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Tom Atkins
Atkins in 2023
Born	(1935-11-13) November 13, 1935 (age 89) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Duquesne University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1963–present
Spouse	Garn Stephens ​ ​(m. 1976; div. 1985)​ Janis Lee Rodgers ​(m. 1986)​
Children	1
Military career
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Navy

Thomas Atkins (born November 13, 1935) is an American actor. He is known for his work in the horror and thriller film genres, having worked with writers and directors such as Shane Black, William Peter Blatty, John Carpenter, Fred Dekker, Richard Donner, Stephen King, and George A. Romero. He is also a familiar face to mainstream viewers, often playing police officers and tough authority figures and is perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Alex Diel in The Rockford Files (1974–1977).

Atkins has appeared in numerous films including The Fog (1980), The Ninth Configuration (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Creepshow (1982), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Night of the Creeps (1986), Lethal Weapon (1987), Maniac Cop (1988), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Bob Roberts (1992), Striking Distance (1993), My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), Drive Angry (2011), Encounter (2018), and Trick (2019).

Atkins has also appeared in numerous television series and films such as Hawaii Five-O (1975), Kojak: Flowers for Matty (1990), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Fortune Hunter (1994), Xena: Warrior Princess (1996), Homicide: Life on the Street (1998), Oz (2003), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2003), The Jury (2004), The Last-Drive In with Joe Bob Briggs (2019), City on a Hill (2022), and Creepshow (2023).

Early life

Atkins initially had no desire to be an actor. His father worked in a steel mill in Pennsylvania and Atkins assumed that he would follow in his father's footsteps. He enlisted in the United States Navy and "noticed that the officers lived great, but that was only because they had gone to college," and so, after leaving the navy, Atkins enrolled in college where he met a girl who was involved in a theatre group. Atkins studied at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and was a member of the Gamma Phi fraternity. He says: "I was in my 20s already when I got interested in acting and I liked it a lot."

Career

Atkins began his career in stage plays both on-and-off Broadway, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television. His first movie role was in The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra. Talking of his experience working on his first feature film – and with Sinatra – Atkins says: "It was great! It was intimidating and frightening and scary but Frank was great. He was very easy to work with. He didn't like to do a lot of takes. But then it's not like we were doing Shakespeare."

After appearing in TV series and movies, including portraying Lt. Alex Diel in seasons 1 and 2 of The Rockford Files, Atkins began working within the horror and science fiction genres. He appeared in two films directed by John Carpenter: the 1980 ghost story The Fog and the 1981 science fiction thriller Escape from New York. His next role (this time a leading role) was the third installment of the Halloween franchise, the Carpenter-produced Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).

He completed further work with George A. Romero, appearing in three of the director's projects: the anthology Creepshow (1982), written by Stephen King; the anthology Two Evil Eyes (1990), based on tales by Edgar Allan Poe; and Bruiser (2000).

He portrayed Detective Ray Cameron in the 1986 cult horror film Night of the Creeps, a role Atkins calls his very favorite. He tells Classic-Horror magazine "It was the most fun film I've ever worked on. It was a pure giggle from beginning to end. The director Fred Dekker was very young and very talented and he went on to do The Monster Squad afterwards. I think he wrote a terrific film that was kind of a big put-on of '50s horror. And I had great lines in that movie!"

Atkins has continued to act in both the thriller and police procedural genre. He is well known to movie goers for his role as Michael Hunsaker in the Richard Donner film Lethal Weapon (1987), which stars Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Gary Busey. In 1993 he took a role in Striking Distance (1993) alongside Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Tom Sizemore. In television, Atkins reprised his role of Commander Diehl for a series of Rockford Files movies during the 1990s.

Atkins is a frequent player in shows in the Pittsburgh theatre scene, most famously in the one-man show The Chief at Pittsburgh Public Theater, in which he depicted the late founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Art Rooney. Also at the Public, he played the title role in Macbeth, opposite Jean Smart as Lady Macbeth and Keith Fowler as Macduff. He was the star of A Musical Christmas Carol at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, portraying the character of Ebenezer Scrooge. He appeared on Broadway in David Storey's The Changing Room, for which he received the 1973 Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Performer.

In 2009, he had a supporting role as a retired sheriff in the remake My Bloody Valentine 3D and co-starred with Nicolas Cage in Todd Farmer's Drive Angry, in 2011; both films are directed by Patrick Lussier.

In the 2018 sci-fi movie Encounter, he was Professor Westlake, who studied the biology of the alien lifeform.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Self

Archive footage

References

1. Matoney, Nick (November 22, 2022). "Two takes with Tom Atkins: Pittsburgh icon discusses Scrooge, scary movies and 'The Chief'". WTAE-TV. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
2. ^ Fallows, Tom, Tom Atkins Interview (Night of the Creeps), Classic-Horror Web Zine October 14, 2009.
3. "'Drive Angry' Casting That Will Surely "Thrill" You". February 25, 2010.
4. "Monster-Mania 14 Guest List Grows". DreadCentral. February 7, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
5. "Exclusive: Tom Atkins is BACK and Ready to Drive Angry". DreadCentral. February 25, 2010.
6. ^ Turner Classic Movies. "Tom Atkins - Turner Classic Movies". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
7. ^ TV Guide. "Tom Atkins List of Movies and TV Shows - TV Guide". TV Guide. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
8. Squires, John (November 21, 2019). "Documentary 'Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini' Streaming Exclusively on Shudder in December!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
9. Miska, Brad (September 5, 2019). "Tom Atkins, Omar Epps and Jamie Kennedy Starring in Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier's 'Trick'". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
10. Squires, John (January 14, 2019). "[Trailer] Tom Atkins is Back (and Yes, He's Playing a Sheriff) in Short Film 'Polybius'". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
11. Squires, John (September 5, 2019). "[Exclusive] Tom Atkins in Talks for a Starring Role in Third Franchise Installment 'The Collected'". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
12. Bolton, Cameron (August 21, 2023). "Shudder Unearths Creepshow Season 4 Trailer, Featuring the Return of Original Star Tom Atkins". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
13. Miska, Brad (October 13, 2023). "'Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow' Is Now Streaming Exclusively on SCREAMBOX!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 22, 2024.

External links

• Tom Atkins at AllMovie
• Tom Atkins at IMDb
• Tom Atkins at the TCM Movie Database

• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• 1935 births
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• Living people
• Male actors from Pittsburgh
• Military personnel from Pittsburgh
• United States Navy sailors