Bruce Boxleitner

Bruce Boxleitner
Bruce Boxleitner, May 2011
Born	Bruce William Boxleitner May 12, 1950 Elgin, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present
Known for	Luke Macahan Alan Bradley/Tron Lee Stetson a.k.a. Scarecrow Captain John Sheridan
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Holcomb (1977–1987) Melissa Gilbert (1995–2011)
Children	3

Bruce William Boxleitner (born May 12, 1950) is an American actor, and science fiction and suspense writer. He is known for his leading roles in the television series How the West Was Won, Bring 'Em Back Alive, Scarecrow and Mrs. King (with Kate Jackson), and Babylon 5 (as John Sheridan in seasons 2–5, 1994–98).

He is also known for his dual role as the characters Alan Bradley and Tron in the 1982 Walt Disney Pictures film Tron, a role which he reprised in the 2003 video game Tron 2.0, the 2010 film sequel, Tron: Legacy^[1] and the animated series Tron: Uprising. He co-starred in most of The Gambler films with Kenny Rogers, where his character provides comic relief.

Early life

Boxleitner was born in Elgin, Illinois, the son of a certified public accountant.^[2] He attended Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois, and the Goodman Theater School of Drama of the Art Institute of Chicago (later renamed The Theatre School at DePaul University).

Career

Television

Boxleitner is best known for his leading roles in the television series How the West Was Won, Bring 'Em Back Alive, Scarecrow and Mrs. King (with Kate Jackson and Beverly Garland), and Babylon 5 (as John Sheridan in seasons 2–5, 1994–98).

He also starred in The Gambler (as Billy Montana, alongside Kenny Rogers: 1980, 1983 and 1987) and in such TV movies as Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again and Danielle Steel's Zoya. In 2005, he co-starred as Captain Martin Duvall in Young Blades. He has also starred in several films within the Babylon 5 universe, including Babylon 5: In the Beginning (TV, 1998), Babylon 5: Thirdspace (TV, 1998), Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (TV, 1999), and the direct-to-DVD Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (2007).

He has appeared in many other TV shows, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Gunsmoke, Tales from the Crypt, Touched by an Angel, The Outer Limits and She Spies, and in 1982, he played Chase Marshall in the TV film Bare Essence, with Genie Francis. He was a member of the cast of Heroes for seasons three and four, playing New York Governor Robert Malden in three episodes. He also appears on the television series Chuck as the father of Devon Woodcomb. He was in such made-for-television films as The Secret, Hope Ranch, Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door, Pandemic, Sharpshooter and Aces 'n Eights.

Boxleitner was a guest-star on NCIS in the fall of 2010. He played Vice Admiral C. Clifford Chase, a high-ranking Navy official.^[3] Boxleitner also lends his voice to the animated version of his iconic character Tron in the animated series Tron: Uprising. The series premiered on Disney XD on June 7, 2012. He also reprises the character Alan Bradley/Tron from the films Tron and Tron: Legacy.^[4]

Film

Bruce Boxleitner at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con in July 2010.

He has also appeared in several films, including Tron (in which he played the title role) and The Baltimore Bullet (1980) with James Coburn. He reprised his role in the Tron sequel Tron: Legacy and in the video game Tron: Evolution which was released alongside the film Tron: Legacy, as he did for sequel video game named Tron 2.0, and Disney/Square Enix crossover video game Kingdom Hearts II. Boxleitner also voice as Col. John Konrad in video game Spec Ops: The Line. He also starred as Confederate General James Longstreet in the 2003 film Gods and Generals. He provides the voice of Colin Barrow in the animated science fiction horror film Dead Space: Downfall, based on the video game Dead Space. Other films he has been in include Kuffs, The Babe, Brilliant, Snakehead Terror, Legion of the Dead, King of the Lost World, Shadows in Paradise and Transmorphers: Fall of Man. In 2011 he officially announced that he will reprise his role as Alan Bradley/Tron in Tron 3. July 2015 Boxleitner said that he is done with the franchise, as "it's been too up and down for me. I would rather not just keep going. I don't want to repeat my career anymore."^[5]

Modeling

From 1986 to 1989, Boxleitner appeared in advertisements for Estee Lauder's "Lauder For Men".

