|
Thomas Griffith was born in a house that served as a doctor’s office just off the main square in a little farm town in south eastern Indiana. His grandfather was a noted mover in liberal Indiana politics A few miles up the highway, a few years later, his Mom’s sister, Aunt Marilyn, produced rock star John Mellencamp. Griffith ended up in Terre Haute. Right after graduation from high school, he hit Route 66 in a Triumph sports car hoping to find California and pursue a career in formula car racing, but, never got further than Amarillo, Texas. Griffith took a job working the night shift at a gas station on Route 66 and street racing for extra bucks on the weekend. When winter hit in 1963, Viet Nam was gearing up, it sounded like an adventure, and the day after John Kennedy was assassinated, Griffith signed up. As it turned out, Griffith couldn’t hit a bull’s ass at 5 feet, let alone a bull’s eye at a hundred yards, so instead of Viet Nam, Griffith ended up turning wrenches on fighter jets in Montana. After the service, Griffith attended the University of Denver where he received a degree in economics and finance. During the first year of college, Griffith experienced the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Those events, plus a summer of working at Fitzimmons Army Hospital pushed Griffith more towards political activism. Griffith’s first experience in production came from a then gf’s roommate who drafted him to create a program for the campus tv station, on the premise that he was “more full of crap” than anyone else she knew. The program ran for several years. After graduation Griffith earned a living as a tennis pro. Married a cheerleader who happened to be one of his students and had a family. He retired from tennis at 40, and without many career options, became a filmmaker.
|
