Garret Dillahunt is an American actor. He is known for portraying supporting roles in American films like No Country for Old Men (2007), Winter’s Bone (2010), Looper (2012), and 12 Years a Slave (2013).
Wiki/Biography
Garret Lee Dillahunt [1]Geni was born on Tuesday, November 24, 1964 (age 56 years; as of 2020), in Castro Valley, Alameda County, California, United States.
He was brought up in Yakima, Washington. He studied at Selah High School in Yakima County and pursued a BA in Journalism from the University of Washington. He then did MFA in Acting from Tisch School Of The Arts, New York University. [2]Tisch NYU- Alumni
Physical Appearance
Height [3]IMDb: 6′ 1¼” (1.86 m)
Hair Color: Light Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Family & Ethnicity
Parents & Siblings
His father, David Lee Dillahunt, was a car mechanic.
His mother’s name is Jeanne Dillahunt.
His brother’s name is Brett Dillahunt. He had another brother named Eric who was killed in a road accident in 1981; Eric was a passenger in the car of the drunk taxi driver who was speed driving and veered his car off the road.
Wife
Since 2007, he is married to Michelle Hurd, an American actress known for her work in the American television industry.
Career
In Theater
In 1984, he started his career as a theater artist with the play ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ at Evergreen Theatre, Seattle, and was directed by Stephen Locklear; he played ‘Potiphar’ in the play.
He has acted in Seattle theaters in plays like As You Like It (1990) and Eye of God (1992-93). In New York theaters, he performed in plays like Mad Forest (1991-92), A Perfect Ganesh (1993), Booth (1994), 900 Oneonta (1996), The Beginning of August (2000), and Things of Dry Hours (2009). In 1995, he made his Broadway debut with the play ‘The Father’ as ‘Nöjd, A soldier’ at Olympia Theatre. He has worked with the top theater companies such as New York Theatre Workshop, York Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theater, Jacobs Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater, and Atlantic Theater Company.
Television
He made his television debut with the American soap opera ‘One Life to Live’ (1993) in the role of ‘Charlemagne Moody.’ He then made short and recurring appearances in American television series such as NYPD Blue (1996), Maximum Bob (1998), Law & Order (2002), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003), and A Minute with Stan Hooper. In 2004, he portrayed ‘Jack McCall’ (a recurring character) in season 1 of the American television series ‘Deadwood.’ In 2005, he bagged the main role of ‘Francis Wolcott’ in season 2 of the same series.
He continued to act in various American series such as The Book of Daniel (2006), Criminal Minds (2009), Raising Hope (2010), Hand of God (2014), The Mindy Project (2015), The Guest Book (2017), and Fear the Walking Dead (2018).
Films
In 1999, he made his film debut with the American film ‘Last Call’ in the role of ‘Curtis.’
He further acted in supporting roles in the films The Believer (2001), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), and Pretty Bird (2008). In 2009, he played the main role of ‘Krug Stillo’ in the American film ‘The Last House on the Left.’
He then went on to star in the American films Burning Bright (2010), The Scribbler (2014), Come and Find Me (2016), Braven (2018), Sergio (2020), and Army of the Dead (2021). In 2010, he portrayed ‘Lt. Compton’ in the Filipino-American film ‘Amigo.’
In 2010, he made his Canadian film debut with ‘Oliver Sherman’ in which he played the lead role of ‘Sherman Oliver.’
Awards & Achievements
- National Board of Review, USA – Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble for the film No Country for Old Men in 2007
- Gold Derby Awards for Ensemble Cast for No Country for Old Men in 2008
- Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for No Country for Old Men in 2008
- Gotham Awards for Best Ensemble Performance for the film Winter’s Bone in 2010
- Black Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Ensemble for 12 Years a Slave in 2013
- Fantasporto (Film Festival) Director’s Week Award for Best Actor for Houston in 2014
Favorite Things
- Actor: Gene Kelly
- Singer: Shirley Manson
- Novelist: Cormac McCarthy
- American Football Team: Seattle Seahawks
- American Football Player: Joey Galloway
Facts/Trivia
- He likes listening to music and reading books in his leisure time. He also likes to play musical instruments like guitar and piano.
- Garret is an avid animal lover since childhood and owns many pet dogs; one of his dogs named Zig is dead. In a social media post, he talked about animals and wrote,
I love animals. There was always a nervous stray to coax out of hiding and give a little love to. Sometimes it took days to gain their confidence. Wonder if I still have that patience? Learning lessons from skinny, hunched, kid Garret.”
- He is the son-in-law of the American actor Hugh Hurd and brother-in-law of the American actress Adrienne Hurd.
- In his high school days, he was a key writer of his school’s newspaper. At the same time, he also worked for a newspaper ‘Selah Valley Optimist’ in his hometown. This made him choose journalism as his majors subject. According to him,
I had come straight out of high school, and I was just kind of drifting. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so I chose journalism because I was big into the school newspaper in high school, and I worked for the Selah Valley Optimist in my tiny hometown [in Washington state] – you know, where you’re your own photographer for stories. I just thought that was a good life.”
- He never intended to become an actor but realized it after he attended acting classes in the last year of his graduation at the University of Washington. According to Garret,
You evolve through things. My brother passed away unexpectedly when I was a senior in high school, and that knocks you for a loop. I was determined to do something I enjoyed rather than get trapped somewhere. So, my last year [at the University of Washington], just on a whim – because I’m painfully shy – I took an acting class. I don’t know why, but I thought, ‘Well, it’s hard to make a living as a journalist, so I should probably write plays as well.’ Like that was lucrative, I took an acting class, which was part of the requirement for the playwrights, and it was really the first thing that had held my interest in college. But then I graduated, only having just tasted [acting], and I thought, ‘Aw, that’s what I wanna do and now I’m done!’ So, I went to NYU’s graduate acting program to train.”
- In interviews, he has often regarded himself as a huge fan of the American novelist Cormac McCarthy (since college). He is so crazy about Cormac that he auditioned for every adaptation of McCarthy’s novels since he began acting. He read McCarthy’s book ‘No Country for Old Men’ seven times to get the role of ‘Llewyn Moss’ in the 2007 film adaptation of the same book. However, he ended up portraying ‘Deputy Wendell’ in the film.
- In 2014, he did a stint in the direction in an episode titled ‘Baby Phat’ from the television series ‘Raising Hope.’