Chris Ellis (born April 14, 1956) is an American film and television actor. Ellis always wanted to be an actor because of television. He grew up in the 50's in the deep south in a "world of privation and violence", but saw on television people who seemed to have lives of ease and privilege.
It took him seven years to finish college however, because "I have always been shiftless". During those years Chris became involved in community theatre in Memphis, where "I did and do still think the quality of the work has always been quite good". By the time he moved to New York, he had worked with many excellent actors in about two dozen plays, classical and contemporary. "I cannot imagine what might have supplanted that background for a newcomer in New York."
His first part in either television or film came in 1979, where he played a truck driver in the TV movie The Suicide's Wife, which starred Angie Dickinson. The role resulted in very little TV or film work. After working in regional theatre for a year or so, Chris fell off the radar screen and did not work for about ten years. During that time he lived in "bone-grinding poverty" in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. In one nine-month period of 1987, Chris accepted 102 dinner invitations. "I don't know why they kept arriving, nor why I counted them, though I do know why I accepted them."
In 1990, a break came when he got a part in Days of Thunder, which starred Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, Robert Duvall, and Randy Quaid. John C. Reilly and Fred Dalton Thompson also appear. This seemed to jump-start Ellis' career as parts in films like My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei, a small part in Addams Family Values, and a larger one in Apollo 13 as former NASA Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, alongside Tom Hanks, followed. He also began picking up credits on well-known television shows like Melrose Place, NYPD Blue, and The X-Files.
Since working with Hanks on Apollo 13, the two have worked together on That Thing You Do, the TV miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and Catch Me If You Can. Ellis returned to a fictional NASA Mission Control when he played a Flight Director in 1998's Armageddon.
Additional films in which Ellis has appeared include Home Fries, October Sky, Live Free or Die Hard, and Transformers. His television credits also include The West Wing, Ghost Whisperer, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, Alias, JAG, CSI: NY, Burn Notice, and Cold Case. He appeared in three season one episodes of Millennium as group member Jim Panseayres. He has established a reputation as being particularly talented at portraying Southern lawmakers or serious military or police-type characters.
He also appeared in Criminal Minds as Sheriff Jimmy Rhodes who calls for the BAU's help in investigating a string of murders in New Mexico. In addition to that, he also had two guest appearances in NCIS as Gunnery Sergeant John Deluca. Ellis's appearance in the Season 1 episode, "The Curse" was uncredited while his second and final appearance in Season 2's "The Bone Yard" was credited.
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as Doug Kane
as Mr. Adler
as Derek Poole(1 ep)
as Richard Lehmann(1 ep)
as Al
as Hank
as Harvey
as Marty Steinbecker(1 ep)
as Keller
as Senator Thaddeus Williams
as Principal Don Bishop
as Coach Jenks (as Chris Ellis Jr.)
as Christos Markos(1 ep)
as Sheriff Pruitt
as Hendricks
as Dad
as Fr. Reilly
as Jubal Jacobs(1 ep)
as Warden Nick Larsen(1 ep)
as Maddox Resor(1 ep)
as Walter Exley(1 ep)
as Beau Teague(1 ep)
as Douglas Cooper(1 ep)
as Pops
as NSA Director
as Colonel Arnold Cassell(1 ep)
as Sherrif Mullery(1 ep)
as Reidell(1 ep)
as Glen the Carousel Manager
as L Donn Murray
as Hayes(2 eps)
as Del Hill(1 ep)
as Virgil Watkins(2 eps)
as Admiral Brigham
as Capt. Jack Scalvino
as Jim Stovall
as Shelton(1 ep)
as Willinger McDodey
as Congressman Bruce Gelber(3 eps)
as Jackson
as Vice President - Grand Cayman Bank
as Captain Ken Nilsen(2 eps)
as Sheriff Rhodes(1 ep)
as Coggs
as Aces & Spades Barman
as Chris O'Keefe(1 ep)
as Reverend Ted Capistrano(1 ep)
as Vincent Williams(1 ep)
as Captain Anderson
as Sgt. Whiteley
as Phillip Brodeur
as Samuel Littleton
as Captain Nimziki
as Jim Horn (2008)(1 ep)
as John Deluca(1 ep)
as Dr. Sassen(1 ep)
as Sergeant
as Patriot Model Aeronautics Clerk
as Special Agent Witkins
as Larry Ketterly(1 ep)
as Det. Hanson
as Detective Warren
as Dewey
as Agent Chapman(1 ep)
as Commander Karl Vasich
as Construction Worker #2(1 ep)
as Clinton Malton(1 ep)
as Hollis
as T. Greer(1 ep)
as Congressman Fields(1 ep)
as Mr. Reese(1 ep)
as Ed Brown(2 eps)
as Principal Turner
as Henry Lever
as Flight Director Clark
as General Anderson
as Bob Parker(1 ep)
as Officer Roux
as Officer
as Buddy #1
as Detective Butler
as BOP Official Grant
as Zoning Board Chairman Donald Blane(1 ep)
as Wes
as Jim Penseyres(3 eps)
as Phil Horace
as Daniel Crockett(1 ep)
as Brian Pascal(1 ep)
as Crowd Leader
as Henneman(1 ep)
as Maynard Dupree(1 ep)
as Adm. Stenner(1 ep)
as Mr. Switzer(1 ep)
as Security Guard #1
as Deke Slayton
as Additional Magician
as Policeman
as Bill Erskine(1 ep)
as News Vendor
as Moving Man
as Leonard Wilson(1 ep)
as Marshal(1 ep)
as Burt
as Sheriff Lance Hindt(1 ep)
as Cop(1 ep)
as J.T.
as Harlem Hoogerhyde
