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Gregory Itzin is the American actor who portrays Alphonse Frankenstein on ABC's Once Upon a Time.



Biography

Gregory Martin Itzin[2] was born on April 20, 1948 in Washington, District of Columbia[1] to Evelyn Loretta Smith and Martin Joseph Itzin.[3] He has one sister, Pamela Joanna.[3] Later, his family moved to Burlington, Wisconsin where Gregory's father, a former marine, served as city councilman and eventually became mayor.[4] Gregory's early school history was as an attendee at St. Charles Catholic grade school and St. Mary's High School.[5] For his choice of career, he contemplated priesthood before being drawn to teaching until his English professor at the University of Wisconsin gave a class assignment; either write a final paper or appear in a production of the William Shakespeare historic play Richard II. Enthusiastically, Gregory took up the challenge of performing, and was cast as Richard II's cousin Henry Bolingbroke. In the following school semester, he took a turn in another William Shakespeare play as Roman general Tullus Aufidius in the tragic Coriolanus.[4] In doing so, he fell in love with the craft, and after working in dinner theater in Illinois, he lit out for San Francisco, California to study at the American Conservatory Theater.[6]

There, Gregory further developed his love for the classics, and soon began teaching classes on Shakespeare as part of the Conservatory's evening extension courses. Upon moving to Los Angeles in 1977 to pursue acting full-time was supplemented by courses at South Coast Repertory and the Actors' Playpen. Gregory's screen debut came in 1979 as a tour guide in NBC's Backstairs at the White House, with his feature debut coming a year later as Religious Zealot #1" in "Airplane!, co-directed by his former Wisconsin classmates, David and Jerry Zucker. He worked steadily throughout the 1980s, frequently in bit parts as a doctor, lawyer or other authority figure, though the short-lived, Mel Brooks-produced 1989 sitcom The Nutt House gave him a brief opportunity to show off his comedic chops. The stage provided him with more substantial roles, beginning with Philadelphia, Here I Come! which brought him a Los Angeles Drama Desk Critics Circle nomination. Later, he won three awards from the critical group, including two for productions of Waiting for Godot and The Homecoming, and earned Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his work in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kentucky Cycle in 1993.[6]

Gregory eventually moved up to series regular roles on several short-lived programs; he was Gene Wilder's pal on the disastrous Something Wilder, then portrayed a craven district attorney running for Governor of California on the cult favorite Murder One. There were also recurring roles on programs; most notably a deranged FBI agent on Profiler and Strip Mall, which cast him in one of his favorite television roles, a Russian adult film producer with ties to the mob. Fans of the various Star Trek franchises knew him from five appearances in three of the spin-off series, including Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.[6]

In 2004, he received the greatest exposure of his career by landing the role of United States President Charles Logan on 24. For his work on 24, Gregory received a major career boost and two Emmy Award nominations—in 2006 and 2010—as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble.[6]

Between assignments on 24, he enjoyed several substantial roles in films and on television and stage. He took the lead in Pulitzer Prize winner in Donald Marguiles' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, at the South Coast Repertory in 2007, a broad fantasy about a nineteenth century adventurer who spins questionable tales of high adventure in the South Seas, then played authority figures in the campy thriller I Know Who Killed Me and the drama Law Abiding Citizen. There was also a recurring role as a flinty FBI agent on The Mentalist. In 2010, he signed on to another recurring character; this time for the spy series Covert Affairs.[6]

Gregory is married to Judith "Judie" Goldman and they have two children, Julia Wilkesmith and Wilke "Will" Martin Itzin.[3]

Appearances

External links

References

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