Kyle Chandler
Chandler at the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards, March 2009
Born	Kyle Martin Chandler (1965-09-17) September 17, 1965 (age 47) Buffalo, New York, United States
Occupation	Actor
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Chandler (m. 1995–present; 2 children)

Kyle Martin Chandler (born September 17, 1965) is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Deputy Jackson Lamb in the film Super 8, and in the television shows Early Edition as Gary Hobson, Grey's Anatomy as Dylan Young, and as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011.

Personal life [edit]

Chandler was born in Buffalo, New York, the fourth child of Edward Chandler, a farm owner and cigarette sales representative, and his wife, Sally J. (née Meyer), a dog breeder.^[1][2][3] He was raised in Chicago, Illinois, and at age 11 moved with his family to a farm in Loganville, Georgia. Chandler graduated from George Walton Academy, in nearby Monroe, in 1983.^[4] As a freshman at Walton, Chandler was a member of the 1979 state championship football team, but left the following year, after his father died in a car crash. Chandler participated in the theatre program at Walton after quitting football.^[5][4] Chandler's widowed mother also opened a kennel to support Kyle and his siblings.^[5]

After graduating from high school, Chandler attended the University of Georgia, where he was a drama major and member of the Sigma Nu fraternity.^[6] In 1988, seven credits short of a bachelor's degree in drama, Chandler dropped out of Georgia to pursue a television deal.^[5] He is married to Kathryn Chandler, a television writer; the couple has two daughters and since 2007 have lived in Dripping Springs, Texas, southwest of Austin. For nearly 20 years, after beginning his acting career in the late 1980s, Chandler lived in Los Angeles.^[7][8]

Career [edit]

Chandler was signed by an ABC scout in 1988 on a talent search. His first major role on television was as Army Sergeant William Griner as a member of a special operations squad fighting in Vietnam in the series Tour of Duty. After that, he went on to play Cleveland Indians rightfielder Jeff Metcalf in the ABC show Homefront, a drama set in the post-World War II era in the fictional town of River Run, Ohio. In his next television role, Kyle moved from the past to play a man who had the ability to change future disasters as the central character in the CBS television series Early Edition. He portrayed bar owner Gary Hobson, a stockbroker turned hero who received "tomorrow's newspaper today", delivered to his door by a mysterious cat. In 1996 he received the Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television for his portrayal of Gary.^[9]

Subsequently in 2001, Chandler appeared opposite Joan Cusack as investment banker Jake Evans in the short-lived ABC comedy series What About Joan.^[10] He also played scheming lawyer Grant Rashton in the short-lived NBC series The Lyon's Den in 2003.^[11] Other roles of Chandler include: the 1930s film star Bruce Baxter (who was based on romantic film star Bruce Cabot, who played Jack Driscoll in the original King Kong) in the 2005 film King Kong. Coincidentally he would later go on to play John Driscoll in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Chandler at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, November 2009.

In February 2006, Chandler appeared as the ill-fated bomb squad leader Dylan Young in "It's The End of The World" and "As We Know It", a two-part episode of the ABC series Grey's Anatomy that followed Super Bowl XL.^[12] He received substantial notice and press for the appearance as a result and subsequently received a nomination in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series category at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006.^[13] He appeared again in the February 15, 2007 episode of Grey's Anatomy: "Drowning On Dry Land", and the February 22, 2007 episode: "Some Kind of Miracle".^[12]

Chandler and Mark Wahlberg filming Broken City in Montauk, New York, November 2011.

While working on his Emmy-nominated guest role in Grey's Anatomy, Kyle Chandler met Peter Berg, who was developing a drama series Friday Night Lights, which followed the lives of a high-school football coach, his family and players in a small Texas town. The series was inspired by the book and movie of the same name. Chandler learned that he would be cast as high school football coach Eric Taylor when he was on Christmas vacation in 2005 with his family.^[5] The show's pilot aired on NBC in 2006. Starting with the third season in 2008, first-run episodes of the show broadcast on DirecTV satellite channel The 101 Network before being repeated on NBC, and the final season ended in 2011.

In 2007, he appeared in the big screen movie The Kingdom. In December 2008, he appeared in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

In 2011, he appeared in a lead role in the science fiction movie Super 8 and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights.

In 2012, he appeared in Ben Affleck's drama, Argo,^[14] and in 2013, he had a supporting role in Broken City, starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.^[15]

Filmography [edit]

Film [edit]

Television [edit]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Kyle Chandler at the Internet Movie Database
• Kyle Chandler — Friday Night Lights
• Kyle Chandler on FamousBirthdays.com
• Kyle Chandler at Emmys.com