Ross, one of the best and most well-liked working character men in Hollywood for the last 25+ years, has 2 conflicting birth dates on the Internet. IMDB lists October 26th, 1942 and Wikipedia has down June 20th of that same year.
Whatever day it is, the talented Ross deserves a tribute.
Happy Birthday C.R.!
As the ''Moon'' wanting Hilton on MAD MEN--
Ross made 6 appearances on the AMC hit in 2009
Ross has appeared in many film favorites, including his 3 Sport Star turn: Gaylord Perry-like veteran spitball pitcher Eddie Harris in MAJOR LEAGUE, Notre Dame head football coach Dan Devine in RUDY, and his first film role of note: jerky Hickory townsmen/acting coach & Gene Hackman nemesis (initially), George in HOOSIERS.
''You trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curve ball?''
MAJOR LEAGUE is a major league diamond of a sports film
Classic quote from MAJOR LEAGUE
Ross himself is a Christian in real-life
That smile on Ross's face soon disappears when
Hackman takes over in the rousing sports classic HOOSIERS
''Leave the ball, will ya' George?'' ouch!
HOOSIERS clip
Speaking of rousing sports classics, Ross re-teamed with both the HOOSIERS director (David Anspaugh) and screenwriter (Angelo Pizzo) on another fact-based film: the feel-good RUDY, in which Ross portrayed real-life Notre Dame football coach Dan Devine
RUDY locker room speech
Ross was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
An Air Force brat, Ross played football, basketball, and baseball in high school in New Jersey and later attended Southwest Texas State (now called Texas State University-San Marcos) where he was on the baseball team.
A spitball pitcher's 3 best friends:
''Crisco. Bardol. Vagisil.''
While attending STS, Ross went to help build sets for a college production one day and was soon playing the title role in KING LEAR!
After graduation, Ross later joined the same branch of military service as his father and was sent to Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star.
He became a Captain in the U.S.A.F. and was stationed at the Pentagon.
On the big screen, Ross has played many a military man,
including a traitorous, 3-star U.S. Army General n 1989's THE PACKAGE
with his HOOSIERS scene partner Gene Hackman
Soon the acting bug bit and Ross left the service and returned to Texas,
becoming a member of the resident acting company of the Dallas Theater Center (where he got his MFA), later moving to Chicago.
Ross got his big break when he was cast in 1986's HOOSIERS.
He was told by director David Anspaugh that after his audition, Anspaugh turned to screenwriter Angelo Pizzo and said ''That's the jerk were looking for''.
Indiana's biggest tool!
Besides working with Anspaugh twice,
Ross went on to become a frequent collaborator with directors Sam Raimi & Andrew Davis, and has also worked with Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Ron Howard, and Tony Scott.
Beside jerks & military brass, Ross has played many a cop, man of the cloth, politician, fed, and doctor.
Recently he's played the recurring role of Amy Morton's father on CHICAGO P.D. and appeared in the films CONSUMED, COWBOY DRIFTER, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS and IMPERFECTIONS
CHICAGO P.D.
Some of my other Ross film & TV roles include:
Another jerk, Police Capt. Talcott, who gets a bird's eye, center spot view of Sharon Stone's legs in the famed ''interrogation'' scene in Paul Verhoeven's killer 1992 hit, BASIC INSTINCT
Stone's leg cross...
....BASICally leaves Wayne Knight, Ross, and Denis Arndt speechless
BASIC INSTINCT trailer
Sadistic Col. Oats in BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY
''No Way!''
