Ed O'Ross

Last updated
Ed O'Ross
Ed O'Ross.jpg
O'Ross in 2007
Born
Edward Orss

(1949-07-05) July 5, 1949 (age 74)
Occupation Actor
Years active1979–present

Ed O'Ross (born Edward Orss; July 5, 1949) is an American actor. His prominent roles include Itchy in Dick Tracy , Max Kale in Walker Texas Ranger, Colonel Perry in Universal Soldier , Lt. Touchdown in Full Metal Jacket , ruthless Georgian mobster Viktor Rustaveli in Red Heat , and police detective Cliff Willis in The Hidden . He also appeared on Six Feet Under (2001–2005), and Shark (2006–2008).

Contents

Early life and education

O'Ross was born Edward Orss on July 5, 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [1] He is of Czechoslovak descent. [2]

He graduated from Munhall High School, where he was a star baseball player, in 1964. [3] [2] He subsequently attended Point Park College and Carnegie Tech (which became Carnegie Mellon University), where he studied with Ralph Lewando at Carnegie Tech. [3]

Prior to becoming an actor, O'Ross was a boxer, winning a Golden Gloves amateur championship in 1964. [2] He was also a minor league baseball player.[ citation needed ] He auditioned for two Major League Baseball teams (the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals) but was not selected. [3]

He studied acting over several years, under Stella Adler and Uta Hagen, among others. [3]

Career

He has appeared in many films and has played several Russian characters, including [in fact Georgian] villain Viktor Rustaveli / Viktor Rosta in Walter Hill's action film Red Heat ; Nikolai, one of Ruth Fisher's love interests on the HBO series Six Feet Under ; and Leo, a sandwich shop owner on Curb Your Enthusiasm . He provided the voice of Agent K on the first season of Men in Black: The Series .

Other films of his include Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story , The Pope of Greenwich Village , The Cotton Club , Full Metal Jacket , Lethal Weapon , The Hidden , Action Jackson , Another 48 Hrs. , Universal Soldier , Dick Tracy , Hoodlum , Curious George , A Green Story, [4] The Harsh Life of Veronica Lambert and Sorority Party Massacre .

Guest television appearances include Stingray , Boston Legal , Seinfeld , Walker, Texas Ranger , CSI: NY , The Outsiders and Moonlighting (in the episode "Brother, Can You Spare A Blonde?").

O'Ross has occasionally done voice work, namely in the video game Judgment as Shigeru Kajihira. [5]

Personal life

O'Ross resides in New York City and Los Angeles. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Lander</span> American actor (1947–2020)

David L. Lander was an American actor, comedian, musician, and baseball scout. He was best known for his portrayal of Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman in the ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley. He also served as a goodwill ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homestead, Pennsylvania</span> Borough in Pennsylvania, United States

Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Monongahela River 7 miles (11 km) southeast of downtown Pittsburgh. The borough is known for the Homestead strike of 1892, an important event in the history of labor relations in the United States. The population was 2,884 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

<i>Red Heat</i> (1988 film) 1988 film directed by Walter Hill

Red Heat is a 1988 American buddy cop action comedy film directed, co-written, and co-produced by Walter Hill and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Soviet policeman Ivan Danko, and Jim Belushi as Chicago police detective Art Ridzik. Finding themselves on the same case, Danko and Ridzik work as partners to catch a cunning and deadly Georgian drug kingpin, Viktor Rostavili, who killed Danko's previous partner. Most of the scenes set in the Soviet Union were actually shot in Hungary. Schwarzenegger was paid a salary of $8 million for his role in the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Keene (actor)</span> American actor (1896–1963)

Tom Keene was an American actor known mostly for his roles in B Westerns. During his almost 40-year career in motion pictures Tom Keene worked under three different names. From 1923, when he made his first picture, until 1930 he worked under his birth name, George Duryea. The last film he made under this name was Pardon My Gun. Beginning with the 1930 film Tol'able David, he used Tom Keene as his moniker. This name he used up to 1944 when he changed it to Richard Powers. The first film he used this name in was Up in Arms. He continued to use this name for the rest of his film career.

