Born in Miami, Florida, to a family of puppeteers, Leonora and Gerald
Chapin (who was confined to a wheelchair after being stricken with
polio), Robert Chapin (Bob) grew up making movies with his brother
Stuart. He attended drama and music classes throughout junior high and
high school, and in 1982 he received a music scholarship to Miami Dade
Community College where he also studied computer science. At that time,
he began training in stage combat and swordplay with The Royal Chessmen
a group that performed living chessgames at local renaissance fairs.Soon afterwards, he joined a jousting troupe called The Knights Arrant
and a small troupe called Ring of Steel, which performed swordfights at
a local theme park called "Pirates". It was here that he met Matthew
Gratzner and Shannon Gans, who would later move to LA and create New
Deal Studios.
Moving to Orlando, Florida in 1985, Bob worked his way through college
at the University of Central Florida by performing swordfights at a
local dinner theater called "Shakespeare's Tavern". In 1986, Bob's
father passed, but Bob continued his studies until he graduated in 1987
with a degree in computer science. During this time, he also continued
to take drama classes and choreographed swordfights for a critically
acclaimed production of "Romeo and Juliet".
In 1989, Bob's brother convinced him to move to Los Angeles where he
almost immediately found work as a swordsman on feature films such as
"Hook" and "Army of Darkness". Bob's mother then passed in 1991, two
years before Bob wrote and starred in his first feature film "Ring of
Steel", which was distributed by MCA Universal. Over the years, Bob
went on to star in several other action films while building his credit
list as an actor, stuntman, and fight coordinator.
During this time, Bob also began a career as a visual effects artist,
using his computer science degree to find work as a camera recordist at
Pacific Data Images in LA. Moving from one company to the next: CFC,
Manex, Cinesite, Zoic, and Hammerhead, Bob worked on several
award-winning feature films such as "X-Men", "Crouching Tiger",
"Fantastic Four", "Armageddon" and "American Beauty". Bob also
supervised several indie films before he became the in-house VFX
supervisor at New Deal Studios.
Bob continues to keep up his acting and swordfighting skills. He
trained for several years with the infamous acting coach, Larry Moss,
and was certified in six weapons as an actor-combatant in 1995 with the
Societies of American, British, and Canadian Fight Directors at the
First International Stage Combat Workshop in London, England. He has
also trained in multiple martial arts forms including Tae Kwon Do with
Hee Il Cho, Kali with the infamous Dan Inosanto, bullwhip with Anthony
DeLongis, and Wushu with Eric Chen. As a stage combat instructor, Bob
has taught classes at various workshops and colleges around the
country, most notably UCLA, UCF, Strausberg, Westside Fencing Center,
the Inosanto Academy, and the National Wushu Training Center.
Bob continues to develop his own work, most recently creating the first
web series based on user content called "The Hunted", which can be
found online at www.thehunted.tv. The show originally began as a class
project for his stage combat students, but has now spread to include
episode submissions from all over the world. In addition to producing
and acting in the series, the show allows him the opportunity to
explore his other interests in film production - from directing and
editing, to music, marketing and web design.
