Xander Berkeley Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Producer
Birth name Alexander Harper Berkeley
Nationality American
Birth December 16, 1955 (Brooklyn, New York City, New York – United States)

BIOGRAPHY
Xander Berkeley was born in Brooklyn in 1955 to a painter father and a teacher mother. The future actor spent his childhood in New Jersey and had a passion for theater. He continued his studies at Hampshire College before starting to shine on the boards of his city.

An agent noticed him while he was performing in Reynold Price’s play Early Dark and encouraged him to go to Hollywood to develop his talent. The actor performed in the early 80s and obtained small roles in popular TV series of the time such as MASH , Remington Steele , The Incredible Hulk , The A-Team , Two Cops in Miami or LA Takedown , TV movie which gave rise to the cult hit Heat in 1995 (Xander also made an appearance in the role of Ralph).

At the same time, Xander made his film debut in the mid-80s with Volunteers alongside Tom Hanks , Susie and the Baker Boys with Jeff Bridges or Private Affairs with Richard Gere . The actor will continue for many years to play supporting roles on the big screen and on television. He thus went through the 90s playing in a number of successful feature films such as La Relève by Clint Eastwood . For example, he is the father-in-law of John Connor in Terminator 2 , Harvey Preston in Billy Bathgate alongside Dustin Hoffman , Captain Whitaker in Men of Honor where he plays opposite Tom Cruise or Trevor Lyle in the film cult horror Candyman .

Among his other notable supporting roles, we can cite that of Dr. Hodge in the terrifying 8th episode of the first season of The X-Files entitled Project Arctic. He also appeared in Amistad by Steven Spielberg , Welcome to Gattaca , Andrew Niccol ‘s sci-fi masterpiece , Air Force One with Harrison Ford and Shanghai Kid where he made life difficult for Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in the role. by Marshal Nathan Van Cleef.

The actor, at ease in all registers, saw his career take a decisive turn in 2001. He was hired to lend his features to the boss of the anti-terrorist cell, George Mason, in the series 24 Heures Chrono , which quickly became a huge success. The 2000s will be very fruitful for Xander Berkeley who will see his roles gradually gain importance to allow him to emerge from the shadow and the shackles of the second knives of which he seemed prisoner.

He stands out in particular in CSI season 4 in the uniform of Sheriff Rory Atwater before portraying another Sheriff, Thomas McAllister (aka Red John), in The Mentalist . This character becomes a memorable television villain, the main enemy of Patrick Jane aka Simon Baker . Xander played this character between 2008 and 2013. The actor also appeared in the series Criminal Minds , Medium , Nikita and Being Human . In the cinema, he still shines in many different genres: the thriller with The Fault alongside Anthony Hopkins , the action film with Taken or Kick-Ass or the drama with The Josey Aimes Affair in which he gives the response to Charlize Theron .

Recently, the actor was part of the castings of the series Aquarius with David Duchovny , which tells the story of the hunt for Charles Manson, 12 Monkeys , adapted from the film by Terry Gilliam , Zoo , Jericho or Salem . In cinemas, we could see him in Transcendence , the sci-fi thriller with Johnny Depp or Premonitions , a fantastic thriller where he reunites with Anthony Hopkins after The Rift. In 2015, his career was about to take a new turn. Indeed, the Brooklyn native will play a charismatic villain in season 6 of The Walking Dead ; the character is described as a man with an oversized ego and a highly developed survival instinct. It is rumored that this role could become recurring for the continuation of the adventures of Rick and his gang in season 7.

Vincent Formica