Novels

Boxleitner has written two science fiction novels with a Western setting: Frontier Earth (1999)^[6] and Searcher (2001).^[7]

Audio books

Boxleitner played a major role in the audio dramatization of The Great Secret, part of the Golden Age of Fiction series by L. Ron Hubbard. He also played Captain Gavin Blaire in the unabridged version of World War Z.

Personal life

Boxleitner's first marriage (1977–1987) was to American actress Kathryn Holcomb, who co-starred with him on How The West Was Won. They had two sons together: Sam (born 1980) and Lee (born 1985). Holcomb went on to marry English actor Ian Ogilvy. Ogilvy also guest-starred on Boxleitner's series Babylon 5.

Boxleitner's second marriage (1995–2011) was to American actress Melissa Gilbert. They had one son together: Michael (born 1995). Gilbert also guest-starred as Boxleitner's on-screen wife, Anna Sheridan, during Season 3 of Babylon 5.

On March 1, 2011, Gilbert announced that she and Bruce had separated after 16 years of marriage.^[8] On August 25 of the same year the Associated Press reported that, based on court records, Gilbert had filed for divorce.^[9]

On February 8, 2016, Boxleitner and his girlfriend of three years, publicist Verena King, announced their engagement.^[10]

Other

In 2003, Boxleitner was appointed to the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, a nonprofit, educational space advocacy organization founded by Dr. Wernher von Braun.

He was friends with actress Beverly Garland for nearly 30 years. He met her on an episode of How The West Was Won, and later co-starred alongside her on Scarecrow & Mrs. King, though he had very few scenes with her. Then, in 1986, Boxleitner presented Garland the Golden Boot Award. After the cancellation of Scarecrow, Boxleitner remained close to Garland, contacting her consistently, until her death, on December 5, 2008. He said in an interview, "I used to keep up with Beverly Garland until she passed. There was actually a hotel named after her. She was such a trip. She was a great lady."^[11]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	The Chadwick Family	Danny	TV movie
1975	A Cry for Help	Richie Danko	TV movie
1975	Sixpack Annie	Bobby Joe
1976	The Macahans	Luke Macahan	TV movie
1976	Kiss Me, Kill Me	Douglas Lane	TV movie
1977	Murder at the World Series	Cisco	TV movie
1978	Happily Ever After	Jack	TV movie
1979	The Last Convertible	George Virdon	TV movie
1980	The Baltimore Bullet	Billie Joe Robbins
1980	Kenny Rogers as the Gambler	Billy Montana	TV movie
1981	Fly Away Home	Uncredited
1982	Tron	Tron/Alan Bradley
1983	I Married Wyatt Earp	Wyatt Earp
1983	Kenny Rogers as the Gambler: The Adventure Continues	Billy Montana	TV movie
1986	Down the Long Hills	Louis L'amour
1987	Kenny Rogers as the Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues	Billy Montana	TV movie
1987	Passion Flower	Larry Janson
1987	Angel in Green	Captain William Wicker
1988	Red River	Matthew Garth
1990	Breakaway	Joey
1991	Murderous Vision	Detective Kyle Robeshaw
1991	Diplomatic Immunity	Cole Hickel
1992	Kuffs	Brad Kuffs
1992	The Babe	Jumpin' Joe Dugan
1992	The Secret	Patrick Dunmore
1992	Perfect Family	Allan Bodine
1992	Double Jeopardy	Jack Hart
1994	The Maharaja's Daughter	Patrick O'Riley	TV movie
1994	Gambler V: Playing for Keeps	Billy Montana	TV movie
1998	Babylon 5: In the Beginning	Capt. John J. Sheridan
1998	Babylon 5: Thirdspace	Capt. John J. Sheridan
1999	Babylon 5: A Call to Arms	President John J. Sheridan
1999	Free Fall	Mark Ettinger
2002	Contagion	President Howard
2002	Hope Ranch	J.T. Hope	TV movie
2002	Perilous	Judd	TV movie
2003	Gods and Generals	James Longstreet
2004	Brilliant	Dr. Dietrich
2004	Snakehead Terror	Sheriff Patrick James
2006	Mystery Woman: Wild West Mystery	Clint Lawson	TV movie
2007	Babylon 5: The Lost Tales	President John J. Sheridan
2007	Bone Eater	Sheriff Steve Evans	TV movie
2008	Transmorphers: Fall of Man	Hadley Ryan
2010	Tron: Legacy	Tron/Rinzler/Alan Bradley
2011	Love's Everlasting Courage	Lloyd Davis	TV movie
2011	51	Col. Martin
2011	Tron: The Next Day	Alan Bradley	Short film
2013	Silver Bells	Bruce Dalton	TV movie
2015	So You Said Yes	Nick	TV movie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1973	Mary Tyler Moore Show	Rick	Episode: "I Gave At the Office"
1974	Hawaii Five-O	Cam Farraday	Episode: "We Hang Our Own"
1975	Gunsmoke	Toby Hogue	Episode: "The Sharecroppers"
1975	Hawaii Five-O	Kevin Caulder	Episode: "And the Horse Jumped Over the Moon"
1975	Police Woman	Ed Krohl	Episode: "Paradise Mall"
1976	Baretta	Tom	Episode: "The Left Hand of the Devil"
1976	Hawaii Five-O	Paul Colburn	Episode: "The Capsule Kidnapping"
1977–1979	How the West Was Won	Luke Macahan	15 episodes
1980	Wild Times	Vern Tyree	2 episodes
1981	East of Eden	Charles Trask	3 episodes
1982–1983	Bring 'Em Back Alive	Frank Buck	17 episodes
1983–1987	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Lee Stetson	89 episodes
1989	Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again	Jock Hampton	2 episodes
1991	Tales from the Crypt	Winton Robbins	Episode: "Top Billing"
1994–1998	Babylon 5	Captain John J. Sheridan	88 episodes Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television
1998	Touched by an Angel	Scott Tanner	Episode: "The Peacemaker"
2003	She Spies	The Chairman	4 episodes
2005	Commander in Chief	Tucker Bayes	Episode: "First Choice"
2005	Young Blades	Captain Martin Duvall	13 episodes
2006	American Dad!	Himself	Episode: "Tears of a Clooney"
2008–2009	Chuck	Dr. Woody Woodcomb	2 episodes
2008–2009	Heroes	Robert Malden	3 episodes
2010	NCIS	Vice Admiral C. Clifford Chase	Episode: "Broken Arrow"
2011	CHAOS	Ray Bishop	Episode: "Glory Days"
2012	GCB	Burl Lourd	4 episodes
2012–2013	Tron: Uprising	Tron	17 episodes
2013	Cedar Cove	Bob	recurring

