Biography: With the feature film "Tillamook", slated for release next year, Brian Thompson continues his versatile assault on Hollywood. Having already created dozens of different characters for the screen and TV, from leading men to the raucously insane, this year will be no exception. Lending his talents to the TV arena, Brian performed this year in Star Trek Enterprise, Navy NCIS, Karen Sisco, and Charmed ... show all With the feature film "Tillamook", slated for release next year, Brian Thompson continues his versatile assault on Hollywood. Having already created dozens of different characters for the screen and TV, from leading men to the raucously insane, this year will be no exception. Lending his talents to the TV arena, Brian performed this year in Star Trek Enterprise, Navy NCIS, Karen Sisco, and Charmed. Recent DVD releases found Brian in high heels and stockings as a transvestite who mishandles David Spade in "The Adventures of Joe Dirt". He was also trying to incite a holy war as Cyrus Jacob, the bent on revolution charismatic leader who crosses paths with a martial arts laden jewel thief in Van Damn's latest, "The Order. This year Brian's portrayal of "Captain Tower," lead the army rangers on an expedition deep inside a giant mysterious monolith, in the Sci Fi networks, Epoch.
Thompson who prefers comedy to the pumped up world of action adventure, felt quite at home in Joe Dirt, having already traded punch lines in over a dozen comedies with the likes of: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Mel Brooks, Annie Potts, Chevy Chase, Bill Paxton, George Burns, Elliot Gould, Bruce Willis, Sarah Michelle Geller;
Thompson's thespian fate was cast early with his birth in Ellensburg, Washington, located in the same the where "Northern Exposure" would later be filmed. Raised on the Columbia River in Longview, Washington, he learned the value of academics and athletics, as the son of two teachers and the second of six siblings. Thompson's interest in acting was first sparked during his senior year of high school with the role of the Russian ballet instructor Boris in the comedy You Can't Take it With You.
Under the pretense of attending Central Washington University to play football and study business management, he quietly auditioned for every available play, trod ding the boards for a dozen school productions: from musicals and operas to the lighthearted chops of Neil Simon.
Earning a scholarship to the University of California, Irvine, he sailed through a three-year Master of Fine Arts program, learning from such theatrical luminaries as playwright Edward Albee, Robert Cohen, and Jerzy Grotoswski, and supplementing his education through work with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Before graduation he began to audition theatrically, and by the time school ended, he had his SAG card, an agent, and five pro credits, including James Cameron's "The Terminator" where he and Bill Paxton's clothes were forcibly removed by a naked Arnold Schwartzenager.
About a year after Arnold took Brian's clothes, Sylvester Stallone wanted a hack at Brian as well. After seven auditions and a screen test Brian earned the right to get impaled on a meat hook then burned alive, in the movie "Cobra." This ignited a series of credits that have left Thompson in and around some of Hollywood's biggest and funnest projects: Alien Nation, Dragonheart, Lyonheart, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Star Trek Generations, Three Amigos, Three Fugitives, Pass the Ammo, Fright Night II, Life Stinks, Moon 44, the Nake NYPD Blue, Charmed, Deep Space Nine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files.
We must give honorable mention to "The Bounty Hunter" where Brian found time to abduct agent "Fox Mulder" (David Duchovny) in the worldly successful TV series the X-Files, where Brian keeps our planet safe from alien inhabitation.
Brian has tackled two superhero roles as well: first, Conan the Librarian, where he starred in the title role, in a PBS special to encourage kids to read. He also earned critical acclaim playing the larger than life role of "Hercules" in Jason and the Argonauts. Probably the first part that demanded use of his classical background as well as his 6' plus amply muscled frame. Brian says that no gym can claim him as a member, and that his physique is kept honed by years of Windsurfing and now Kitesurfing.
Taking a curiously "musical" approach to his craft, the actor continually seeks fresh rhythms for each new role.
Brian verifies his well rounded nature with a resume that lists such special skills as martial arts (black belt Hapkido), piano and sushi rolling. He lives at home with his 16 year old son Jordan, & 14 year old daughter Daphne. hide |
