – Diana Ross.

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