Gil Bellows

Gil Bellows
Bellows in 2012
Born	(1967-06-28) June 28, 1967 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Rya Kihlstedt ​ ​ (m. 1994; div. 2023)​
Children	2

Gil Bellows (born June 28, 1967) is a Canadian actor, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for the roles of Tommy Williams in the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption, Billy Thomas in the Fox television series Ally McBeal (1997–2002), and CIA agent Matt Callan in the CBS television series The Agency (2001–2003). In 2016–2017, he was a regular cast member in the USA Network series Eyewitness.

Early life

Bellows was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and attended Magee Secondary School with fellow future actor Carrie-Anne Moss. After graduation, he pursued a career in acting, studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, California.

Career

Bellows moved to New York after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. Six months later, after many rejections, he was considering returning to Vancouver, British Columbia.

"I remember calling home," he told The New York Times. "I didn't even have a phone, so I was out on the street, and it was raining. I'm standing outside, getting soaking wet, and I said, 'You know what? Maybe this isn't the way to do it.' "But in 1990 he landed a role in a one-act play by Alan Bowne, "A Snake in the Vein." Then he starred alongside Mira Sorvino in "The Best of Schools" at the Ubu Repertory Theater.

Bellows is best known for his first motion-picture role as Tommy, alongside Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. Before being cast in that award-winning film, he worked as a doorman at The Royalton Hotel in Manhattan. Frank Darabont, who directed The Shawshank Redemption, based on his own script, told The New York Times that: "Gil brought this quality of ingenuousness to Tommy that I find quite believable. Even though Tommy's kind of a hardened kid, there's a naïveté to him, and Gil's got a sweetness that comes through."

Casting director Deborah Aquino, who cast the prison drama, said Bellows was chosen after a long search. "We must have seen every young man in that age range in Chicago, New York and L.A. -- name actors and no-name actors."

That same year, he played the lead role Watty Watt in Love and a .45 with Renée Zellweger, Billy Thomas, the lead character's boyfriend, in the television series Ally McBeal opposite Calista Flockhart, and CIA agent Matt Callan in the television series The Agency.

He co-starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1995 romantic comedy Miami Rhapsody. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert wrote: “Miami Rhapsody" has been dismissed in some quarters as an imitation Woody Allen movie, but since the imitation and the movie are both so entertaining, I don't see what the problem is."

Bellows also appeared in the psychological thriller Chasing Sleep as Detective Derm, opposite star Jeff Daniels. He appeared in The Weather Man as a perverted rehabilitation counsellor. He was in the films Black Day Blue Night, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, as Will, and Un amour de sorcière, a French film, as Michael Firth (1997). He has appeared on the Hallmark Channel original film Final Days of Planet Earth and the Canadian television series Terminal City.

In 2007, he completed filming for Kill Kill Faster Faster, which is a contemporary film noir inspired by the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Joel Rose.

Bellows also played a State Department Officer in 24: Redemption, a television film prequel to the seventh season of 24.

He starred in the Super Channel science-fiction adventure thriller film Infected.

Bellows has also appeared as Maxwell Lord on Smallville in the Season 9 episodes "Charade" and "Hostage".

In 2010, Bellows had a recurring role in FlashForward as Timothy, a window-washer who becomes a born-again Christian and evangelist after a near-death experience. Bellows also co-starred in the movie Unthinkable that same year.

He co-starred with Steve Austin and Eric Roberts in the 2010 action film Hunt to Kill, and in 2011 co-starred with Macha Grenon and Julia Stone in The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom. He starred in the 2012 feature film Fury. In some second-season episodes (2012) of Boss he appeared as a casino investor.

In 2014, Bellows starred with Tricia Helfer in the Syfy miniseries Ascension, a retro space opera / murder mystery about the 600-person crew of the USS Ascension, an Orion-class nuclear pulse propulsion spaceship, on its secret 100-year journey to Proxima Centauri, having been launched in 1963 by President Kennedy. Bellows played Harris Enzmann, the son of the founder of the Ascension project, who oversees its progress from a secret facility on Earth.

On October 16, 2016, Bellows debuted as a cast regular in USA Network's new, 10-episode, straight-to-series police drama, Eyewitness. He plays Gabe Caldwell, a veterinarian and the husband of Sheriff Helen Torrance (series lead Julianne Nicholson). The sheriff is trying to solve what appears to be a random triple-murder in a turkey farmer's home. But as the series begins to unfold, she is unaware that the farmer's teenage son and his male friend—the latter of whom also happens to be Gabe and Helen's foster son; at first, unbeknownst to either parent—had been secretly exploring new feelings for each other just prior to the carnage, witnessed the murders. The killer is still at large, is someone she wouldn't normally suspect, and is determined to permanently silence the witness he saw hiding. Meanwhile, off the clock and at home, Caldwell and Torrance seem to enjoy a genuinely happy marriage. The series, although set in mainly in the Hudson River Valley, was actually filmed in Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada.

From 2015-2018, he had a recurring role as Lawrence Lacroix, on Patriot, the Amazon Prime Video series which he also executive produced.

In 2019, Bellows guest-starred as the unnamed maternity doctor in season 3, episode 9, of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale.

Personal life

Gil Bellows is married to American actress Rya Kihlstedt and the couple have two children.

