Mykelti Williamson

Mykelti Williamson, born March 4, 1957 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, is an actor. He stars as Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the first and second seasons of Boomtown. He has also appeared in Boomtown creator Graham Yost's later series Raines and Justified. He is known for his role in Forrest Gump (1994). He has also starred in 24 and Kidnapped.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Williamson was born on March 4, 1957 in Saint Louis, Missouri. He is the son of Elaine, a certified public accountant, and a father who was an Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer.
Williamson began performing at the age of nine. Along with acting, he also danced as an alternate member of The Lockers troupe on Soul Train along with Fred Berry (star of TV sitcom What's Happening!!). At age nine, Williamson relocated to Los Angeles with his family. While in high school he excelled in athletics, particularly football and basketball. However, acting was his first love and he no longer pursued sports.
Williamson studied television/film at Los Angeles City College. He audited acting classes at USC under the tutelage of Dr. Frank X. Ford. Williamson later transferred to Gene Evans Motion Picture School in San Jose and earned his certificate in Cinematography/ Film Production.
===Career===
Williamson began acting professionally as a child. His first TV appearance was in The Righteous Apples, a PBS and Nickelodeon show about a multi-racial singing group in 1981. The show focuses on the activities of The Righteous Apples, five Boston-area high school musicians, who in a troubled world, seek to help people in distress. Williamson played the lead singer of the group Charles "Big Neck" McMorris.
He appeared in Starsky and Hutch, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, China Beach, and Midnight Caller. His film debut was in Streets of Fire (1984). His credits include Wildcats (1986) with Goldie Hawn, Miracle Mile (1989), The First Power (1990) with Lou Diamond Phillips, Free Willy (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Waiting to Exhale (1995), Heat (1995), Con Air (1997), Three Kings (1999), and Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999).
Williamson is known for playing Private Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue in the Academy Award-winning 1994 film Forrest Gump. He also received favorable reviews when he played Negro League baseball player Josh Gibson in the HBO film Soul of the Game (1996).
He was Juror #10 in the 1997 TV movie remake of Twelve Angry Men (picking up the Ed Begley role). He also appeared in a short-lived TV series remake (CBS, 2000–2001) of the The Fugitive. CBS canceled the series after one season with a total of 22 episodes.
In the 2000s he appeared in the films Ali (2001), The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004), Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), ATL (2006), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), August Rush (2007), and Black Dynamite (2009). In 2009 he appeared as race-track security guard George Lanter in The Final Destination, the fourth entry in the Final Destination film franchise.
In the 2002 to 2003 television season he joined the starring cast of Boomtown. He played Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith. He reprised his role for the second season in fall 2003. He appeared in all 24 of the series episodes, up to its cancellation in 2003.
He was invited to join AMPAS in 2005.
From 2006 to 2007 he had a starring role in the crime drama Kidnapped. He played Virgil Hayes and appeared in all thirteen of the show's episodes before its cancellation.
In 2007 he reprised his role as "Fearless" as a guest star in the pilot episode of Boomtown creator Graham Yost's new series Raines. Raines was canceled before completing its first season. 
From 2007 to 2009 he has had a recurring guest starring role in CSI: NY as Chief Sinclair. He appeared in seven episodes. The show reunited him with his Forrest Gump co-star Gary Sinise, who stars in the series.
In 2010 he starred in the eighth season of 24 as Brian Hastings, the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the New York Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU).
In 2012 McDonough had a recurring role in the third season of FX crime drama Justified as Mykelti Williamson, a Kentucky crime boss. The show was created by Yost. The season also featured Boomtown cast member Neal McDonough in a prominent recurring role.
===Personal life===
Williamson was married to Miami Vice star Olivia Brown from July 2, 1983 - 1985. He later married Cheryl Chisholm in 1989 with whom he had his first child, Phoenix. He has been married to Sondra Spriggs since April 26, 1997. The two were married during the filming of TNT's production of Buffalo Soldiers. They have two daughters, Nicole and Maya. He also appeared with Spriggs in the 1998 film Species II. 
In 1998, he was arrested for stabbing his ex-wife Cheryl Chisholm's partner Leroy Edwards. He was acquitted of attempted manslaughter but, in his own words, "I lost my home, which I sold to pay my lawyers, my car and basically lost my career," 
==Credits==
===Starring===
 
 
==References==
==External links==
*Mykelti Williamson at IMDb
*Mykelti Williamson at Wikipedia
*Mykelti Williamson at the Justified wiki
Category:Starring cast