Video Games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Kingdom Hearts II	Tron
2012	Spec Ops: The Line	Colonel John Konrad

References

1. "Tron Legacy Star Bruce Boxleitner on the Rivalry Between Star Trek and Babylon 5". Retrieved June 5, 2010.
2. "Bruce Boxleitner Biography". filmreference.com. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
3. "Exclusive: NCIS Enlists Scarecrow and Mrs. King's Bruce Boxleitner". TVGuide.com. Retrieved October 13, 2010.
4. Ernie Estrella (9 June 2015). "9 reasons more TRON Uprising is the answer to Disney's TRON sequel problem". blastr. Retrieved 14 March 2016. ...the Grid's security program, Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) is slowly dying from a virus.
5. Topel, Fred (July 30, 2015). "Exclusive: Bruce Boxleitner on ‘Tron 3′ – "I’m Done With It. I’ve Moved On"". Slashfilm. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
6. Boxleitner, Bruce (1999). Frontier Earth: HC. Ace Hardcover. ISBN 978-0-441-00589-5.
7. Boxleitner, Bruce (2001). Frontier Earth: Searcher. New York: Ace Books. ISBN 978-0-441-00799-8.
8. Eng, Joyce. "Melissa Gilbert and Bruce Boxleitner Split". TVGuide.
9. "Actress Melissa Gilbert Files for Divorce in LA". New York Times. August 25, 2011.
10. "Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones put on the PDA at AARP Awards | Daily Mail Online". dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
11. "Bruce Boxleitner interview". lanterncitytv.com. Retrieved February 8, 2016.

External links

• Bruce Boxleitner on Twitter
• Bruce Boxleitner at the Internet Movie Database
• Bruce Boxleitner at AllMovie
• Bruce Boxleitner at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database