# Tom Atkins (actor)

Tommy Lee Atkins (born November 13, 1938) is an American actor. He is known for his work in the horror and thriller film genres, having worked with writers and directors such as Shane Black, William Peter Blatty, John Carpenter, Fred Dekker, Richard Donner, Stephen King, and George A. Romero. He is also a familiar face to mainstream viewers, often playing police officers and tough authority figures and is perhaps best known for his role as Lt. Alex Diel in The Rockford Files (1974–1977).
Atkins has appeared in numerous films including The Fog (1980), The Ninth Configuration (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Creepshow (1982), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Night of the Creeps (1986), Lethal Weapon (1987), Maniac Cop (1988), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Bob Roberts (1992), Striking Distance (1993), My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), Drive Angry (2011), Encounter (2018), and Trick (2019).
Atkins has also appeared in numerous television series and films such as Hawaii Five-O (1975), Kojak: Flowers for Matty (1990), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Fortune Hunter (1994), Xena: Warrior Princess (1996), Homicide: Life on the Street (1998), Oz (2003), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2003), The Jury (2004), The Last-Drive In with Joe Bob Briggs (2019), City on a Hill (2022), and Creepshow (2023).

## Early life

Atkins initially had no desire to be an actor. His father worked in a steel mill in Pennsylvania and Atkins assumed that he would follow in his father's footsteps. He enlisted in the United States Navy and "noticed that the officers lived great, but that was only because they had gone to college," and so, after leaving the navy, Atkins enrolled in college where he met a girl who was involved in a theatre group. Atkins studied at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and was a member of the Gamma Phi fraternity. He says: "I was in my 20s already when I got interested in acting and I liked it a lot."

## Career

Atkins began his career in stage plays both on-and-off Broadway, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television. His first movie role was in The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra. Talking of his experience working on his first feature film – and with Sinatra – Atkins says: "It was great! It was intimidating and frightening and scary but Frank was great. He was very easy to work with. He didn't like to do a lot of takes. But then it's not like we were doing Shakespeare."
After appearing in TV series and movies, including portraying Lt. Alex Diel in seasons 1 and 2 of The Rockford Files, Atkins began working within the horror and science fiction genres. He appeared in two films directed by John Carpenter: the 1980 ghost story The Fog and the 1981 science fiction thriller Escape from New York. His next role (this time a leading role) was the third installment of the Halloween franchise, the Carpenter-produced Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).
He completed further work with George A. Romero, appearing in three of the director's projects: the anthology Creepshow (1982), written by Stephen King; the anthology Two Evil Eyes (1990), based on tales by Edgar Allan Poe; and Bruiser (2000).
He portrayed Detective Ray Cameron in the 1986 cult horror film Night of the Creeps, a role Atkins calls his very favorite. He tells Classic-Horror magazine "It was the most fun film I've ever worked on. It was a pure giggle from beginning to end. The director Fred Dekker was very young and very talented and he went on to do The Monster Squad afterwards. I think he wrote a terrific film that was kind of a big put-on of '50s horror. And I had great lines in that movie!"
Atkins has continued to act in both the thriller and police procedural genre. He is well known to movie goers for his role as Michael Hunsaker in the Richard Donner film Lethal Weapon (1987), which stars Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Gary Busey. In 1993 he took a role in Striking Distance (1993) alongside Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Tom Sizemore. In television, Atkins reprised his role of Commander Diehl for a series of Rockford Files movies during the 1990s.
Atkins is a frequent player in shows in the Pittsburgh theatre scene, most famously in the one-man show The Chief at Pittsburgh Public Theater, in which he depicted the late founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Art Rooney. Also at the Public, he played the title role in Macbeth, opposite Jean Smart as Lady Macbeth and Keith Fowler as Macduff. He was the star of A Musical Christmas Carol at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, portraying the character of Ebenezer Scrooge. He appeared on Broadway in David Storey's The Changing Room, for which he received the 1973 Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Performer.
In 2009, he had a supporting role as a retired sheriff in the remake My Bloody Valentine 3D and co-starred with Nicolas Cage in Todd Farmer's Drive Angry, in 2011; both films are directed by Patrick Lussier.
In the 2018 sci-fi movie Encounter, he was Professor Westlake, who studied the biology of the alien lifeform.

