William Petersen.....Gilbert Grissom

William Petersen

William L. Petersen

Petersen, the youngest of six children, was born in Illinois to parents who worked in the furniture business. He graduated from Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho, in 1972. He was accepted to Idaho State University on a football scholarship. While at Idaho State, Petersen took an acting course which changed the direction of his life. He left school along with his then wife, Joanne, in 1974 and followed a drama professor to Basque country where he studied as a Shakespearian actor. Petersen was interested in Basque culture and he studied the Basque language, Euskera, and gave his daughter the Basque name Maite, meaning love. Petersen returned to Idaho intent on being an actor. Not wanting to work a non-acting job in Idaho, he returned to the Chicago area, living with relatives. He performed with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and was a co-founder of the Remains Theater Ensemble.


He is usually credited without his middle initial (i.e. credited as "William Petersen" and not "William L. Petersen"). Because his role in Manhunter was so emotionally exhausting, he did everything he could to rid himself of Will Graham after finishing principal photography. He shaved off his beard, cut his hair and dyed it blonde. He also claims to have done this because, while rehearsing for a play in Chicago, his dialogue was always coming out Will Graham; he dyed his hair so he could look in the mirror and see a different person. In a move perhaps indicative of his career choices, Petersen declined a part in Oliver Stone's Platoon, as it would have kept him in the Philippines, away from his family. Instead, he worked on the 1987 made-for-TV movie Long Gone. To Live and Die in L.A., Petersen appears, briefly, frontally nude. Petersen was offered the role of Henry Hill in the movie Goodfellas, but turned it down. In 1993, Petersen appeared in the miniseries "Return to Lonesome Dove," and in 1996, appeared in Fear. Both projects featured him as a character with the surname "Walker."

In the 2000 release, The Contender, Petersen played the role of Governor Jack Hathaway, an unscrupulous candidate for vice president following the death of the incumbent. He also appeared uncredited in the noir thriller Mulholland Falls as a character who finds himself on the violent receiving end of Los Angeles police.

Since 2000, Petersen has gained his greatest fame starring as Dr. Gil Grissom in the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Petersen recently took a break from CSI to appear in a five-week run of the Trinity Repertory Company production of Dublin Carol in Providence, Rhode Island. On the evening of Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Petersen was at Wrigley Field to join (WGN) the Chicago Cubs – Florida Marlins game and he mentioned he had seen CSI: The Experience at the Museum of Science and Industry on the South Side of Chicago. He joined radio sportscasters covering the game. Petersen was on a nine-week break from the show at the time, and he expressed how he and his castmates were “blessed” to have such a successful series when he had seen shows starring friends canceled after only a few episodes.

BILLY PETERSEN BIO
(IMDb)

Date of Birth 21 February 1953, Evanston, Illinois, USA

Birth Name William Louis Petersen

Nickname Billy

Height 5' 10" (1.78 m)

