Michael Chiklis Biography

Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963) is an American actor, director and television producer. Some of the previous roles for which he is best known include Commissioner Tony Scali on the ABC police drama The Commish, LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield, the Thing in the Fantastic Four film series, and Jim Powell on the ABC science-fiction comedy-drama No Ordinary Family. He also co-starred as Vincent Savino in the CBS Crime drama Vegas.

Early life

Michael Chiklis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His mother, Katherine (née Vousboukis), is a hospital administrative aide, and his father, Charlie Chiklis, runs a hair/beauty salon. Chiklis has been described as inheriting his acting ability from his mother. His father is a second-generation Greek American (his paternal ancestors came from Lesbos) and his mother is of Greek and Irish descent. Chiklis grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and began entertaining his family with celebrity imitations when he was five years old. As a child, Chiklis appeared in regional theater productions and became a member of the Actors' Equity Association at age thirteen. In the ninth grade, he portrayed Hawkeye Pierce in Andover High School's production of M*A*S*H. He later attended Boston University College of Fine Arts, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

At age 20, Chiklis shaved his head to look like he had male-pattern baldness for his role as a 65-year-old man in You Can't Take It With You. Instead of using powder on his head (as he did on his face), he used greasepaint, and he failed to remove it properly at the end of each day. This killed the hair follicles on his head, essentially shaping his career in many ways. Chiklis has said in an NPR interview that this was a very traumatic experience as a young actor, and is the reason he wore a hairpiece in Wired.

Career

After graduation, Chiklis moved to Brooklyn, New York City and was cast in the role of John Belushi in the controversial biopic Wired in 1989. The film was panned in general and flopped at the box office. He also guest starred in several popular television series such as Miami Vice, B.L. Stryker, Wiseguy, L.A. Law, Murphy Brown, and Seinfeld alongside bit parts in films like Nixon.

Chiklis's first successful role was in The Commish, a police comedy/drama that ran from 1991-1996 on ABC. Chiklis played Anthony "Tony" J. Scali, a police commissioner in a small city in upstate New York. After The Commish, Chiklis starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom Daddio.

After playing Curly Howard in a television movie about the Three Stooges, Chiklis decided to reinvent his image. With his wife's help, he spent six months on an extensive workout regimen and shaved his head. He turned up to audition for The Shield looking nothing like the pudgy, friendly character of The Commish. Winning over creator Shawn Ryan, Chiklis nabbed the leading role of the show's anti-hero, LAPD Detective Vic Mackey. He won the 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for the role. Chiklis received a Golden Globe Award that same year for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series-Drama as well. Between 2004 and 2005, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series but did not win. Chiklis later parodied his role as Vic Mackey in "Monstourage," an episode of Robot Chicken. The skit involved Mackey accidentally switching places with Ben Grimm.

Since 2000, Chiklis has taken up a number of voice roles, voicing Chihiro's father, Akio, in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away and Roman/King Webster in the direct-to-video feature The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. He has also performed in several episodes of Family Guy and had a voice role in Heavy Gear: The Animated Series.

In 2005, he starred in Fantastic Four as Thing and reprised the role in its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Being a fan of the comic book series, he had dreamed of playing the character if ever there was a Fantastic Four movie being produced. Chiklis was often praised for his performance in a film that otherwise earned mixed reviews. His wife visited him on set during the filming but was not aware that he would be in his full bodysuit and makeup as The Thing; she was totally unprepared for seeing him like that and found it very distressing, having to be guided from the set in order to collect herself.

Chiklis had a role in the 2008 film Eagle Eye as the United States Secretary of Defense.

In the wake of Bernard Madoff scandal, Chiklis is developing a series at FX about a similar investment scheme. The project, called House of Cards, concerns a group committing an elaborate scam similar to the Madoff fraud. Chiklis had been developing the project since February 2008 after he and his wife became victims of a Ponzi scheme themselves. Cards will likely center on the leader of the scheme, with Chiklis planning to executive produce but not star.

Chiklis later starred in the ABC television series No Ordinary Family, which premiered on September 28, 2010, as part of the 2010-11 television season and ended in April, 2011. He also co-starred in the CBS Crime drama Vegas.

