Biography

Joey D. Vieira spent over 65 years in show business. As a child, he co-starred in the first version of Lassie (1954) to come to television, winning, in the years 1954 to 1958, two Emmy Awards for "Best Family Television show". Those four years of the long-running series, with Tommy Rettig as Jeff and Joey as his best friend Porky, are still entertaining audiences today under the name "Jeff's Collie". Joey then started making appearances on other top television series, including Dobie Gillis (1959), My Three Sons (1960) and Hank (1965). He also starred in live TV shows like Playhouse 90 (1956), Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958), a Bob Hope special and "The George Gobel Show". Joey made his first feature film in 1955 when he costarred with Charlton Heston in La Guerre privée du major Benson (1955). Other memorable movies over the decades include La Folle Journée de Ferris Bueller (1986), Double détente (1988) and costarring with Mel Gibson in The Patriot : Le Chemin de la liberté (2000) as Peter Howard.

Joey has a diversified background in many other areas of entertainment. He has produced several recording artists including Rick Springfield and Taylor Dayne and has produced and directed national television and radio commercials for such heavyweights as AT&T, Ford, Subaru, Northern Telecom and Mattel Toys. As a writer, Joey co-created the 3-hour musical variety special for NBC, Motown Returns to the Apollo (1985), which won an Emmy for Best Variety Special of the Year. He has also directed presentation videos for some of the top corporations in the world...Bally's, Spiegel Catalog, Paramount Properties, Holiday Inns of America, and the government of the Isle of Mann, to name a few. Lately, Joey has written six original screenplays of different genres and signed with Innovative Artists Talent and Literary Agency for representation. He recently starred in four independent films including The Dwegons (2011) an animated feature film where Joey does the voices of seven characters. Joey says he looks forward to many more years in the biz and hopes they will be at least half as exciting and rewarding as the past half-century has been.

- IMDb mini biography by: Jules Minton