Spouse

Gina Cirone	(14 June 2003 - present)
Joanne Brady	(1974 - 1981) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia Attended Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho. He wears his old football jersey from that school in most of his movies.Daughter named Maite Nerea, born in 1975, in Mondragon (País Vasco, Spain).Testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on increased funding for crime labs.Attended the renowned Steppenwolf Company.Engaged to Gina Cirone, a biology teacher. [March 2002]Started at Idaho State University on a football scholarship, where he found acting.Married longtime girl friend, Gina Cirone, in Petrignano, Italy.He has a production company called, High Horse (with friend & fellow "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000) producer, Cynthia Chvatal).He has one grandchild named Mazrik William (born October 2003).One "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000) plot line had him pursuing an insane killer played by Tom Noonan, who also played the titular insane killer in Manhunter (1986).Was offered a role in Platoon (1986), but turned it down because it was a low paying job and the prospect of going to the Phillipines for weeks of training before filming didn't appeal to him.Calls Long Gone (1987) (TV) the most fun he ever had making a movie. He made it instead of appearing in Platoon (1986).Was cast in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) after Gary Sinise declined the part. Sinise became the star of "CSI: NY" (2004), which is the spin-off of Petersen's series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000).Co-presented an award at the 2004 Emmys with Dennis Franz, whose former "NYPD Blue" (1993) co-star, David Caruso stars in "CSI: Miami" (2002) the spin-off of Petersen's series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000).Has played two characters with the surname "Walker." He played Gideon Walker in "Return to Lonesome Dove" (1993) and Steve Walker in Fear (1996).Declined the offer to produce "CSI: Miami" (2002), the spin-off of his series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000).Because his role in Manhunter (1986) was so emotionally exhausting, he did everything he could to rid himself of the Will Graham character after filming had been completed. This included cutting his hair and dyeing it blonde, and shaving off his beard.Played Melissa Lahlitah Crider's father in the mini series The Beast (1996) (TV). Crider later appeared in the second season premiere of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000).Was 33 years old when Manhunter (1986) was released. When the film's remake, Red Dragon (2002) was released, his Will Graham successor, Edward Norton, was also 33 years old.An avid Chicago Cubs fan, he sings the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field every year and also narrated the documentary Wrigley Field: Beyond the Ivy (2001) (V) about Wrigley Field.Owns the rights of James Ellroy's crime novel "Clandestine".Turned down a major part in Michael Mann's Heat (1995).Has performed at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.Appears in The Skulls (2000) with Hill Harper. Harper currently co- stars in "CSI: NY" (2004), the spin-off of Petersen's series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000).Winner of the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jack Abbott in "The Belly Of The Beast".Has been portrayed in several CSI games.He has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, Illinois since 2008.Shares his birthday with Larry Drake, who appeared with him in The Beast (1996) (TV).He was nominated for a 1982 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for "The Tooth of Crime" at the Remains Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.He was awarded the 1984 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for "In the Belly of the Beast" at the Wisdom Bridge Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.He was nominated for a 1994 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for "The Night of the Iguana" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.He was awarded the 2009 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for "Blackbird" at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, Illinois.Has a second grandson named Indigo August, born in August of 2009.Longtime friend of Gary Cole.

William Petersen, the star of the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, had
a near death experience which he described in an interview for Playboy magazine
(March 2004, page 139).
"Years ago, doing a play in Chicago, I cut my finger in half onstage. We
obviously had to stop because, well, I didn't have a finger. By the time they
got me to the ER I had lost a lot of blood and passed out. I could hear the
doctors working on me, saying that they had lost my vital signs. I was on the
"All That Jazz" escalator with a long tunnel and a lot of white light. Then I
specifically remember a dominant male voice saying, "It's not your time. Get
off the escalator. You've got ** to do." I came to, and got sewed up.
Something in me changed, a sort of knowledge that somewhere on the other side,
it's good. For weeks, the more I talked about it, the more freaked out people
got. Some of them were like, "Okay, whatever: You took too many drugs."

from William Petersen Appreciation Page

Personal Info Full name : William Louis Petersen
People call him : Billy or Bill
Birthdate : Feb. 21, 1953
Birthplace : Evanston, Illinois
Eye color : Blue
Height : 5′11″
Marital Status : Married to Gina Cirone, June 14, 2003
Children : Maite, born in 1975

Favorite residence : Chicago, Illinois “Chicago is such a blue-collar, middle-American city, it’s just real people, you know? Nobody has an agenda that fits into yours. I get recognized and stuff but they don’t give a **** about that. They just want to know whether or not you’re going to buy them a beer.” – William Petersen

What is he like? : According to some who know him, he can be enigmatic and enjoys his solitude, but he is also well-liked with a generous, charming and magnanimous personality. Owning an adventurous spirit and sharp intellect, he is prone to restlessness and by his own admission, easily bored. He is an excellent horseman, experienced fisherman and avid sports fan, who is especially passionate about Chicago sports.

What some people he’s worked with have to say: “It’s a dream and a joy to work with William Petersen. He is funny, he is very smart, and he is wild!”

“William Petersen is maybe one of my all time heroes.” Jorja Fox

“Billy is very enigmatic. One day you think you know him, then the next day you realize you don’t.” Marg Helgenberger

“I add things (to scenes), so does everybody. We get it from Billy. Billy is the king of adding things to scenes. He’s a great guy.” George Eads.