Ross chewing out BILL (Alex Winter) & Ted (Keanu Reeves)
''YOUR NOT STRONG! Your silky boys''
Sheriff Carl Jenkins in A SIMPLE PLAN, his first film with Raimi
Gary Cole, Bill Paxton and Ross
A SIMPLE PLAN trailer
The baseball scout Smitty in TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE with
Clint Eastwood, Raymond Anthony Thomas & Ed Lauter
U.S, Army Gen. Hopkins, who conspires with the Russians to have Tommy Lee Jones assassinate the Soviet Union's Secretary General while visiting Chicago in THE PACKAGE (1989), his first film for director Andrew Davis
THE PACKAGE trailer
Corrupt Sen. Calvin Baynard, the nemesis of Bruce Willis and an intended assassination victim himself, in THE LAST BOY SCOUT
Ferguson, evil John Larroquette's head henchman & the too-tough head of security for RICHIE RICH
Ross intimidating Mike McShane in RICHIE RICH
His second time working with Raimi, as Katie Holmes father in THE GIFT
Syracuse University coaching legend Lew Andreas in
THE EXPRESS
Covert CIA agent Nelson Fox in his first film for director Andrew Davis,
ABOVE THE LAW aka NICO
Billy Tidrow, an old cohort of Dennis Farina in
THE LAST RITES OF BILLY MAY
Dentist Steve Martin's patient Mike in
NOVOCAINE
Justin Long's father in his third film with Sam Raimi,
the successful horror opus DRAG ME TO HELL
Cake scene from DRAG ME TO HELL
Ed Rafferty in CHAIN REACTION, his third outing with filmmaker
Andrew Davis
With Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz in CR
His other film & TV credits include:
Byron in AT ANY PRICE with Dennis Quaid, the recurring role of Ben Pentland on CHRISTY (CBS 1994-95) with Kellie Martin & Tyne Daly, PRIMARY COLORS (as Charlie Rose), THE MAJESTIC, Dr. Nate Cawley in THE BURDEN OF PROOF, KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN aka THE HOUSE WHERE HELL FROZE OVER, THE AWAKENING LAND, THE BIG SCORE, MARK TWAIN: BENEATH THE LAUGHTER, SKOKIE (as a Nazi), ON THE RIGHT TRACK, 3 appearances on DALLAS in 1990 as Dr. Wykoff, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHRYN BECK, THE CHILDREN NOBODY WANTED, NIGHT OF COURAGE, HARD KNOX, THE UNTOUCHABLES, MURDER ORDAINED, ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT, SABLE, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, RAINBOW DRIVE, THE LONG WALK HOME, the recurring role of Capt. Jack O'Neil on the short-lived James Earl Jones drama GABRIEL'S FIRE (ABC 1990-91), AMOS & ANDREW, MISSING PERSONS, LEGACY OF LIES, The Warden in AGAINST THEIR WILL: WOMEN IN PRISON, EVIL HAS A FACE, ONCE AND AGAIN, JUDGING AMY, EARLY EDITION, CHICAGO HOPE, CHARMING BILLY, the voice of Councilman Fred Ebberd on KING OF THE HILL, SNAP DECISION, WAKING UP IN RENO, A LITTLE THING CALLED MURDER (as Judy Davis husband & Jonathan Jackson's dad), UNCLE NINO, COLD CASE, MY NAME IS EARL, JAG, Bishop McMorrow in the PRISON BREAK pilot, HORSEMEN, THE STRIP, GREY'S ANATOMY, FERTILE GROUND, THE DILEMMA, CSI: MAIMI, THE CHICAGO CODE, BOSS, NCIS, SCANDAL, MADISON, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, THE MOB DOCTOR, CHICAGO P.D., FORMOSA BETRAYED, CONSUMED, ELEMENTARY and more.
With Quaid in AT ANY PRICE
The 2 actors also appeared together in HORSEMAN & THE EXPRESS
PRISON BREAK
With Kate Lang Johnson aka Kate Miner on
SCANDAL
GREY'S ANATOMY
More Ross sightings
The Trapper in the Mortal Remains segment of THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS
with Saul Rubinek and Tyne Daly
Robert Beaufort on Showtime's BILLIONS
The real Bonderman
Abe Drucker in SWAYED
Ross also stays active on stage.
In Chicago, he appeared at the Goodman Theatre in OTHER DESERT CITIES (as patriarch Lyman Wyeth) and LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY (as love-sick Durwood Peach).
With Tracy Michelle Arnold in Jon Robin Baitz's
OTHER DESERT CITIES
He played another patriarch, Beverly Weston, in the London and Sydney productions of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company's AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY.
Ross with his fellow AOC castmate Jeff Perry at the London toast
for Tracy Lett's Tony, Drama Desk & Pulitzer Prize Award winning classic
His other stage credits include: playing Bo Decker opposite Edie Adams in BUS STOP (Nominated for a 1976 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play), LOSING IT, A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM and THE MAGNOLIA CLUB (Nominated for a 1981 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Musical).
Did you know...?
Ross is 6' 2''.
He has an uncredited cameo as the priest in MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING.
I Say A Little Prayer For You
from MY BEST FRIEND'S...
He was once a radio DJ in Texas.
Is it me or doesn't Ross look like one of the Carradine's
on MAD MEN?
Ross quote:
''Be good to your fellow players: We are all in this together''
Keep up the good work Mr. Ross!
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