Filmography

Bellows at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	The First Season	Ronne
1994	Love and a .45	Watty Watts
	The Shawshank Redemption	Tommy Williams
1995	Miami Rhapsody	Matt
	Black Day Blue Night	Hitchhiker Dodge
1996	The Substance of Fire	Val Chenard
1997	Snow White: A Tale of Terror	Will
	Witch Way Love	Michael
	White Lies	Punk Guy
	Dinner at Fred's	Richard
1998	The Assistant	Frank Alpine
	Judas Kiss	Lizard Browning
1999	Say You'll Be Mine	Mason
2000	Beautiful Joe	Elton
	Chasing Sleep	Detective Derm
2003	Fast Food High	Dale White
	Blind Horizon	Dr. Theodore Conway
2004	EMR	Paramedic
	How's My Driving	Jimmy	Short film
	Childstar	Isaac
	Pursued	Ben Keats
2005	Keep Your Distance	David Dailey
	The Weather Man	Don
2008	The Promotion	Mitch
	Kill Kill Faster Faster	Joe
	Black Crescent Moon	Sam
	Passchendaele	Royster
	Toronto Stories	Henry
2010	Happenchance	Stan	Short film
	Unthinkable	Agent Vincent
	A Night for Dying Tigers	Jack
	Hunt to Kill	Banks
	Neighbors	Vern	Short film
2011	The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom	Phil
	Girl Walks into a Bar	Emmit
	The Maiden Danced to Death	Fred
2012	Fury	Bartender Bill
	House at the End of the Street	Weaver
2013	Mad Ship	Archie Cameron
	Louis Cyr	Richard Kyle Fox
	Parkland	David Powers
	3 Days in Havana	Jack Petty
2014	Extraterrestrial	Sheriff Murphy
	Leading Lady	Daniel Taylor
	The Calling	Detective Ray Green
	Kill the Messenger	DEA Agent Miller
2015	Girl on the Edge	Jake Green
	Weepah Way for Now	John
	Life on the Line	Pok' Chop
	Business Ethics	Zachary Cranston	Short film
2016	Dead Draw	Harrison
	She Has a Name	Alex
2017	Blood Honey	Marvin Heath
	ADDicted	Professor Jeff Mueller
2019	Run This Town	Detective Lowey
	Nation's Fire	Josip Aleksander
	Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark	Chief Turner
	Business Ethics	Edwin Murk
	Drowning	Frank
2020	Two Deaths of Henry Baker	Henry Baker / Sam Bird
2021	Awake	Dr. Katz

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Law & Order	Howard Metzler	Episode: "The Violence of Summer"
1992	Flying Blind	Gerard	Episode: "Single White Eurotrash"
1993	Going to Extremes	Ben	2 episodes
1995	Silver Strand	Brian Del Piso	TV movie
1996	Radiant City	Bert Kramer	TV movie
1997–2002	Ally McBeal	Billy Thomas	68 episodes
1998	The Practice		Episode: "Axe Murderer"
1999	Ally		13 episodes
2000	The Courage to Love	Dr. Gerard Gaultier	TV movie
2001	Night Visions	Keith Miller	Episode: "Dead Air/Renovation"
	Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature	Miles	TV movie
2001–2002	The Agency	Matt Callan	23 episodes
2002	Whitewash: The Clarence Bradley Story	Mike De Guerin	TV movie
	Second String	Dan Heller	TV movie
2003	1st to Die	Chris Raleigh	TV movie
	The Twilight Zone	Maj. Rob Malone	Episode: "Homecoming"
2004	Karen Sisco	Special Agent Donny Pepper	Episode: "Dog Day Sisco"
	Zeyda and the Hitman	Jeff Klein	TV movie
	Cooking Lessons	Professor Mocha	TV movie
	A Bear Named Winnie	Colonel Barret	TV movie
2005	Terminal City	Ari Sampson	10 episodes
2006	Final Days of Planet Earth	Lloyd Walker	TV movie
2008	The Cleaner	Mickey Efros	Episode: "Pilot"
	Infected	Ben Mosher	TV movie
	24: Redemption	Frank Tramell	TV movie
2010	Smallville	Maxwell Lord	2 episodes
	FlashForward	Timothy	3 episodes
	Goblin	Neil Perkins	TV movie
	Criminal Minds	Jeff Joyce	Episode: "JJ"
2010–2012	True Justice	Nikoli Putin	4 episodes
2011	Sanctuary	Caleb	2 episodes
	Trading Christmas	Ray Johnson	TV movie
2012	Boss	Vacarro	2 episodes
	Vegas	George Grady	3 episodes
2013	Delete	Lt. General Michael Overson	2 episodes
2014	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Lee Berman	Episode: "Kitty"
	Falling Skies	Nick Phillips	Episode: "Mind Wars"
	Bones	Mason Barnes	Episode: "The Money Maker on the Merry-Go-Round"
	Ascension	Harris Enzmann	3 episodes
2015–2018	Patriot	Lawrence Lacroix	14 episodes
2016	11.22.63	FBI Agent James B. Hosty	2 episodes
	Eyewitness	Gabe Caldwell	10 episodes
2017	Between Us	Matt	TV short
2018	The Detectives	Det. Peter Baker	Episode: "Nine Shots"
2019	The Handmaid's Tale	Doctor	Episode: "Heroic"
	Suits	Dan Foley	Episode: "Windmills"
	Jett	Evans	9 episodes
2020	Cherish the Day	Therapist	Episode: "Synopsis"
	The Twilight Zone	Dick Warren	Episode: "You Might Also Like"
	Love in the Time of Corona	Paul	4 episodes
2021	American Gods	Bill Sanders	3 episodes
2022	Women of the Movement	Gerald Chatham	4 episodes
2023–2024	Chucky	Warren Pryce	6 episodes
2024	Alert: Missing Persons Unit	Inspector Hollis Braun	6 episodes

External links

• Gil Bellows at IMDb