MITCH PILEGGI Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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MITCH PILEGGI

Name: Mitch Pileggi                                                                 
Born: 5 April 1952 Portland, Oregon                                                 
                                                                                     
Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi (born April 5, 1952) is an American actor.           
Pileggi is best known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the       
long-running popular series The X-Files. Currently, he has a recurring role on       
Stargate Atlantis as Col. Stephen Caldwell.                                         
                                                                                     
Pileggi, one of several children, was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of           
Maxine, a homemaker, and Vito Pileggi, a defense contractor. His family moved       
frequently because of his father's occupation, and Pileggi lived in Oregon,         
California, and Texas before spending most of his adolescence in Turkey.             
                                                                                     
Pileggi was a high school athlete, concentrating on wrestling and football. He       
attended the University of Texas in Austin, receiving a degree in business. For     
a while he worked in Iran as a defense contractor, until the 1979 Iranian           
revolution caused him and his brother to have to flee the country, escaping to       
Greece.                                                                             
                                                                                     
Pileggi began acting while he was a high school student in Turkey, playing           
musical theater. After returning to Austin from Iran, he performed in local         
theaters, and continued his acting career with small roles in B-movies, and         
guest roles in television shows such as Dallas, Married with Children, Walker,       
Texas Ranger; and China Beach.                                                       
                                                                                     
In the 1980s, Pileggi starred in several films including Three O'Clock High as       
Duke "The Duker" Herman, an over zealous tough-as-nails high school parking lot     
security guard, and in Shocker as body-possessing serial killer Horace Pinker.       
                                                                                     
His most notable role was as the FBI's Assistant Director Walter Skinner on The     
X-Files. The role was originally recurring, but the part expanded, and in 1996       
he became a regular member of the cast. The character gradually became the most     
integral character besides the two leads. He remained with the show until its       
television end in 2002. Pileggi also played the character in the 1998 X-Files       
film.                                                                               
                                                                                     
Pileggi's recent work has included starring in the short-lived TV show Tarzan       
and co-starring with Barbara Hershey and Oliver Hudson in the short-lived TV         
show The Mountain. Since 2005, he has played the recurring role of character         
Colonel Steven Caldwell, Commander of the Earth Battlecruiser, Daedalus, in the     
second and subsequent seasons of the television series Stargate Atlantis. He         
also acted in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in 2006 had a         
regular guest role on Day Break as Robbery/Homicide Detective Spivak. Pileggi       
also appeared on the show Cold Case in the episode "Offender", in which he           
played father accused of murdering his own son, who then threatens to commit one     
murder per day until the case is reopened and solved. Pileggi also played the       
role of Larry Jennings, chairman of the board of the hospital, in Grey's Anatomy,   
and of Red Forman's friend Bull in an episode of That 70's Show.                     
                                                                                     
Pileggi has also done some voice acting. His voice was featured as the githzerai     
Dak'kon in the video game Planescape: Torment. Another role he voices is             
Commissioner James Gordon on the new Kids WB! animated show The Batman. Pileggi     
also hosted the controversial FOX specials Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's     
Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed and Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?