Curt Columbus (Artist Director of Theatre on the Lake) recalls a time when he saw William Petersen, who already had gotten his big break in movies, hanging lights at the old Organic space in the 1980s.

Columbus was impressed with Petersen’s lack of ego and commitment to the work at hand. “I thought, if Bill Petersen can hang lights, who am I to think I’m above doing that?” he points out. “I tell my students, don’t say no to anything that’s reasonable. Even terrible projects are a learning experience.” “He’s friendly, serious, and very balanced. He cares – a lot.” Karen Silas, co-star in The Beast Background William Petersen is the youngest of 6 children born to 4th generation Danish immigrant furniture retailers. His parents owned a furniture store in Evanston. It was never really expected he would continue in the family business, as he says his father never really held out much hope he could ever hold down a job.

He was so much younger than his siblings, he grew up nearly as an only child. He was an excellent athlete who played football, baseball and basketball in high school. He was an admittedly poor student with little interest in school. Possessing a gypsy soul, he moved to Boise Idaho when he was 15 to live with his brother. There he attended Bishop Kelly High School, a Catholic school, where he graduated in 1972. That is also where he met his first wife, Joanne. His energy not yet focused, he was a fairly wild young man who was into rock concerts, drinking and the usual pot smoking. “General brattiness” as he called it.

After graduating from high school, he attended Idaho State University in nearby Pocatello in the hopes of winning a football scholarship. His grades were too low to allow him to play, so they put him in the theater department in some stagecraft classes to try and raise his grade point average. It was a date with destiny, as he fell in love with the theater. (Lucky us!) He and Joanne followed a favorite professor to Spain, where they started a Shakespeare company in the Basque region. They married, and their daughter Maite was born later that year. (His unsettled lifestyle was hard on Joanne, and they divorced four years later. They remain friends to this day.)

The tiny family moved back to Idaho, where Billy went from job to job, including some logging work. He acted in plays at night at local colleges. Broke, the family packed up and moved back to Evanston, where they lived with his parents for a while. Burning with desire to be an actor, he pursued roles in the blossoming Chicago theater scene. He gained his Actor’s Equity card in 1978 at the Victory Gardens Theater in the title roll of Dillinger. He realized the best way to get cast in a play was to start his own theater company. (He hates auditioning.) Billy and some friends, including long time associate and friend Cindy Chvatal and fellow actor Gary Cole, founded the Remains Theater Company, where he not only acted, but was Artistic Director for many years.

After financial difficulties and the death of Co-Artistic director Larry Sloan, the company was disbanded in 1995. The small company produced experimental pieces that soon began to attract attention in Chicago theater circles. The Remains Theater was well on it’s way to legendary status and Billy on his way to the very top of the theater world in Chicago. His Joseph Jefferson award for best actor for his portrayal of Jack Henry Abbott in Belly of the Beast: Letters From Prison, sealed his status. The Chicago theater scene at that time was bold, fresh, exciting and bursting with extraordinarily talented writers, actors and directors. Billy not only acted with Remains, but also the Wisdom Bridge, Goodman, Organic and the famed Steppenwolf. His talent also began to attract Hollywood. He was appearing in a Streetcar Named Desire at the Stratford Festival in Ontario Canada, where William Friedkin saw him and asked him to read for a new movie he was making called To Live and Die in LA. Billy read two lines and that was enough for Friedkin, who cast him immediately.

Possessing great talent, a charismatic personality, and boyish good looks, movie stardom was predicted for him, but never happened. This is partially due to the fact that To Live and Die in LA and Manhunter did poorly at the box office (they are both cult hits now), and partially due to the fact that theater is his first love and he has always preferred to do projects that speak to him artistically instead of commercially. He wanted to be an actor, not a star. Hollywood has always come to him, not the other way around.

He and Cindy formed their own film company, called High Horse Films in 1990. Their first project was a movie titled Hard Promises, also starring Sissy Spacek. He has appeared in many theatrical and made for television movies, as well as dozens of plays through out his eclectic career, making him recognizable to some, but it wasn’t until he was cast as Gil Grissom in the smash television hit CSI that he became recognizable to millions. Staying true to his personality, he is not only the star of the show, but a producer as well.