Joe Garcio

Biography

Like many actors of his day, Joe Garcio didn't start out in California but was actually the son of a shoemaker in Delaware. After drifting around for a while Garcio made his way to Hollywood where he was able to establish himself as a prolific cowboy extra that was well liked by his peers. Garcio's ability to handle and shoe horses lead him to appearing in westerns starting in the 1930s. He regularly worked in films doing posse scenes and appearing in Mexican settings. Like many cowboy extras, he couldn't make a living just doing only western movies. So Garcio found another revenue stream by appearing in many big budget films where they would need ethnic appearing extras when a movie's setting was an exotic location. By the 1940s, Garcio's bulky weight and short height lead him to found himself regularly working in westerns as bartenders and henchmen. He also started appearing as police officers. It wasn't uncommon for Garcio to be an actor's stand-in in films. When he was a stand-in, he found himself working for longer periods on films and as such, the quantity of the work wasn't there. Like most stand-ins, Garcio was typically allowed to collect a paycheck as an extra and he was usually in a part that was an upgrade from your typical extra role. With the coming of television westerns, Garcio found himself very busy at Revue Studios productions. He was usually a townsman in a lot of their westerns and he would appear as workman and ethnic extras in their drama based productions. Thanks to the many studio connections and friendships he developed over the years, he also found that he was able to gain employment in shows that were produced by other studios. He regularly appeared as a townsman on Bonanza and frequently played bartenders in rough looking bars. By the late 1960s, westerns western coming to an end and the amount of westerns that studios were making were decreasing. It was during this period in which Garcio decided to retired but not before leaving a long lasting legacy of being a dependable extra, a good cowboy, and most of all a wonderful friend to many of his fellow cowboy extras.