Everett McGill

Everett McGill
Born	October 21, 1945 (1945-10-21) (age 64) Miami Beach, Florida

Everett McGill (born October 21, 1945) is an American actor, best known for mostly playing villains in films like Licence to Kill, Silver Bullet, and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

Biography

McGill was born Charles Everett McGill III in Miami Beach, Florida. He graduated from Rosedale High School, Rosedale, Kansas, in 1963.

McGill has a relatively short filmography, but has managed to garner some level of fame by appearing in films and television series, including a stint as Chad Richards on the soap opera The Guiding Light in 1975 and 1976, with cult followings. After coming into the public eye in 1981 for his role as the rugged caveman leader Naoh in Quest for Fire, McGill appeared in Silver Bullet, a 1985 werewolf movie inspired by a Stephen King short story; the Korean War battle epic Field of Honor and the Clint Eastwood war film Heartbreak Ridge in 1986; and in the 1989 installment of the James Bond franchise, Licence to Kill.

The muscular, 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall actor is probably most widely recognized for his work with director David Lynch. McGill first worked with Lynch in the 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, in which he played Fremen leader Stilgar. McGill later appeared as a major character on the TV series Twin Peaks, in which he played Ed Hurley, a sensitive mechanic torn between his high school sweetheart, Norma Jennings, and his shrewish, one-eyed wife, Nadine. Ed and Norma's troubled romance was one of the show's major storylines. Subsequently, McGill also appeared in Lynch's 1999 film, The Straight Story, again as a mechanic.

In 1991, McGill and his Twin Peaks spouse Wendy Robie appeared as the brother and sister villains of the Wes Craven feature, The People Under the Stairs. He appeared in My Fellow Americans as "twisted psycho" Colonel Paul Tanner, and in Under Siege 2 as an equally twisted and ruthless mercenary who is brutally humiliated by Steven Seagal.

Babylon 5 producer J. Michael Straczynski originally intended for McGill to play the role of Major Ryan in the episode "Severed Dreams". However he did not know McGill's first name, so when he asked to have McGill contacted, Straczynski was asked if he meant Bruce McGill, to which he replied, "yes". Even though it became apparent to Straczynski when Bruce McGill met him for lunch that this was not the McGill he expected, Straczynski decided to use Bruce McGill anyway.

The main character in O Brother Where Art Thou? is called Ulysses Everett McGill. This is probably a reference to McGill's role in Quest for Fire: in both movies, both characters lead a team of three in a perilous odyssey.

External links

• Everett McGill at the Internet Movie Database