Jon Gries

Jon Gries
Gries at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Jonathan Gries (1957-06-17) June 17, 1957 (age 67) Glendale, California, U.S.
Other names	Jon Francis
Occupations	Actor writer director music video director
Years active	1968–present

Jonathan Gries (/ɡraɪz/ GRYZ; born June 17, 1957)^[1][2] is an American actor, writer, and director. He is best known for the role of Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male, and recurring character Roger Linus on Lost. He is also known for his roles in Martin, The Pretender, The Monster Squad, Running Scared, Real Genius, Dream Corp LLC, Get Shorty, and The White Lotus.

Life and career

Gries was born in Glendale, California,^[3] the son of writer, director, and producer Tom Gries.^[4] His first film role came at the age of 11, when he played the Boy Horace in the Charlton Heston film Will Penny, which was written and directed by his father. Some of his signature roles have come in cult classics. He played Lazlo Hollyfeld in Real Genius (1985), Azzolini in Rainbow Drive, Shawn McDermott in the TV series Martin (1992–1994), Ronnie Wingate in Get Shorty (1995), Harvey in The Rundown, and Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite (2004). Gries has played a werewolf on several occasions, such as Fright Night Part 2 and The Monster Squad.

In the historical Western film September Dawn, he played executed murderer John D. Lee, in a performance praised by critics who otherwise panned the film.^[5][6][7] He played Casey in the films Taken (2008), Taken 2 (2012), and Taken 3 (2014), and was in TerrorVision, as O.D. He lent his voice for the video game Hitman: Absolution.

Among his television roles are that of a terrorist in season two of the hit show 24 and as Broots on the NBC series The Pretender. He had a guest role on The X-Files in the episode "Sleepless". He played Dylan McKay's drug dealer in season 5 of Beverly Hills, 90210. He played Ben Linus's father Roger in a recurring role on the TV series Lost. He played Shawn on the Fox sitcom Martin during the first two seasons. He appeared twice in the TV series Quantum Leap—first, as a bookie in the episode "The Right Hand of God" and then as a band member in the episode "Glitter Rock". He appeared as Rusty the Bum in two episodes of Seinfeld.^[8]

