Michael Chiklis

Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963) is an American actor, television director and television producer.

Michael Chiklis
Chiklis in 2014
Born	Michael Charles Chiklis (1963-08-30) August 30, 1963 Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Boston University College of Fine Arts
Occupation	Actor, television director, television producer
Years active	1989–present
Spouse(s)	Michelle Chiklis ( m. 1992)
Children	2
Website	michaelchiklis.com

He is perhaps best known for his role as LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He is also known for playing Commissioner Tony Scali on the ABC police drama The Commish, The Thing in two Fantastic Four films, and Jim Powell on the ABC science-fiction comedy-drama No Ordinary Family. Additionally, he co-starred as Vincent Savino in the CBS crime drama Vegas. In 2014 Chiklis joined the cast of American Horror Story for its fourth season, American Horror Story: Freak Show. The following year he was cast as Nathaniel Barnes, in the second season of Gotham, as a series regular.

Early life

Michael Chiklis is a Boston University alumnus.

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.[1][2] Chiklis has been described as having inherited his acting ability from his mother.[3] His father is a second-generation Greek American (his paternal ancestors came from Lesbos), and his mother is of Greek and Irish descent.[4] Chiklis grew up in Andover, Massachusetts[5] and began entertaining his family with celebrity imitations when he was 5 years old. As a child, Chiklis appeared in regional theater productions and became a member of the Actors' Equity Association at age 13. In the ninth grade, he portrayed Hawkeye Pierce in Andover High School's production of M*A*S*H.[5] He graduated from Boston University College of Fine Arts[6] with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.[7]

Career

After graduating from college, Chiklis moved to Brooklyn, New York and was cast in the role of John Belushi in the controversial biopic Wired (1989).[8] The film was panned in general and flopped at the box office.[9] He also guest starred in several popular television series such as Miami Vice, B.L. Stryker, Wiseguy, L.A. Law, Murphy Brown, and Seinfeld, as well as in bit parts in such films as Nixon.

Chiklis' 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.

In 1997, Chicklis replaced Rob Becker in the Broadway one-man show Defending the Caveman, taking on the role from January 1997[10] to the show's closing in June 1997.[11]

After playing Curly Howard in the TV movie The Three Stooges (2000), 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. Chiklis won over creator Shawn Ryan and 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 the Robot Chicken episode, "Monstourage"; the skit involved Mackey's accidentally switching places with Ben Grimm.

Chiklis in 2007 promoting Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

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 (2005) as Thing and reprised the role in its sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). A fan of the comic book series, he had dreamed of playing the character if ever a Fantastic Four movie were 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 to see him like that, found it very distressing, and had to be guided from the set in order to collect herself.

In the film Eagle Eye (2008), Chiklis portrays the United States Secretary of Defense.

In the wake of the Bernie 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.[12]

Chiklis later starred in the ABC television series No Ordinary Family, which premiered on September 28, 2010,[13] as part of the 2010–11 television season[14] and ended in April, 2011.[15] He also co-starred in the CBS Crime drama Vegas.

In March 2014, it was announced that Chiklis had been cast in American Horror Story: Freak Show, season 4 of the FX anthology series.[16]

In 2014, Chiklis played a small part towards the end of the FX series Sons of Anarchy. He appears first in the episode "Rose Red", as a trucker who first encounters Gemma, who is on her way to her father, at a truck stop. Then, in the series finale, his character is driving the tractor-trailer truck that Jax Teller intentionally collides with head-on.

In 2015, he appeared in Gotham as Captain Nathaniel Barnes.[17] In a nod to Chiklis' time on the Strike Team on The Shield, his character established a similarly named "Strike Force".

In September 2016, Chiklis released his first solo album, INFLUENCE. He wrote and produced the album at his own Extravaganza Music Studio.[18]

Personal life

Chiklis married Michelle Moran on June 21, 1992, and they have two daughters: Autumn, born on October 9, 1993, and Odessa, born in 1999.[19] Autumn played Vic Mackey's daughter Cassidy on The Shield.[20]

A lifelong comic book fan, Chiklis rarely turns down an autograph request from children.[21] In fact, according to the DVD commentary for the Fantastic Four film, he has become hoarse from performing The Thing's voice so many times; in Chiklis' own words:

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

Chiklis is a fan of both the Boston Red Sox[22] and the Boston Bruins,[23] was interviewed for the HBO documentary the Curse of the Bambino about the Red Sox's long struggle to win the World Series,[24] and narrated the video introduction of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.[25]

Chiklis is also an accomplished musician, specializing in drums and vocals, but also playing guitar and bass.[3] He is a member of several performing bands in the Boston area such as The Surgeon General, Best Kept Secret, and Double Talk.[3] He has starred and produced films through his own production company, Extravaganza.[3][26]

