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William Petersen

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Image:CSI-Gil Grissom.jpg William Louis Petersen (born February 21, 1953) is an American actor.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Petersen was born in Evanston, Illinois of Danish ancestry. He graduated from Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho, in 1972. He was accepted to Idaho State University on a football scholarship. Originally intending to boost his grade point average at Idaho State, Petersen took an acting course which changed the direction of his life. He left school, along with his wife, in 1974 and followed a drama professor to Spain where he developed his acting skills as a Shakespearean actor. Petersen went back to Idaho with dreams of being an actor. Unable to hold down a non-acting job, he returned home to Chicago to live with relatives and became active there in theater and earned his Actors' Equity card. He performed with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and was a co-founder of the Remains Theater Ensemble which also included other prominent Chicago actors Gary Cole and Ted Levine.

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[edit] Career

In his movies, he is usually credited without his middle initial (i.e. credited as "William Petersen" and not "William L. Petersen"). One notable exception is his first starring role in To Live and Die in L.A.. Petersen's film career began with a small part in the 1981 film Thief. In 1986 he starred as Will Graham in Manhunter (later to be remade as Red Dragon). Because his role in Manhunter was so emotionally exhausting, he did everything he could to rid himself of Will Graham after finishing principal photography. He shaved off his beard, cut his hair and dyed it blonde. In a move perhaps indicative of his career choices, Petersen is alleged to have passed on a part in Oliver Stone's Platoon, as it would have kept him in the Philippines, away from his family. Instead, he worked on the 1987 made-for-TV movie Long Gone.

Petersen was offered the role of Henry Hill in the movie Goodfellas, but turned it down. In the 2000 release The Contender, Petersen played the role of Governor Jack Hathway, an unscrupulous candidate for Vice President following the death of the incumbent. He also appeared uncredited in the noir thriller Mulholland Falls as a character who finds himself on the violent receiving end of Los Angeles cops.

From 2000 to the present, Petersen gained his greatest fame starring as Dr. Gil Grissom in the successful CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. After C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, Petersen said he plans to return to Chicago for his first love, theater, which gave him his start.

[edit] Personal life

Petersen, who has a daughter Maite from a previous marriage, married longtime girlfriend Gina Cirone in June 2003. Petersen is an avid Chicago Cubs fan, and will drop by Wrigley Field at least once a year to sing the seventh inning stretch.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] External links

et:William Petersen es:William Petersen fi:William Petersen fr:William L. Petersen ko:윌리엄 피터슨 it:William Petersen nl:William L. Petersen pl:William Petersen pt:William Louis Petersen sv:William L. Petersen zh:威廉·彼德森

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