John A. McGinty, a former Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Firefighter with a lucrative annual payout for disability is actively working as a stunt man. In 2016 he retired from FDNY citing leg, hip and spinal injuries after 25 years with the department.
The New York City firefighter has been moonlighting as a stuntman — while also raking in a $136,684-a-year disability pension, according to court documents. His acting career goes back to 2004.
John A. McGinty Acting Career
McGinty, 58, works as a professional movie stuntman, according to his own LinkedIn page.
John A. McGinty — who also goes by the stage name John Mack — says he is adept at fighting, driving stunts, falls below 30 feet and small fires, according to his own profile on management site CMG Talent.
John A. McGinty Double Life
Firefighters who know McGinty blew the whistle on the stuntman and foremer firefighter. They did so after knowing about the retired disability pensioner’s double life after seeing a New York Post story that nearly all the firefighters who retired last year had annual pensions that topped $100,000, mostly on three-quarter disability. Meanwhile Mayor DeBlasio is planning on cutting positions from FDNY EMS despite their being on front lines of COVID19 crisis.
“McGinty is disabled and we watched him build a new porch on his house,” said one neighbor who lives nearby in Neponsit/Rockaway Park area.
“How can you be a stuntman and have a disability with the Fire Department? I don’t get it,” said another neighbor, who requested anonymity.
Another neighbor referred to John A. McGinty as “Johnny Stunts.”
The FDNY’s practice of awarding of three-quarter disability pensions has been a simmering issue over the years. The Post reported a decade ago about a firefighter who obtained a disability pension for a respiratory illness — then went on to compete in triathlons.
McGinty’s double life — retired disabled firefighter and vigorous stuntman — might have remained a secret except that he sued his next-door neighbor in the Rockaways for defamation and claimed the name-calling in front of an actress friend, Julie Reifers, hurt his stuntman/movie acting career.
“The plaintiff is employed as a stuntman and actor with the Screen Actors Guild,” said McGinty in his own suit against neighbor Brian Sullivan, also a retired firefighter.
McGinty alleged in court docs that Sullivan called him a “pedophile,” “chicken hawk” and a “sexual predator” who harassed his wife.
The two also sued each other over a dispute involving a fence Sullivan erected separating their properties.
McGinty’s attorney, Stephen Dachtera, confirmed he has a FDNY medical disability pension and defended his client’s stunt work as appropriate.
“There’s nothing to hide here,” he said. “Just because you’re a stuntman doesn’t mean you’re exerting a great amount of activity. It can be total benign work. He’s doing stunts that are not physically exerting. There’s no fraud here.”
Dachtera claimed information about McGinty’s disability is surfacing now to pressure him to drop his defamation suit against his neighbor, Sullivan.
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