In 2007, he played the menacing dad to Samaire Armstrong in Around June. In 2008, he appeared in the CSI: NY episode "The Box" as the father of that episode's victim. In 2010, he wrapped production on A True Story. Based on Things That Never Actually Happened. ...and Some that Did and appeared in one episode of Nikita. He played Martin in the TV show Supernatural in the episodes "Sam, Interrupted" (2010), "Hello, Cruel World" (2011) and "Citizen Fang" (2012). He played Bob, a former drug addict who operates a safe haven for abused Mexican women, in The Bridge. He played Strabinsky in the TV Show Psych in the episode "One, Maybe Two, Ways Out" (2010).^[9]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Will Penny	Horace (Button)	Credited as Jon Francis
1976	Born of Water	Friend	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1977	The Chicken Chronicles	Tom	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1979	Sunnyside	Wild Child	Credited as Jonathan Gries
	More American Graffiti	Ron	Credited as Jonathan Gries
	Swap Meet	Doug
1983	Joysticks	King Vidiot	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1985	Real Genius	Lazlo Hollyfeld	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1986	TerrorVision	O.D.	Credited as Jonathan Gries
	Running Scared	Det. Tony Montoya	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1987	Number One with a Bullet	Bobby Sweet	Credited as Jonathan Gries
	The Monster Squad	Desperate Man/Wolfman	Credited as Jonathan Gries
	Che's Revenge	Jack	Short
1988	Fright Night Part 2	Louie	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1989	Kill Me Again	Alan Swayzie	Credited as Jonathan Gries
	Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog	Max	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1990	The Grifters	Drunk's Friend	Credited as Jonathan Gries
1993	Ed and His Dead Mother	Rob Sundheimer
1995	Get Shorty	Ronnie Wingate
1997	Casualties	Bill Summers
	Men in Black	Van Driver
	The Maze	Dr. Holmes
	Mitzi & Joe	Joe
1999	Twin Falls Idaho	Lawyer Jay Harrison
2001	The Beatnicks	B Cool
	Jackpot	Sunny Holiday / Glen Allen Johnson	Also co-producer
2003	Northfork	Arnold
	The Big Empty	Elron
	The Snow Walker	Pierce
	The Rundown	Harvey
2004	Napoleon Dynamite	Uncle Rico Dynamite
2005	Confessions of an Action Star	Donald Buckheim
	Waterborne	Ritter
	Last Best Chance	Bernard Wheeler	Video
2006	The Sasquatch Gang	Chilcutt
	Stick It	Brice Graham
	The Astronaut Farmer	FBI Agent Killbourne
	Car Babes	Gary
2007	American Pastime	Ed Tully
	Bicentennial Curious	Mick Jones	Short
	Fathom		Short
	September Dawn	John D. Lee
	The Comebacks	Barber
	Frank	Colin York
2008	Taken	Casey
	Bar Starz	Ricky Fabulous
	South of Heaven	Hood #1
	So Long Jimmy	Levi Franklin
	Around June	Murry
2009	Elsewhere	Mr. Tod
	The Smell of Success	Early Dunchamp
	A Lone Star State	Wyatt Kinney	Short
2010	Crazy on the Outside	Edgar
	Good Intentions	Sherriff Ernie
	Pearblossom	Harry	Short
2011	Natural Selection	Peter
	Not Quite College	Tone Cash
	5 Time Champion	Melvin Glee
	Redemption: For Robbing the Dead	Tom Sutter
2012	Deep in the Heart	Dick Wallrath
	Unicorn City	Shadowhawk
	Noobz	Greg Lipstein
	Taken 2	Casey
	Byron's Theme	Butcher	Short
2013	Bad Turn Worse	Sheriff Shep
	A True Story	Richard Simpkins
	Skinwalker Ranch	Hoyt
2014	Eternity: The Movie	Barry Goldfield, Jr.
	Faults	Terry
	Locker 13	Archie	Segment: Title Story
	After We Rest	Mr. Norman	Short
	The Last Survivors	Carson
	Brothers	Ronnie	Short
	Taken 3	Casey
2015	Pass the Light	Franklin
	Endgame	Principal Thomas
	A Country Called Home	Tyler
	Mucho Dinero	Jon Waters
2016	Durant's Never Closes	Dizzy Dean
	The Axe Murders of Villisca	Greg
	Falsely Accused	Gus
	The Knife Thrower	Circus Manager
	Operation Chromite	Hoyt Vandenberg
2017	All About the Money	Jon Waters
	Americons	Billy
2018	Glass Jaw [1]	Sam Austin
2024	Solvent	Gunner S. Holbrook
TBA	Carolina Caroline	TBA	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Helter Skelter	William Garretson	TV movie
1977	Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn	Uncredited	TV movie
	Mulligan's Stew	Adams	Episode: "Melinda Special"
1979	240-Robert	Brad	Episode: "Poison Air"
1980	The White Shadow	Uri Kogenski	Episode: "The Russians Are Coming"
1983	The Powers of Matthew Star	Brad	Episode: "The Road Rebels"
	September Gun	Brian Brian	TV movie
	The Jeffersons	Frank	Episode: "I Do, I Don't"
	High School U.S.A.	Dirty Curt	TV movie
1987	The Twilight Zone	Nick Gatlin (Segment: "Shelter Skelter")	Episode: "Joy Ride/Shelter Skelter/Private Channel"
	Cagney & Lacey	Hands Callahan	Episode: "The City is Burning"
1988	Tattingers	Rick Jurasky	2 episodes
1989	Paradise	Emmett	Episode: "Dead Run"
1990	Falcon Crest	Stone	Episode: "Finding Lauren"
	Jake and the Fatman	Lenny Maddox	Episode: "By Myself"
	Tour of Duty	Maj. Rex Chapman, USAF	Episode: "The Raid"
	Rainbow Drive	Azzolini	TV movie
1991	Quantum Leap	Flash McGrath	Episode: "Glitter Rock–April 12, 1974"
	Fever	Bobby	TV movie
1992	L.A. Law	Dr. Harold Benson	Episode: "I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. Markowitz"
	Four Eyes and Six Guns		TV movie
1992–1994	Martin	Shawn McDermott	54 episodes
1993	Bakersfield P.D.	Ray Coombs	Episode: "A Bullet for Stiles"
1994	The X-Files	Salvatore Matola	Episode: "Sleepless"
	Beverly Hills, 90210	Mr. Trilling, Dope Dealer	4 episodes
1995	Chicago Hope	Jack Kimball	Episode: "Hello Goodbye"
	Strange Luck	Henry Bloom	Episode: "Last Chance"
	Seinfeld	Homeless Man	Episode: "The Beard"
1996	Race Against Time: The Search for Sarah	Steve	TV movie
1996–2000	The Pretender	Broots	82 episodes
1998	Seinfeld	Rusty	Episode: "The Bookstore"
2001	The Pretender 2001	Broots	TV movie
	ER	Defense Attorney Marty Nesmith	Episode: "Fear of Commitment"
	The Pretender: Island of the Haunted	Broots	TV movie
2002	24	Joseph Wald	Episode: "Day 2: 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m."
2003–2005	Carnivàle	Texas Ranger	2 episodes
2004	Las Vegas	Greg Walker	Episode: "Sons and Lovers"
2007–2010	Lost	Roger Linus	6 episodes
2008	CSI: NY	Jim Warren	Episode: "The Box"
2010	Cold Case	Bill Shepard '78	2 episodes
	Sons of Anarchy	Passport Forger	Episode: "So"
	Psych	Strabinsky	Episode: "One, Maybe Two, Ways Out"
	Nikita	The Engineer	Episode: "Dark Matter"
	Supernatural	Martin Creaser	2 episodes
2011	Hawaii Five-0	Liam Miller	Episode: "Lapa'au"
2012	Dr. Fubalous	Dr. Reed	2 episodes
	Napoleon Dynamite	Uncle Rico	6 episodes
	BlackBoxTV	Dad	Episode: "Silverwood: The Hunger"
2013–2014	The Bridge	Bob	7 episodes
2014	Criminal Minds	Clifford Walsh	Episode: "The Road Home"
2016–2020	Dream Corp LLC	Dr. Roberts	28 episodes[10]
2021–present	The White Lotus	Greg