In 2011, Chiklis and his band MCB released their first single "Til I Come Home", a tribute song to the soldiers overseas.[27] The song has been critically acclaimed worldwide and was used in the TV series Modern Family in 2011.[28] MCB's prior music includes another single, "Make Me High", written for the independent film High School (2010), starring Chiklis, Adrien Brody, Colin Hanks, and Matt Bush; the single was released in spring 2011.[29]

Following his stint on American Horror Story: Freakshow, Chiklis told Larry King that he did not enjoy working on the show: "That was one of the darkest years of my career. It was, I think, it's one thing to do a horror film in the context of like two months or something like that, but to live in that for six months it just became, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm an empathetic person, and I just sometimes start to take things on. But it was so dark, and it was so nasty."[30]

Philanthropy

Chiklis has participated in celebrity Texas hold 'em tournaments to benefit comedian Brad Garrett's charity foundation, Maximum Hope. Chiklis has worked closely with many different charities over the years including The Children's Lifesaving Foundation,[31] Alzheimer's Association,[32] Autism Speaks[33] and the Revlon Run Walk.[34]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Wired	John Belushi
1990	The Rain Killer	Reese
1995	Nixon	TV Director
1998	Body and Soul	Tiny O'Toole
	Taxman	Andre Rubakov
	Soldier	Jimmy Pig
1999	Carlo's Wake	Marco
	St. Michael's Crossing	Benjamin Arensen
	Last Request	Victim	Short film
	Do Not Disturb	Hartman
2001	Spirited Away	Chihiro's father (voice)	English dub
2002	The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina	King Webster (voice)
2005	Fantastic Four	Ben Grimm / The Thing
2007	Rise: Blood Hunter	Clyde Rawlins
	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	Ben Grimm / The Thing
2008	Eagle Eye	Secretary of Defense George Callister
	The Legend of Secret Pass	Calabar (voice)
2010	High School	Dr. Leslie Gordon
2013	Parker	Melander
	Pawn	Derrick
2014	When the Game Stands Tall	Terry Eidson
2016	The Do-Over	Carmine
	Rupture	Bald Man
2017	Fallen	Narrator	Documentary
2018	1985	Dale Lester
	MFKZ	Crocodile (voice)
2019	10 Minutes Gone	Frank
TBA	Hubie Halloween[35]		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Miami Vice	Jeffrey Whitehead	Episode: "The Lost Madonna"
	B.L. Stryker	Unknown	Episode: "Blues for Buder"
	Wiseguy	Carlo Spoletta	Recurring role
1990	Maverick Square	Fat Nicky	Pilot Episode / Tv Movie
	Murphy Brown	Tony Rocket	Episode: "Brown and Blue"
1990–91	L.A. Law	Jimmy Hoffs	2 episodes
1991	Seinfeld	Steve	Episode: "The Stranded"
1991–96	The Commish	Tony Scali	Main role
1998	Touched by an Angel	Matt Colletti	Episode: "Breaking Bread"
2000	Godzilla: The Series	Colonel Charles Tarrington (voice)	Episode: "Where is thy Sting?"
	Daddio	Chris Woods	Main role
	The Three Stooges	Curly	Television movie
2000-01	Family Guy	Various characters	4 episodes
2001	Heavy Gear: The Animated Series	Lt. Jan Agusta (voice)	Main role
2002–08	The Shield	Vic Mackey	88 episodes
2003	Stuart Little	Scar (voice)	Episode: "No Job is Too Little"
2008	Robot Chicken	Vic Mackey, Thing, Doc, Detective (voice)	Episode: "Monstourage"
2010–11	No Ordinary Family	Jim Powell	Main role
2012–13	Vegas	Vincent Savino	Main role
2014–15	American Horror Story: Freak Show	Dell Toledo	Main role
2014	Sons of Anarchy	Milo	2 episodes
2015–17	Gotham	Captain Nathaniel Barnes / The Executioner	Main role
2015	Axe Cop	N/A	Episode: "Heads Will Roll"
2016	The Simpsons	Boston American's Quarterback (voice)	Episode: "The Town"
2018–19	DuckTales	Zeus (voice)	3 episodes
2020	Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons	Slade Wilson/Deathstroke	Main role[36]
2020	Coyote	Ben Clemens	Main role[37]

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Fantastic Four	Ben Grimm / The Thing	Based on the film of the same name
2007	The Shield	Vic Mackey	Based on the TV series of the same name

Theater

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Defending the Caveman[10]	-	One-man show

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2002	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series	The Shield	Won
	Television Critics Association Awards	Individual Achievement in Drama		Won
2003	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor – Television Series Drama		Won
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Best Actor – Television Series Drama		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2004	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor – Television Series Drama		Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Best Actor – Television Series Drama		Won
2005	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor – Television Series Drama		Nominated
2006	MTV Movie Awards	Best On-Screen Team (shared with Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffud and Chris Evans)	Fantastic Four	Nominated

