Charlie Picerni was born in Corona Queens, New York. The fourth of five children to Italian Parents. After high school, he worked different jobs, one being construction work on high rise buildings in Manhattan. He married at a young age his childhood girlfriend, Marie. He had a son after one year of marriage and decided he didn't want to work in construction anymore. So he headed west to try his luck in the movie business.

His brother Paul was an actor on a hit TV show at that time called "The Untouchables". Charlie worked as a stand-in, an extra and started doing stunt double work for his brother. Charlie immediately fell in love with this work and moved his family to California. Charlie accelled as a stuntman and then moved up to stunt coordinating TV shows. He got his big break on "Starsky and Hutch", he was the stunt coordinator and Paul Michael Glaser's stunt double. Arron Spelling and Duke Vincent saw what direction Charlie was heading in - Directing.

He started second unit directing Starsky and Hutch and then moved up to Directing episodes of Starsky. He continued stunt coordinating and second unit directing such shows as "Kojak" and "Magnum PI". He then started Directing Television shows such as, "Tj Hooker", Matt Houston", Vegas", Hard Castle and McCormick", "Hunter", Stingray", "Finders of Lost Loves", "A-Team", "JJ Starbuck", "Spencer for Hire", "Blue Thunder", "Gavilan", "Tales From the Crypt" and "Seven Days".

At that time Charlie caught producer Joel Silver's eye. Joel hired Charlie to stunt coordinated "Die Hard". This lead to second unit directing and stunt coordinating on the films, "Die Hard 2", "Road House", "Lethal Weapon 2 & 3", "Hudson Hawk", "Christmas Vacation", "The Last Boyscout", "Demolition Man", "Ghost", "Ricochet", "Basic Instinct", "Low Down Dirty Shame", "True Romance", "2 Days in the Valley", "15 Minutes" and many more.

Charlie also worked as an actor in many TV and film projects. realizing he wanted to further his career as a Director, he studied at the "Beverly Hills Playhouse" in the master class for two years. He went on to form his own production company. He Directed, Produced and co-wrote a feature film entiled "Three Days to Vegas", starring "Peter Falk", "Rip Torn" and "George Segal". He recently completed writing his own project called "Spaghetti Park" which he will Produce and Direct.

Charlie will be directing a play titled "Night of January 16th" by Ayn Rand at the Odyssey Theatre in the fall.

Charlies two sons, Chuck and Steven went on to be two of the top stuntmen and stunt coordinators. Charlie lives in Calabasas with his wife Nancy, his five dogs and two cats.

http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0681604/