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2012	Hitman: Absolution	Sheriff Clive Skurky (voice)

Music videos

As director

• Flies on Fire - "Long Gone Dead" (1989)
• Low Profile - "Pay Ya Dues" (1989)^[11]
• Low Profile - "That's Y They Do It (1989)
• Low Profile - "Funky Song" (1990)
• Mere Mortals - "Cracked" (2006)

As actor

• Alice in Chains - "Rooster" (1993)
• Lenny Kravitz - "Mr. Cab Driver" (1990)

References

1. Gries, Jon (May 19, 2021). "Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico Actor Jon Gries Full Interview". Legends & Masters Show (Interview). Interviewed by Tom Wheeler. Event occurs at 0:34. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
2. "Today's Birthdays". The Wausau Daily Herald. The Associated Press. June 17, 2004. p. 2B. Actor Jon Gries is 47.
3. "Jon Gries". Allmovie. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
4. Gries, Jon [@jongries] (September 6, 2018). "My father #Tomgries with #Jimbrown #BurtReynolds on the set of 100 Rifles Burt was a lovely, funny guy. Greatest laugh &sense of humor. RIP" (Tweet). Retrieved November 30, 2022 – via Twitter.
5. Means, Sean P. (August 23, 2007). "'September Dawn' a campy screen disaster". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on October 5, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2017. The movie's one emotionally honest performance is handed in by Jon Gries (Uncle Rico from "Napoleon Dynamite"), who brings some weight and a sense of guilt to his portrayal of John D. Lee.
6. The Hollywood Reporter Archived September 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
7. Fry, Ted. "Movies | Mormon massacre story "September Dawn" mixes fact, fiction | Seattle Times Newspaper". Seattletimes.nwsource.com. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
8. Jon Gries at IMDb
9. Jon Gries at IMDb
10. "Dream Corp LLC Season 2 Cast & Character Guide". screenrant.com. October 22, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
11. Stockman, Tom (December 11, 2013). "WAMG Interview: Actor/Director Jon Gries on ANOTHER MAN'S GUN". wearemoviegeeks.com. Lanier Media. Retrieved May 30, 2016.

External links

• Jon Gries at IMDb