Chris Ellis
Acting • Born 1956-04-14
Biography
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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Chris Ellis (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
109 credits
Armageddon
Movie • 1998
Flight Director Clark
Godzilla
Movie • 1998
General Anderson
Apollo 13
Movie • 1995
Deke Slayton
Bean
Movie • 1997
Detective Butler
Catch Me If You Can
Movie • 2002
Special Agent Witkins
Live Free or Die Hard
Movie • 2007
Capt. Jack Scalvino
My Cousin Vinny
Movie • 1992
J.T.
The Watcher
Movie • 2000
Hollis
Sparkler
Movie • 1997
Buddy #1
Gospel Hill
Movie • 2008
L Donn Murray
In Enemy Hands
Movie • 2004
Samuel Littleton
Home Fries
Movie • 1998
Henry Lever
Teenage Dirtbag
Movie • 2009
Pops
My Dinner with Jimi
Movie • 2003
Sergeant
October Sky
Movie • 1999
Principal Turner
Wag the Dog
Movie • 1997
Officer
G-Force
Movie • 2009
NSA Director
In the Line of Duty: The Price of Vengeance
Movie • 1994
News Vendor
Jessabelle
Movie • 2014
Sheriff Pruitt
Tiger Cruise
Movie • 2004
Captain Anderson
Helter Skelter
Movie • 2004
Sgt. Whiteley
Undercover Blues
Movie • 1993
Burt
Sissy Frenchfry
Movie • 2006
Willinger McDodey
That Thing You Do!
Movie • 1996
Phil Horace
Faults
Movie • 2014
Dad
A Little Princess
Movie • 1995
Policeman
Love Liza
Movie • 2002
Patriot Model Aeronautics Clerk
The Ghost Trap
Movie • 2024
Doug Kane
Beyond the City Limits
Movie • 2001
Det. Hanson
The Dark Knight Rises
Movie • 2012
Fr. Reilly
What Still Remains
Movie • 2018
Harvey
Crazy
Movie • 2008
Glen the Carousel Manager
Death and Texas
Movie • 2004
Phillip Brodeur
The Tie That Binds
Movie • 1995
Security Guard #1
The Show
Movie • 2017
Keller
Transformers
Movie • 2007
Admiral Brigham
Pitching Tents
Movie • 2017
Principal Don Bishop
If These Walls Could Talk
Movie • 1996
Crowd Leader
The Island
Movie • 2005
Aces & Spades Barman
Planet of the Apes
Movie • 2001
Commander Karl Vasich
Amelia 2.0
Movie • 2017
Senator Thaddeus Williams
The Oath
Movie • 2018
Hank
Kenny
Movie • 2018
Al
Her Costly Affair
Movie • 1996
Wes
Addams Family Values
Movie • 1993
Moving Man
Daddy and Them
Movie • 2001
Dewey
Fun with Dick and Jane
Movie • 2005
Vice President - Grand Cayman Bank
The Devil's Rejects
Movie • 2005
Coggs
Domestic Disturbance
Movie • 2001
Detective Warren
The Guest
Movie • 2014
Hendricks
Days of Thunder
Movie • 1990
Harlem Hoogerhyde
Con Air
Movie • 1997
BOP Official Grant
Crimson Tide
Movie • 1995
Additional Magician
Silo
Movie • 2021
Mr. Adler
Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
Movie • 1982
Clown
Believe in Me
Movie • 2006
Jim Stovall
Wonderland
Movie • 2003
Captain Nimziki
McFarland, USA
Movie • 2015
Coach Jenks (as Chris Ellis Jr.)
The Darkroom
Movie • 2006
Jackson
On the Line
Movie • 1998
Officer Roux
Six Feet Under
TV • 2001
Construction Worker #2
Veronica Mars
TV • 2004
Reverend Ted Capistrano
Ghost Whisperer
TV • 2005
Captain Ken Nilsen
Alias
TV • 2001
Agent Chapman
The Pretender
TV • 1996
Daniel Crockett
The Unit
TV • 2006
Congressman Bruce Gelber
Cold Case
TV • 2003
Jim Horn (2008)
CSI: NY
TV • 2004
Vincent Williams
Burn Notice
TV • 2007
Virgil Watkins
Criminal Minds
TV • 2005
Sheriff Rhodes
The X-Files
TV • 1993
Sheriff Lance Hindt
9-1-1: Lone Star
TV • 2020
Derek Poole
Millennium
TV • 1996
Jim Penseyres
Melrose Place
TV • 1992
Cop
Roswell
TV • 1999
T. Greer
First Monday
TV • 2002
Chicago Hope
TV • 1994
Bill Erskine
Family Law
TV • 1999
Mr. Reese
K.C. Undercover
TV • 2015
Christos Markos
Birds of Prey
TV • 2002
Larry Ketterly
Diagnosis: Murder
TV • 1993
Leonard Wilson
The West Wing
TV • 1999
Congressman Fields
Political Animals
TV • 2012
Jubal Jacobs
Mad Men
TV • 2007
Del Hill
From the Earth to the Moon
TV • 1998
Bob Parker
The Mentalist
TV • 2008
Sherrif Mullery
Law & Order: LA
TV • 2010
Walter Exley
Space: Above and Beyond
TV • 1995
Adm. Stenner
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
TV • 2000
Clinton Malton
The Finder
TV • 2012
Warden Nick Larsen
Justified
TV • 2010
Douglas Cooper
Promised Land
TV • 1996
Brian Pascal
Fairly Legal
TV • 2011
Maddox Resor
Murder One
TV • 1995
Mr. Switzer
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
TV • 2008
Hayes
Warehouse 13
TV • 2009
Colonel Arnold Cassell
NCIS
TV • 2003
John Deluca
Young Sheldon
TV • 2017
Marty Steinbecker
Homecoming
TV • 2018
Richard Lehmann
The Office
TV • 2005
Chris O'Keefe
Arli$$
TV • 1996
Henneman
Las Vegas
TV • 2003
Dr. Sassen
Chiefs
TV • 1983
Bobby Patrick
NYPD Blue
TV • 1993
Marshal
Harry's Law
TV • 2011
In Plain Sight
TV • 2008
Reidell
The Practice
TV • 1997
Zoning Board Chairman Donald Blane
The Good Guys
TV • 2010
Beau Teague
Arli$$
TV • 1996
Maynard Dupree