## Selected filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1968 | The Detective | Harmon | Gordon Douglas | |
| 1970 | Where's Poppa? | Policeman in Apartment | Carl Reiner | |
| 1970 | The Owl and the Pussycat | Kid in Car | Herbert Ross | Uncredited |
| 1976 | Special Delivery | Cop On Beat | Paul Wendkos | |
| 1977 | Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo | Buddy | Stuart Hagmann | Made-for-TV Movie |
| 1980 | The Fog | Nick Castle | John Carpenter | |
| 1980 | The Ninth Configuration | Sergeant Krebs | William Peter Blatty | |
| 1981 | Escape from New York | Captain Rehme | John Carpenter | |
| 1982 | Creepshow | Stan | George A. Romero | (segments "Prologue" / "Epilogue"), Uncredited |
| 1982 | Halloween III: Season of the Witch | Dr. Dan Challis | Tommy Lee Wallace | |
| 1985 | The New Kids | "Mac" MacWilliams | Sean S. Cunningham | |
| 1986 | Night of the Creeps | Ray Cameron | Fred Dekker | |
| 1987 | Lethal Weapon | Michael Hunsaker | Richard Donner | |
| 1988 | Lemon Sky | Douglas | Jan Egleson | |
| 1988 | Maniac Cop | Detective Frank McCrae | William Lustig | |
| 1990 | Two Evil Eyes | Detective Grogan | George A. Romero, Dario Argento | (segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar") |
| 1992 | Bob Roberts | Dr. Caleb Menck | Tim Robbins | |
| 1993 | Striking Distance | Sergeant Fred Hardy | Rowdy Herrington | |
| 2000 | Bruiser | Detective McCleary | George A. Romero | |
| 2001 | Out of the Black | Eugene Carter | Karl Kozak | |
| 2002 | Turn of Faith | Charlie Ryan | Charles Jarrott | |
| 2009 | My Bloody Valentine 3D | Sheriff Jim Burke | Patrick Lussier | |
| 2009 | Shannon's Rainbow | Captain Martin | Frank E. Johnson | |
| 2009 | Trapped | Detective Abbott | Ron Hankison, Gavin Rapp | |
| 2010 | The Chief | Art Rooney Sr. | Steve Parys | |
| 2011 | Drive Angry | Captain | Patrick Lussier | |
| 2011 | Arriving at Night | Phil Redman | Andrew Ford | Short Film |
| 2013 | Fantasm | Himself | Kyle Kuchta | Documentary |
| 2014 | Apocalypse Kiss | Captain John Vogle | Christian Grillo | |
| 2014 | Judy's Dead | Roy | Dave Rodkey | |
| 2015 | Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini | Himself | Jason Baker | Documentary |
| 2018 | Encounter | Professor Westlake | Paul Salamoff | |
| 2019 | Trick | Talbott | Patrick Lussier | |
| 2020 | Polybius | Sheriff Atkins | Jimmy Kelly | Short film |
| 2022 | Final Summer | George Klug | John Isberg | Pre-production |
| TBA | The Collected | Clu | Marcus Dunstan | Announced |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1963 | The Doctors | Dylan Levein | Episode: "December 9, 1963" |
| 1964 | Look Up and Live | Doctor | Episode: "A Lifetime of Service" |
| 1974 | Get Christie Love! | Peterson | Episode: "Market for Murder" |
| 1974 | Rhoda | Vic Rhodes | Episode: "Pop Goes the Question" |
| 1974 | Harry O | Sergeant Frank Cole | 5 episodes |
| 1975 | Miles to Go Before I Sleep | O'Dell | Television film |
| 1975 | Shell Game | Stoker Frye | Television film |
| 1975 | The Rookies | Brad Gifford | Episode: "Lamb to the Slaughter" |
| 1975 | Hawaii Five-O | Koko Apaleka | Episode: "Sing a Song of Suspense" |
| 1976 | Visions | Robert Dayka | Episode: "Pennsylvania Lynch" |
| 1976–1977 | Serpico | Lieutenant Tom Sullivan | 16 episodes |
| 1974–1977 | The Rockford Files | Lieutenant Alex Diel | 8 episodes |
| 1977 | Baretta | Vic | Episode: "It Goes with the Job" |
| 1977 | Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo | Buddy | Television film |
| 1978 | A Death in Canaan | Lieutenant Bragdon | Television film |
| 1980 | Skag | Dr. Moscone | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 1980 | Power | Buck Buchanan | Television film |
| 1981 | Sherlock Holmes | Craigin | Television film |
