Biography
Ronald Eaton Giles was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on November 13, 1947. The Son of blue collar parents Henry and Dolores (Arguello) Giles, he was the third of five children with an ethnic heritage of English-Irish, Native American, Mexican and Eastern European. Ronnie was raised in Lodi, NJ, from where he graduated High School in 1965.
He joined the US Army in October of 1965 and served in Vietnam (April 1966 to April 1967) as an Infantryman, Armored Personnel Carrier Driver, Ammo/Radio Man & Tunnel Rat with "A" Troop, 3/4 Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division, Cu Chi RVN. Upon discharge from the Army in 1968, Ronnie decided to pursue his life-long dream of becoming an actor.
He studied with William Hickey, Alice Spivak and Kathryn Sergava at the famed Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City, from 1968 to 1969. After working at a series of jobs, raising a family and pursuing his Acting career all at the same time over a 20-year period, he temporarily "retired" from Acting in 1988.
During that same year, Ronnie rejoined the military full-time, alternately serving with the New Jersey and Idaho Army National Guard. In 1996, he transferred to the full-time Army Reserve based out of Staten Island, New York. For the next ten years, he worked in a wide variety of assignments, including Human Resources Administration, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Transportation, Waste, Fraud and Abuse and Equal Opportunity.
Post 9-11, he simultaneously worked in assignments with local, state and federal Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Agencies. During his last six years of service, Ronnie was attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, DC, and attained the Rank of Sergeant First Class/E-7. After an Army career that spanned over four decades, he retired from the military, having reached his mandatory retirement age of 60 on November 13, 2007.
He has two grown children and a Grandson, and is now back to pursuing his acting and singing careers full-time. In his spare time, Ronnie works as a volunteer Tour Guide at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdell, NJ, and is in a wonderful relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Caroline. To keep himself "grounded-in-reality," he still hangs-out with many of the same friends he's had since his childhood.
He is a life-member of the 25th Inf. Div. Association, 3/4 Cavalry Association, VFW, Disabled American Veterans, the Vietnam Veterans of America (Little Ferry, NJ, Chapter 800), SAG-AFTRA and Actors Equity Association. His hero is his Father Henry Eaton Giles, whose name appears on the wall of The Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.