Personal life

Chiklis married Michelle Epstein on June 21, 1992, and they have two daughters: Autumn, born on October 9, 1993, and Odessa, born in 1999. Autumn played Vic Mackey's daughter Cassidy on The Shield.

A lifelong comic book fan, he rarely turns down an autograph request from children. In fact, according to the DVD commentary for the Fantastic Four film, his voice has been going hoarse from doing The Thing's voice so many times; in Chiklis's own words:

How do you say "no" to an 8-year-old?

Chiklis is a fan of both the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins, was interviewed for the HBO documentary The Curse of the Bambino about the Red Sox's long struggle to win the World Series, and narrated the video introduction of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.

He is also an accomplished musician, specializing in drums and vocals but also playing guitar and bass. A member of several performing bands in the Boston area such as The Surgeon General, Best Kept Secret and Double Talk. He has starred and produced films through his own production company called Extravaganza.

In 2011, Michael Chiklis and his band MCB released their first single "Til I Come Home", a tribune song to the soldiers overseas. The song has been critically acclaimed world wide and was used in the TV series Modern Family in 2011. MCB's prior music was another single, Make Me High written for the independent film High School, starring Chiklis, Adrien Brody, Colin Hanks and Matt Bush, single released spring 2011.

Philanthropy

Chiklis has participated in celebrity Texas Hold 'Em tournaments to benefit comedian Brad Garrett's charity foundation, Maximum Hope. Michael has worked closely with many different charities over the years including The Children's Lifesaving Foundation, Alzheimer's Association, Autism Speaks and the Revlon Run Walk.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

• 2002 Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
• 2003 Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Golden Globe Awards

• 2002 Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series
• 2003 Nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series
• 2004 Nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series

Satellite Awards

• 2002 Nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series
• 2003 Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• 2003 Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

Ewwy Awards

• 2009 Nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Miami Vice	NYPD Detective Jeffrey Whitehead	(TV series, 1 episode: "The Lost Madonna")
1989	B.L. Stryker	Unknown	(TV series, 1 episode: "Blues for Buder")
1989	Wired	John Belushi
1989	Wiseguy	Carlo Spoletta	(TV series, 5 episodes)
1990	The Rain Killer	Reese
1990	Murphy Brown	Tony Rocket	(TV series, 1 episode: "Brown and Blue")
1990-1991	L.A. Law	Jimmy Hoffs	(TV series, 2 episodes)
1991	Seinfeld	Steve	(TV series, 1 episode: "The Stranded")
1995	Nixon	TV Director
1991-1996	The Commish	Tony Scali	(TV series, 92 episodes)
1998	Body and Soul	Tiny O'Toole
1998	Touched by an Angel	Matt Colletti	(TV series, 1 episode: "Breaking Bread")
1998	Taxman	Andre Rubakov
1998	Soldier	Jimmy Pig
1999	Carlo's Wake	Marco
1999	St. Michael's Crossing	Benjamin Arensen
1999	Last Request	Victim	Short film
1999	Do Not Disturb	Hartman
2000	The Three Stooges	Curly	Television movie
2000	Daddio	Chris Woods	(TV series, 9 episodes)
2000-2001	Family Guy	Various characters	(TV series, 5 episodes)
2001	Heavy Gear: The Animated Series	Lt. Jan Agusta
2001	Spirited Away	Chihiro's father
2002	The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina	King Webster
2002-2008	The Shield	Detective Vic Mackey	(TV series, 89 episodes) Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Satellite Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama (2004, 2005) Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Nominated-Satellite Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama Nominated-Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
2005	Fantastic Four	Ben Grimm	Nominated-MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team
2006	Stuart Little: The Animated Series	Tiger	(TV series, 1 episode: "No Job is Too Little")
2007	Rise: Blood Hunter	Clyde Rawlins
2007	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	Ben Grimm
2008	Eagle Eye	Defense Secretary Callister
2008	Robot Chicken	Detective Vic Mackey	(TV series, 4 episodes)
2008	The Legend of Secret Pass	Calabar
2010-2011	No Ordinary Family	Jim Powell	(TV series, 20 episodes)
2010	High School	Dr. Leslie Gordon
2012-2013	Vegas	Vincent Savino	(TV series, 21 episodes)
2013	Parker	Melander
2013	Pawn	Derrick