<i>Dick Tracy</i> (1990 film) 1990 action crime film directed by Warren Beatty

Dick Tracy is a 1990 American action crime comedy film based on the 1930s comic strip character of the same name created by Chester Gould. Warren Beatty produced, directed and starred in the film, whose supporting cast includes Al Pacino, Madonna, Glenne Headly and Charlie Korsmo, with appearances by Dustin Hoffman, James Keane, Charles Durning, William Forsythe, Seymour Cassel, Mandy Patinkin, Catherine O’Hara, Ed O'Ross, James Caan, James Tolkan and Dick Van Dyke. Dick Tracy depicts the detective's romantic relationships with Breathless Mahoney and Tess Trueheart, as well as his conflicts with crime boss Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice and his henchmen. Tracy also begins fostering a young street urchin named Kid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lane Tech College Prep High School</span> Public secondary magnet school in Chicago, Illinois, US

Lane Tech College Prep High School, is a public 4-year selective enrollment magnet high school located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is a part of the Chicago Public Schools district. Lane is one of the oldest schools in the city and has an enrollment of over four thousand students, making it the largest high school in Chicago. Lane is a selective-enrollment-based school in which students must take a test and pass a certain benchmark in order to be offered admission. Lane is one of eleven selective enrollment schools in Chicago. It is a diverse school with many of its students coming from different ethnicities and economic backgrounds. In 2019, Lane Tech was rated the 3rd best public high school in Illinois and 69th in the nation.

<i>Angels in the Outfield</i> (1951 film) 1951 American comedy film

Angels in the Outfield is a 1951 American comedy film produced and directed by Clarence Brown and starring Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh. Based on a story by Richard Conlin, the film is about a young woman reporter who blames the Pittsburgh Pirates' losing streak on their abusive manager, who begins hearing the voice of an angel promising to help the team if he changes his ways. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on September 7, 1951. It was U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's favorite movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Thompson</span> American actor (1925–1992)

James Marshall Thompson was an American film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Bray</span> American film and television actor (1917–1983)

Robert E. Bray was an American film and television actor known for playing the forest ranger Corey Stuart in the CBS series Lassie, He also starred in Stagecoach West and as Mike Hammer in the movie version of Mickey Spillane's novel My Gun Is Quick (1957).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Fiske (actor)</span> American actor (1889–1944)

Robert Fiske was an American actor on film and stage during the first half of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tris Coffin</span> Film and television actor

Tristram Chockley Coffin was a former film and television actor from the latter 1930s through the 1970s, usually in westerns or other B-movie action-adventure productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mysterious Walker</span> American athlete and coach (1884–1958)

Frederick Mitchell Walker, nicknamed "Mysterious", was an American athlete and coach. He was a three-sport athlete for the University of Chicago from 1904 to 1906 and played Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Superbas, Pittsburgh Rebels and Brooklyn Tip-Tops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Beals</span> American voice actor (1927–2012)

Richard Beals was an American actor and radio performer, who performed many voices in his career, which spanned the period from the early 1950s into the 21st century. Beals voiced "dozens of children, both male and female", according to Mark Evanier's obituary of him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Reed</span> American actor (1917–1980)

Marshall Jewel Reed was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1943 and 1978. He was born in Englewood, Colorado.

The Dick Tracy Show is an American animated television series based on Chester Gould's comic strip crime fighter. The series was produced from 1961 to 1962 by UPA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forrest Taylor</span> American actor (1883-1965)

Edwin Forrest Taylor was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rawlins (director)</span> American film editor

John Rawlins was an American film editor and director. He directed 44 films between 1932 and 1958. He was born in Long Beach, California and died in Arcadia, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Buka</span> American actor (1920–2009)

Donald Buka was an American supporting actor in radio, films, and television from 1943 to 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serial film</span> Series of short subject films

A serial film,film serial, movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, generally advancing weekly, until the series is completed. Usually, each serial involves a single set of characters, protagonistic and antagonistic, involved in a single story, which has been edited into chapters after the fashion of serial fiction and the episodes cannot be shown out of order or as a single or a random collection of short subjects.

References

  1. Ed O'Ross Biography (1949-)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Owen, Rob (2001-08-07). "TV Note: Munhall native relishes role on 'Six Feet Under'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Archived from the original on 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2013-04-07.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sciullo, Maria (September 18, 2018). "Life's a play, or a film, or well, a play for Munhall native Ed O'Ross". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  4. "Greek Hero in an All-American Tale". May 23, 2013.
  5. "Judgment (2019 video game)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 15 May 2022.