Tom Atkins (actor)

Tom Atkins is an American actor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 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), and The Last-Drive In with Joe Bob Briggs (2019).

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. Tom studied at the 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.

Television

 * 1963 The Doctors as Dylan Levein
 * 1964 Look Up and Live as Doctor
 * 1974 Get Christie Love! as Peterson
 * 1974 Rhoda as Vic Rhodes
 * 1974 Harry O as Sergeant Frank Cole (5 episodes)
 * 1975 Miles to Go Before I Sleep as O'Dell TV Movie
 * 1975 The Rookies as Brad Gifford
 * 1975 Hawaii Five-O: Season 8 episode 8, Sing a Song of Suspense as Koko Apaleka
 * 1976 Visions as Robert Dayka
 * 1976-1977 Serpico - Lieutenant Tom Sullivan (16 episodes)
 * 1974-1977 The Rockford Files as Lieutenant Alex Diel (8 episodes)
 * 1977 Baretta as Vic
 * 1977 Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo as Buddy TV Movie
 * 1978 A Death in Canaan as Lieutenant Bragdon TV Movie
 * 1980 Skag as Dr. Moscone Pilot
 * 1980 Power as Buck Buchanan 'TV Movie
 * 1981 Sherlock Holmes as Craigin TV Movie
 * 1979-1981 Lou Grant as Dr. Sorenson / Jim Bronsky / Frank Durning (3 episodes)
 * 1982 M*A*S*H as Major Lawrence Weems
 * 1982 Desperate Lives as John Cameron TV Movie
 * 1982 Quincy, M.E. as Commander Gene Butler / John Todd (2 episodes)
 * 1982 Skeezer as Dr. Chanless TV Movie
 * 1983 St. Elsewhere as Bob Lonnicker
 * 1983 Murder Me, Murder You as Jack Vance TV Movie
 * 1984 T.J. Hooker as Phil Parker / Tommy D'Amico
 * 1985 The Fall Guy as George Spiros
 * 1986 Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Police Lieutenant
 * 1986 Blind Justice as Kramer TV Movie
 * 1986 Stingray as Donald Dixon
 * 1986 Spenser: For Hire as Hatch
 * 1987 A Stranger Waits as Sheriff Collier TV Movie
 * 1986-1987 The Equalizer as Detective Frank Standish (3 episodes)
 * 1988 Lemon Sky as Douglas TV Series
 * 1989 Dead Man Out as Burger TV Movie
 * 1989 The Heist as Detective Leland TV Movie
 * 1990 Against the Law as Walter Littlefield
 * 1991 Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann as Jamieson TV Movie
 * 1992 What She Doesn't Know as Roy TV Movie
 * 1993 Sworn to Vengeance as Ed Barry TV Movie
 * 1993 Walker, Texas Ranger as Wade Cantrell
 * 1994 Fortune Hunter as Richard Bennett
 * 1996 The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits as Commander Alex Diehl TV Movie
 * 1996 Xena: Warrior Princess as Atrius
 * 1996 Dying to be Perfect: The Ellen Hart Pena Story as Henry Hart TV Movie
 * 1998 Homicide: Life on the Street as Grenville Rawlins
 * 1999 The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds ... It Leads as Commander Alex Diehl TV Movie
 * 2003 Oz as Mayor Wilson Lowen (2 episodes)
 * 2003 Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Mr. Monahan
 * 2004 The Jury as Boyd Kingman
 * 2016 Horror's Hallowed Grounds as Himself
 * 2019 The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs as Himself
 * 2023 Creepshow as Frank (in "Something Borrowed, Something Blue")

Self

 * 2006 Halloween: 25 years of Terror – Video Documentary
 * 2007 Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow – Video Documentary
 * 2009 ''My Bloody Valentine: Sex, Blood and Screams – The Make-Up Effects - Video Documentary Short
 * 2009 Thrill Me!: The Making of Night of the Creeps – Video Documentary
 * 2009 Night of the Creeps: Tom Atkins, Man of Action – Video Documentary Short
 * 2011 Doomed Detective: Tom Atkins on Maniac Cop – Video Documentary
 * 2012 Stand Alone: The Making of Halloween III: Season of the Witch Video Short
 * 2016 Creepshow Days with Michael Gornick Video Short
 * 2019 In Search of Darkness – Documentary
 * 2020 In Search of Darkness: Part II – Documentary

Archive footage

 * 2011–2014 Cinemassacre's Monster Madness as Ray Cameron / Dr. Dan Challis
 * 2014–2019 Welcome to the Basement as Ray Cameron / Sergeant Krebs