Thomas Gibson

Versatile as well as tall, dark, and handsome, Thomas Gibson has moved easily between TV stardom and a varied movie career working with some of the industry's major names.

Born and raised in Charleston, Gibson found his calling as a child, making his acting debut at age ten in children's theater productions. Though he attended the College of Charleston, Gibson relocated when he won a scholarship to New York's prestigious Juilliard School. After earning his B.F.A., Gibson made his professional New York theater debut in 1985. Gibson spent the rest of the 1980s doing theater, as well as branching out into television with two seasons on the daytime drama Another World and the TV movie Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988).

Gibson made the transition to films in style with a co-starring role opposite Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Ron Howard's glossy Irish-American epic Far and Away (1992). Along with playing a bit part in Martin Scorsese's lush The Age of Innocence (1993), Gibson further distinguished himself that year with larger roles in the critically praised PBS miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City and French-Canadian director Denys Arcand's first English-language film, the contemporary drama Love and Human Remains (1993).

Gibson subsequently appeared in the second part of Whit Stillman's preppy trilogy, Barcelona (1994), and in the indie Sleep With Me (1994), but he became better-known to TV audiences that year on the CBS hospital drama Chicago Hope. After three seasons on the show, Gibson became an even more prominent TV presence in 1997 when he was cast as the straight-laced husband Greg to Jenna Elfman's hippie Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma and Greg. Though he also appeared in the TV miniseries A Will of Their Own (1998) and Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City (1998) during Dharma's first seasons, Gibson's sitcom fame was such that a few critics wondered what it was about the show that prompted Stanley Kubrick to cast Gibson (and reunite him with Cruise) in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Gibson continued to balance Hollywood with outside projects during his hiatuses with a small part in the ill-fated sequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, a starring role in Arcand's celebrity culture satire Stardom, and a supporting turn as the slick surfer Kanaka in the campy '60s teen-film parody Psycho Beach Party. Gibson is married and has one son. - Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide