With the feature film The Tillamook Treasure (2006), slated for release next year, Brian Thompson continues his versatile assault on Hollywood. Having already created dozens of different characters for the screen and TV, from leading men to the raucously insane, this year will be no exception. Lending his talents to the TV arena, Brian performed this year in "Enterprise" (2001), "Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service" (2003), "Karen Sisco" (2003) and "Charmed" (1998). Recent DVD releases found him in high heels and stockings as a transvestite who mishandles David Spade in Joe Dirt (2001). He was also trying to incite a holy war as "Cyrus Jacob", the bent-on-revolution charismatic leader who crosses paths with a martial arts-laden jewel thief in Jean-Claude Van Damme's latest, The Order (2003). This year saw Brian's portrayal of "Capt. Tower", leading the army rangers on an expedition deep inside a giant mysterious monolith, in the Sci-Fi Network's Epoch (2000) (TV).
Thompson, who prefers comedy to the pumped-up world of action adventure, felt quite at home in Joe Dirt (2001), having already traded punch lines in over a dozen comedies with the likes of Steve Martin, Martin Short, Mel Brooks, Annie Potts, Chevy Chase, Bill Paxton, George Burns, Elliott Gould, Bruce Willis and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Thompson was born in Ellensburg, Washington, located in the same area where "Northern Exposure" (1990) would later be filmed. Raised on the Columbia River in Longview, he learned the value of academics and athletics, as the son of two teachers and the second of six siblings. His interest in acting was first sparked during his senior year of high school with the role of the Russian ballet instructor Boris in the comedy "You Can't Take it With You".
Under the pretense of attending Central Washington University to play football and study business management, he quietly auditioned for every available play, trodding the boards for a dozen school productions, from musicals and operas to the more lighthearted fare of 'Neil Simon (I)'.
Earning a scholarship to the University of California-Irvine, he sailed through a three-year Master of Fine Arts program, learning from such theatrical luminaries as playwright Edward Albee, Robert Cohen and Jerzy Grotoswski, and supplementing his education through work with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Before graduation he began to audition theatrically, and by the time school ended he had his SAG card, an agent, and five pro credits, including James Cameron's The Terminator (1984), where he and Bill Paxton's clothes were forcibly removed by a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger.
About a year after Arnold took Brian's clothes, Sylvester Stallone wanted a hack at Brian as well. After seven auditions and a screen test, Brian earned the right to get impaled on a meat hook, then burned alive, Stallone's Cobra (1986). This began a strong of credits that has left Thompson in and around some of Hollywood's biggest and most projects: Alien Nation (1988), Dragonheart (1996), Lionheart (1987), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Star Trek: Generations (1994), ¡Three Amigos! (1986), Three Fugitives (1989), Pass the Ammo (1988), Fright Night Part 2 (1988), Life Stinks (1991), Moon 44 (1990), "NYPD Blue" (1993), "Charmed" (1998), "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993), "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997), "The X Files" (1993).
We must give honorable mention to "The Bounty Hunters" (2000) where Brian found time to abduct agent "Fox Mulder" (David Duchovny) in the wildly successful TV series "The X Files" (1993), where Brian keeps our planet safe from alien inhabitation.
Brian has tackled two superhero roles as well: first, Conan the Librarian (1999), starring red in the title role, a PBS special to encourage kids to read. He also earned critical acclaim playing the larger-than-life role of "Hercules" in Jason and the Argonauts (2000) (TV) Probably the first part that demanded use of his classical background as well as his 6'3" muscled frame. Brian says that no gym can claim him as a member, and that his physique is kept honed by years of windsurfing and now kitesurfing.
Taking a curiously "musical" approach to his craft, the actor continually seeks fresh rhythms for each new role. Brian verifies his well rounded nature with a resume that lists such special skills as martial arts (black belt Hapkido), piano and sushi rolling. He lives at home with his 16-year-old son Jordan and 14-year-old daughter Daphne.
The sometimes-comic, sometimes-dramatic exploits of the Bradford family--father Tom (a columnist for a Sacramento newspaper), mother Joan and their eight children: Mary, ...
His father, Myles Marsden, a choreographer, founded the Rhode Island State Ballet. As such, as a small child, Jason was surrounded by dancers and actors. Friends of his p...
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