Michael Chiklis

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Date of Birth : Aug 30th 1963

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American actor. He is known for starring in two popular police dramas: The Commish (1991–1995) and The Shield (2002) and as Ben Grimm/The Thing in the live-action Fantastic Four films.

The Commish was Chiklis’s first acclaimed and successful role. In the family-friendly police comedy/drama, Chiklis played Anthony “Tony” J. Scali, a police commissioner in a small city in upstate New York. A stern but lovable father figure, Chiklis’s character had an easygoing style, smart wit, and an unorthodox approach to parenthood and police work. After The Commish, Chiklis starred in the short-lived and critically-panned NBC sitcom Daddio. After playing Curly Howard in a television movie about the Three Stooges, Chiklis decided to reinvent his image. With his wife’s help, he spent six months on an extensive workout regimen and shaved his head. He turned up to audition for The Shield looking nothing like the pudgy, friendly character of The Commish.

Winning over the creator Shawn Ryan, Chiklis nabbed the leading role of the show’s tough, edgy, detective Vic Mackey. Although The Shield has been controversial because of its violent content, Chiklis’s acting has been highly praised, and he has won several awards for his role. Playing the role of the bulked up and brutal cop has also helped Chiklis break out from typecasting, shedding the overweight and friendly image that had defined his career in the past. It was noted by Charlton Brooker that in many shots he bore a strong resemblence to Ross Kemp. Since 2000, he is also taken up a number of voice roles, voicing Chihiro’s father, Akio, in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Roman/King Webster in the direct-to-video feature The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina. He has also performed in several episodes of Family Guy and had a voice role in Heavy Gear: The Animated Series.

In 2005, he starred in Fantastic Four as The Thing and for its sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. A fan of the comic series, Chiklis was often praised for his performance in a film that otherwise earned mixed reviews. Chiklis’s first major recognition came in 2003, as he won the 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for his role as Detective Vic Mackey on The Shield. He received a Golden Globe that same year for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series-Drama as well. Between 2004 and 2005, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series but did not win.

A lifelong comic book fan, he rarely (if ever) turns down an autograph request from children. In fact, according to the DVD commentary for the Fantastic Four film, his voice has been going hoarse from doing so many requests as Thing; in Chiklis’s own words “How do you say no to an 8 year old?”

Chiklis married Michelle Morán on 21 June 1992 and they have 2 daughters, Autumn, born on October 9, 1993, and Odessa, born in 1999. Autumn plays Vic Mackey’s daughter Cassidy on The Shield.