| 1979–1981 | Lou Grant | Dr. Sorenson / Jim Bronsky / Frank Durning | 3 episodes |
| 1982 | M*A*S*H | Major Lawrence Weems | Episode: "The Tooth Shall Set You Free" |
| 1982 | Desperate Lives | John Cameron | Television film |
| 1982 | Quincy, M.E. | Commander Gene Butler / John Todd | 2 episodes |
| 1982 | Skeezer | Dr. Chanless | Television film |
| 1983 | St. Elsewhere | Bob Lonnicker | Episode: "Dog Day Hospital" |
| 1983 | Murder Me, Murder You | Jack Vance | Television film |
| 1984 | T.J. Hooker | Phil Parker / Tommy D'Amico | Episode: "Hooker's Run" |
| 1985 | The Fall Guy | George Spiros | Episode: "The Skip Family Robinson" |
| 1986 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Police Lieutenant | Episode: "Beast in View" |
| 1986 | Blind Justice | Kramer | Television film |
| 1986 | Stingray | Donald Dixon | Episode: "Sometimes You Gotta Sing the Blues" |
| 1986 | Spenser: For Hire | Hatch | Episode: "White Knight" |
| 1987 | A Stranger Waits | Sheriff Collier | Television film |
| 1986–1987 | The Equalizer | Detective Frank Standish | 3 episodes |
| 1989 | Dead Man Out | Burger | Television film |
| 1989 | The Heist | Detective Leland | Television film |
| 1990 | Against the Law | Walter Littlefield | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 1991 | Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann | Jamieson | Television film |
| 1992 | What She Doesn't Know | Roy | Television film |
| 1993 | Sworn to Vengeance | Ed Barry | Television film |
| 1993 | Walker, Texas Ranger | Wade Cantrell | Episode: "Night of the Gladiator" |
| 1994 | Fortune Hunter | Richard Bennett | Episode: "Target: Millennium" |
| 1996 | The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits | Commander Alex Diehl | Television film |
| 1996 | Xena: Warrior Princess | Atrius | Episode: "Ties That Bind" |
| 1996 | Dying to be Perfect: The Ellen Hart Pena Story | Henry Hart | Television film |
| 1998 | Homicide: Life on the Street | Grenville Rawlins | Episode: "The Twenty Percent Solution" |
| 1999 | The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds ... It Leads | Commander Alex Diehl | Television film |
| 2003 | Oz | Mayor Wilson Lowen | 2 episodes |
| 2003 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Mr. Monahan | Episode: "Cold Comfort" |
| 2004 | The Jury | Boyd Kingman | Episode: "Mail Order Mystery" |
| 2022 | City on a Hill | Joe Congemi | 2 episodes |
| 2023 | Creepshow | Frank | Episode: "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" |

### Self

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2006 | Halloween: 25 years of Terror | Video Documentary |
| 2007 | Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow | Video Documentary |
| 2009 | My Bloody Valentine: Sex, Blood and Screams – The Make-Up Effects | Video Documentary Short |
| 2009 | Thrill Me!: The Making of Night of the Creeps | Video Documentary |
| 2009 | Night of the Creeps: Tom Atkins, Man of Action | Video Documentary Short |
| 2011 | Doomed Detective: Tom Atkins on Maniac Cop | Video Documentary |
| 2012 | Stand Alone: The Making of Halloween III: Season of the Witch | Video Short |
| 2016 | Creepshow Days with Michael Gornick | Video Short |
| 2016 | Horror's Hallowed Grounds | Episode: "Creepshow" |
| 2019 | The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs | Episode: "Halloween Hootenanny: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Meyers" |
| 2019 | In Search of Darkness | Documentary |
| 2020 | In Search of Darkness: Part II | Documentary |

### Archive footage

| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Reference(s) |
| 2011–2014 | Cinemassacre's Monster Madness | Ray Cameron / Dr. Dan Challis | 2 episodes | |
| 2014–2019 | Welcome to the Basement | Ray Cameron / Sergeant Krebs | 2 episodes | |