Dennis Christopher Biography

Dennis Christopher (born Dennis Carrelli; December 2, 1958) is an American film actor. He is best known for his roles in Breaking Away (1979), Fade to Black (1980), Chariots of Fire (1981) and Django Unchained (2012). He has appeared in nearly 40 movies and made-for-TV movies since 1975.

Life

Christopher was born Dennis Carrelli in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1958. He is of half Italian descent and half Irish descent.

Career

Christopher's breakthrough role was as Dave Stoller in the coming-of-age classic Breaking Away (1979). His performance won him the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the Youth in Film Award for Best Juvenile Actor in a Motion Picture, as well as garnering a Golden Globe nomination.

Christopher's other roles include American track star Charlie Paddock in Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as tragic film buff psychopath Eric Binford in Fade to Black (1980), Damon in The Falling (1985), Nathan Flowers in A Sinful Life (1989) and Leech in Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1994). Television roles include "Jack of All Trades" in the Profiler TV series, Eddie Kaspbrak in Stephen King's It (1990), Desmond Floyd in Jake Speed (1986) and in the HBO series Deadwood.

Christopher has guest starred in two Star Trek episodes: the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Search (Part II)" and the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Detained". He guest-starred as the demon-sorcerer Cyvus Vail in three episodes of Angel.

He reunited with his Breaking Away "father" Paul Dooley, again as his son, in an episode of TV's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The two had first played father and son in Robert Altman's A Wedding.

In December 2006, he played Dr. Martin Ruber in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries The Lost Room.

Christopher's career, and life in general, changed dramatically when he was cast as Leonide Moguy in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012). He learned through his agent that the screenplay had been re-written to accommodate him. Furthermore, Tarantino later claimed to Christopher that he had seen every one of his films the week that they were released, even Dead Women in Lingerie (which Christopher considers his worst). Production of the film made a very positive impact on Christopher, who has said "...a lot of my idea of happiness came from working on this film...".

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	The Time Tunnel	Young Merlin	Season 1, Episode 27
1971	Blood and Lace	Pete
	The Young Graduates	Pan
1972	Fellini's Roma	The Hippie	Uncredited
1976	Bernice Bobs Her Hair	Charley
1977	3 Women	Soda Delivery Boy	Uncredited
	September 30, 1955	Eugene
1978	A Wedding	Hughie Brenner
1979	California Dreaming	T.T.
	Breaking Away	Dave Stoller
	The Last Word	Ben Travis
1980	Fade to Black	Eric Binford
1981	Chariots of Fire	Charles Paddock
1982	Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder	Brian Anderson
1983	Faerie Tale Theatre	Jack	Season 2, Episode 4
1984	Tales of the Unexpected	Killer	Season 7, Episode 5
	Trapper John, M.D.	Daryl Kirby	Season 6, Episode 8
1985	Alien Predator	Damon
	Moonlighting	Benjamin Wylie	Season 2, Episode 2
1986	Flight of the Spruce Goose	Stan
	Cagney & Lacey	Dr. Stanley	Season 5, Episode 22
	Jake Speed	Desmond Floyd
	The Equalizer	Father Nicholas Kostmayer	Season 2, Episode 10
1987	Stingray	Joshua Williams	Season 2, Episode 9
	Hooperman	Danny Welles
1988	Friends	John
	Christabel	U.S. Airman
1989	A Sinful Life	Nathan Flowers
	Matlock	Noel Bishop	Season 2, Episode 7
1990	It	Eddie Kaspbrak
	Circuitry Man	Leech
1991	Dead Women in Lingerie	Lapin
	Monsters	Laurence Bauer	Season 3, Episode 22
	False Arrest	Wally Roberts
1992	Civil Wars	Jamie Berne
	Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story	Randy
1993	Doppelganger	Doctor Heller
	Murder, She Wrote	Lyman Taggart/Dr. Henry Carlson	Season 6, Episode 20/Season 9, Episode 11
	Curacao	Friedrich	Uncredited
1994	Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II	Leech
	Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation	Mr. Reese
	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Borath	Season 3, Episode 2
	The Cosby Mysteries	Eric Humbold
	The Disco Years	Mr. Reese
1995	Bad English I: Tales of a Son of a Brit
	The Watcher
	Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare	Pruitt Taylor Beauchamp
	Aurora: Operation Intercept	Victor Varenkov
2001	The Ballad of Lucy Whipple	Joshua Beale
	Roswell	Bobby Dupree	2 episodes
	Kate Brasher	Jesus	2 episodes
	18 Wheels of Justice
	FreakyLinks	Vince Elsing	13 episodes
2002	Star Trek: Enterprise	Danik
	Crossing Jordan	Charles Rutledge
2003	Six Feet Under	Kevin Lamb
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Roger Coffman
2004	Mind Rage	Steve
	Angel	Cyvus Vail
	Nine Lives	Mikey
	NYPD Blue	Mr. Prosser
2006	Trappped!	Adrien
	Deadwood	Bellegarde	5 episodes
	The Lost Room	Dr. Martin Ruber
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Richard Dorsey
2008	Criminal Minds	Abner Merriman
2010	Queen of the Lot	Odin Johannessen
2012	Django Unchained	Leonide Moguy
2013	Prisoners	Mr. Jones	Uncredited
	Perception	Fred Gorman
	Unforgettable	Lukas Emminger
	The Slippery Slope	Pastor Tomaso