By Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Dutch native Tjardus Greidanus was in Pittsburgh last year to direct "A New York Heartbeat," which starred Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts as a gangster who enacts violent revenge on a gang of young punks who stole from him. Greidanus and his wife, Pittsburgh native Laura Davis, are co-producers on the film. They live in Los Angeles, but Davis still owns the Squirrel Hill home where she grew up, and the crew shot much of the film's interiors there last year. The couple also collaborated with screenwriter Carl Kurlander for the documentary "The Shot Felt 'Round the World: The Untold Pittsburgh Polio Story," about the efforts of Jonas Salk to find a polio vaccine.

Childhood hero and why:

King Kong, whose affinity for climbing tall buildings I shared.

Three people I'd love to have dinner with:

Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Julius Caesar.

One word your mother would use to describe you:

Stubborn

The oldest thing in my refrigerator is:

16mm film

My required snack in a movie theater is:

Raisinets

When I was 10, I wanted to be:

Errol Flynn

The first band I saw in concert (when and where):

Rolling Stones, 1997, 4th row, Fort Worth Motor Speedway

TV marathon you could watch all day and why:

Any film starring James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart. What can I say that hasn't been said about them already?

The person I'm most often mistaken for:

Taxi drivers the world over are insistent that I'm an American soap-opera star whose name they never can quite recall.

Choose one:

A. Dogs

B. Cats

A. Specifically, a stray we named Rudy that my wife found in Pittsburgh and brought back to live with us in L.A.

In high school, I was:

The title character of "The King and I," apparently thanks to my Dutch accent, which was as exotic as it got in central Alberta, where my family emigrated from Holland.

My most recent eBay purchase:

Vintage leather jacket.

My most treasured fashion accessory is:

Vintage leather jacket.

If I wasn't a filmmaker, I'd be:

Primatologist (probably dates back to my early fascination with King Kong)

The last book I read:

"Robert Altman: The Oral Biography"

It's not pizza without:

Ham and pineapple (a taste I acquired in Canada).

My favorite Web site:

eBay

Pick a Bond:

A. Sean Connery

B. Timothy Dalton

C. Pierce Brosnan

D. Daniel Craig

D. A close call! Connery was great, but I prefer Craig's toughness with its slight undercurrent of vulnerability.

My first job:

Working in a plant that made hideous-looking plaster lawn statues. I used my earnings to buy my first film camera, a used Super-8 Nikon.

My worst job:

See above

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