References in popular culture

The web series Jake and Amir often made reference to Chiklis in the phrase "going dickless for Michael Chiklis", which involves a person tucking their penis between their legs, ostensibly for Michael Chiklis.[38]

References

1. "Michael Chiklis Biography (1963–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2015-02-24.
2. Bickelhaupt, Susan (November 15, 1994). "Mother knows best". Boston Globe.
3. Susan Karlin; Vincent McMahon (November 1999). "Michael Chiklis: Hollywood Survivor". Cigar Aficionado. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
4. "Twitter / MichaelChiklis: I know everyone thinks of me". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
5. Lucas, Drake (June 28, 2008). "Michael Chiklis gets his day in Andover". The Eagle-Tribune. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
6. "BU alums Michael Chiklis and Gary Fleder on the set of CBS's new series "Vegas"". bu.edu. August 23, 2012. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
7. "School of Theatre Distinguished Awards". bu.edu. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
8. Stone, Stone (May 17, 1995). "Michael Chiklis: The show that could". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
9. "`Wired,' film adaptation of Belushi's life, has two good mimics, one bad plot". Minneapolis Star-Tribune. August 28, 1989. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
10. Haun, Harry (January 29, 1997). "'Commish' Becomes 'The Caveman' on B'Way". Playbill. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
11. "'Caveman' is closing". The New York Times. June 13, 1997.
12. Hibberd, James. "It's in the 'Cards' for Michael Chiklis". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008.
13. Ram, Archana (September 28, 2010). "'No Ordinary Family' premieres tonight: Will you be watching?". ew.com. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
14. Rice, Lynette (May 12, 2010). "Breaking: ABC picks up 'No Ordinary Family' starring Michael Chikilis". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 13, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
15. Gorman, Bill (May 13, 2011). "Updated: 'V' Cancelled; 'Brothers & Sisters,' 'Mr. Sunshine,' 'Detroit 187,' 'Off The Map,' 'No Ordinary Family' Cancelled Too". tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
16. "Michael Chiklis joins the cast of American Horror Story: Freak Show". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
17. Highfill, Samantha (October 12, 2015). "Michael Chiklis is ready to get his hands dirty on Gotham". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
18. http://michaelchiklis.com/music-influence-michael-chiklis/frontpage/influence/
19. "Michael Chiklis". IMDb.
20. "CHIKLIS BANS DAUGHTER FROM WATCHING HER OWN SHOW". contactmusic.com. March 24, 2004. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
21. Biography for Michael Chiklis on IMDb
22. "'Shield' star moves on to bigger Thing". TimesDaily. July 1, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
23. Bobbin, Jay (June 9, 2011). "Boston Bruins fan Michael Chiklis watching Stanley Cup Finals 'like a hawk'". zap2it.com. Archived from the original on September 9, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
24. Jurkowitz, Mark (September 16, 2003). "HBO takes a powerful swing at explaining Sox' sad history". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
25. Wilson, Dave. "Michael Chiklis: No ordinary Boston sports fan". espn.go.com. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
26. Fernandez, Jay A. (December 1, 2011). "Nikki Reed, Sean Faris Join Michael Chiklis' 'Pawn'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
27. "Michael Chiklis to Release Debut Single". The Hollywood Reporter. February 7, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
28. Rice, Lynette (February 22, 2011). "'No Ordinary Family' scoop: Michael Chiklis sings!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
29. Gayle Fee; Laura Raposa; Megan Johnson (May 29, 2012). "Michael Chiklis' 'high' school buzz".
30. "Why Michael Chiklis won't return to 'AHS'". Ora TV.
31. Tate, Laura (June 4, 2008). "Children's Lifesaving Foundation celebrates 15 years". The Malibu Times. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
32. Gans, Andrew (February 16, 2006). "Alexander, Kazan, Devine, Garber, Gets, Luft, Mullally and More Set for Funny Girl Benefit". playbill.com. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
33. "National Philoptochos Children's Medical Fund Luncheon". greeknewsonline.com. November 26, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
34. "The Entertainment Industry Foundation Revlon Run/Walk For Women Celebrates 14 Years in Los Angeles on May 12". prnewswire.com. April 10, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
35. N'Duka, Amanda (July 22, 2019). "Adam Sandler Sets Next Netflix Comedy With All-Star Cast Including Kevin James, Julie Bowen, Maya Rudolph & Many More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
37. "Paramount Network greenlights production on Coyote".
38. CollegeHumor (October 15, 2013). "Jake and Amir: Reddit Part 2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEd5tKmg6YY. Youtube. Google Inc. Retrieved October, 03, 2019.

External links

• Media related to Michael Chiklis at Wikimedia Commons
• Michael Chiklis on IMDb
• Michael Chiklis at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television