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Creator / Michael Chiklis

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Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts) is an Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, producer, director, musician and philanthropist. He is an American of Greek and Irish descent.

Film Roles

Television Roles

Associated Tropes:

  • Awesome, Dear Boy: When it was announced that a Fantastic Four film was in the works, he was the first man in line to audition. When casting was announced, he walked up to Stan Lee and introduced himself as Ben Grimm.
  • The Big Guy: He is frequently cast in these sorts of roles, on account of his stocky physique. His Smart Guy roles are invariably Genius Bruisers, and his Heroes and Lancers inevitably overlap with Big-Guydom.
  • Old Shame: He hated doing Wired. See below. He even apologized to John Belushi's best friend, Dan Aykroyd, and brother, Jim Belushi, who both forgave him.
  • Parody Assistance: He voiced Vic Mackey and the Thing in the Robot Chicken sketch "The Fantastic SHIELD", a crossover between The Shield and Fantastic Four.
  • Playing Against Type: It's been long enough for many people to have forgotten that prior to The Shield, Chiklis was primarily known as a pudgy comedic actor who could do light drama. Then he played Vic Mackey and showed just how good of a dramatic actor he could be.
  • Prematurely Bald: Early in his career, he was already noticeably balding and he played a role that required his head to be covered in grease paint. He waited too long before washing it off and discovered that the lack of oxygen had killed off a large portion of his remaining hair follicles. He quickly made it his signature look.
  • Promoted Fanboy: He grew up reading Fantastic Four, and played his favorite character, Ben Grimm, in the 2005 and 2007 films.
  • Real-Life Relative: His daughter, Autumn, played Vic Mackey's daughter Cassidy on The Shield.
  • Star-Derailing Role: Wired was his first major film, a biopic about legendary comedian John Belushi, which was... insane to say the least. Due to focusing mostly on Belushi's drug addiction and its bizarre plot which has Belushi's ghost being driven around by a guardian angel posing as a Puerto Rican cab driver while also having a subplot with Bob Woodward (who wrote the book the film was loosely based on) talking to people about the dangers of drugs, it was seen by many in Hollywood, especially by Belushi's loved ones, as a confusing, tone-deaf, exploitative, and completely tasteless film that endlessly preached that Drugs Are Bad, despite the execution being so utterly weird that one can't help but wonder if the filmmakers were on drugs themselves. The film was barely shown in theaters, utterly flopped at the box office, was critically panned, and faded away into obscurity after getting a brief run on VHS and no DVD release. The film almost killed his career in the crib, as most of Hollywood were outright refusing to touch those who worked on the film for a while. While J.T. Walsh (who portrayed Woodward) recovered without difficulty due to an already established career, Chiklis didn't work again for almost two years, and he didn't really recover until...
  • Star-Making Role: ...The Commish and The Shield, and to a lesser extent, Fantastic Four (2005), put him back on the map in a big way.
  • Took a Level in Badass: A Real Life version. After portraying Curly in a Three Stooges TV movie, Chiklis grew unsatisfied with the direction of his career. To reinvent his image, his wife spent six months helping him with a new workout regimen. Then he shaved his head, and showed up to audition for The Shield looking like a scary badass who bore little resemblance to the lovable, pudgy "Commish" types he'd played up to that point.

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