Reginald VelJohnson

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Reginald VelJohnson (born August 16, 1952) is an American actor of film, stage and television, best known for his role as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters, where he was the only cast member to appear in every single episode. He was also LAPD Sgt. Al Powell in the film Die Hard (1988) and its sequel Die Hard 2 (1990).

Early life

VelJohnson was born in Queens, New York,^[1] the son of Eve, a nurse, and Adam Johnson, a hospital attendant.^[2] His father left the family when VelJohnson was 13 years old and his mother subsequently married John Reilly. ^[1] In high school, he was classmates with George Tenet and porn star Ron Jeremy.^[3] VelJohnson obtained a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.^[1]

Career

VelJohnson was known for playing police officers in movies and on television. In Ghostbusters, he had a brief appearance as a jail guard, and in Crocodile Dundee, he plays a limo driver. VelJohnson played Sgt. Al Powell in the 1988 hit Die Hard and later reprised the character in the 1990 sequel Die Hard 2, albeit in a much smaller role. VelJohnson also played a police officer alongside Tom Hanks in Turner and Hooch (1989). Johnson was cast as Carl Winslow in the sitcom Family Matters in 1989, a role that he played until 1998. He also had a minor role in the 2002 film Like Mike. VelJohnson replayed his role of Sgt. Al Powell in the Gamecube video game title, Die Hard: Vendetta, also in 2002. In 2004 he took the title role in the off-Broadway show She all Dat! (playing "she"). Since the end of Family Matters, besides making a few guest appearances on TV shows, VelJohnson has done mostly theater work. He wrote a critically acclaimed series of short stories called Division Street.^{[citation needed]} One of them, called Sunday Evening Haircut, was made into a short film in 2005, which starred VelJohnson himself, alongside Kiki Shepard.

VelJohnson has also made guest appearances in several TV shows, including The Equalizer, Diagnosis Murder, Twice in a Lifetime, Will & Grace, Monk, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Eve, Crossing Jordan, The Parkers, That's So Raven, Chuck, in which he reprises his role as Al Powell, and Bones.

In 2007, he appeared in the short films Reverse, Nerve Endings, and Time Upon A Once which were made during the reality show On the Lot.^[4] The following year he appeared as the "Sgt. Al Powell" character from the Die Hard series in an episode of NBC's Chuck entitled "Chuck Versus the Santa Claus", as the cousin of Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence). ^[5]

Filmography

References

External links

• Reginald VelJohnson at the Internet Movie Database
• Reginald VelJohnson at Yahoo TV