Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi (born April 5, 1952) is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell. He appeared in the 2008 film, Flash of Genius, released October 3.
Early life
Pileggi, one of several children, was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Maxine, a homemaker, and Vito Pileggi, a defense contractor.[1] His family moved frequently because of his father's occupation, and Pileggi lived in Oregon, California, and Texas before spending most of his adolescence in Turkey.[2]
Pileggi was a high school athlete, concentrating on wrestling and football. He attended the University of Texas in Austin, receiving a degree in business. For a while he worked in Iran as a defense contractor, until the 1979 Iranian revolution caused him and his brother to have to flee the country, escaping to Greece.
Career
Early career
Pileggi began acting while he was a high school student in Turkey, playing musical theater.[3] After returning to Austin from Iran, he performed in local theaters, and continued his acting career with small roles in B-movies, and guest roles in television shows such as Dallas, Married with Children, Walker, Texas Ranger; and China Beach.
In the 1980s, Pileggi starred in several films including Three O'Clock High as Duke "The Duker" Herman, an over zealous tough-as-nails high school parking lot security guard, and in Shocker as body-possessing serial killer Horace Pinker.
Television
His most notable role was as the FBI's Assistant Director Walter Skinner on The X-Files. The role was originally recurring, but the part expanded, and in 2001 he became a main member of the cast. The character gradually became the most integral character besides the two leads. He remained with the show until its television end in 2002.[4] Pileggi also played the character in the 1998 X-Files film and, six years after the show's end, reprised the character in the film The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Pileggi's recent work has included starring in the short-lived TV show Tarzan and co-starring with Barbara Hershey and Oliver Hudson in the short-lived TV show The Mountain. Since 2005, he has played the recurring role of character Colonel Steven Caldwell, Commander of the Earth Battlecruiser, Daedalus, in the second and subsequent seasons of the television series Stargate Atlantis. He also acted in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in 2006 had a regular guest role on Day Break as Robbery/Homicide Detective Spivak. Pileggi also appeared on the show Cold Case in the episode "Offender", in which he played father accused of murdering his own son, who then threatens to commit one murder per day until the case is reopened and solved. Pileggi also played the role of Larry Jennings, chairman of the board of the hospital, in Grey's Anatomy, and of Red Forman's friend Bull in an episode of That '70s Show. In 2008, he appeared in the Supernatural episode "In the Beginning", playing the role of Dean and Sam Winchester's grandfather, Samuel Campbell.
Pileggi appeared in two episodes of Law and Order: SVU as DEA agent Jack Hammond. In the first, season five's "Loss", Hammond and his partner, DEA agent Tim Donovan, investigate the murder of a hooker who was an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agent. At the end of the episode, ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) is shot by a hired assassin. Cabot is presumed dead, but instead is placed in the Witness Protection Program, a status only known to Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson. Pileggi's character reappears in season six's "Ghost", when Hammond appears in the office of SVU Captain Donald Cragen to notify him Cabot is still alive. Hammond and Cragen travel to Wisconsin to inform Cabot of the capture of the man who shot her, Liam Connors. Cabot opts to return to New York and testify against Connors. Cabot's testimony, along with that of an 8-year old who witnessed the murder of his parents, sends Connors to prison on four murder charges and Cabot's attempted murder. Hammond informs Stabler, Benson, Cragen, and Cabot's successor as ADA, Casey Novak, that Cabot and the young witness must be given new identities in WITSEC.
In 2008 Pileggi played Ernest Darby, the head of the Nordics Motorcycle Club in the Sons of Anarchy television series. He also played Spree Killer Norman Hill (AKA The Road Warrior) on a season four episode of Criminal Minds, entitled "Normal".
Pileggi has also done some voice acting. His voice was featured as the githzerai Dak'kon in the video game Planescape: Torment. Another role he voices is Commissioner James Gordon on the new Kids WB! animated show The Batman. Pileggi also hosted the controversial FOX specials Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed and Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?[5]
Personal life
Pileggi's first marriage was to Debbie Andrews; the couple were married from 1978 to 1983.
In 1996, he married his second wife, Arlene Warren. They have one daughter, Sawyer, born May 24, 1998. Warren and Pileggi were originally introduced to each other by David Duchovny, who was later the best man at their Hawaii wedding. Warren had worked on the set of The X-Files as a stand-in for Gillian Anderson. Later on in the run of the series, Warren was featured as Skinner's fictional secretary, also named Arlene.[6]
References
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