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Mitch Pileggi
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In real life, Mitch Pileggi (Skinner) met his wife Arlene Warren on the set of "The X Files" (1993) while she was stand-in to Gillian Anderson (Scully). In later episodes, Warren got some screen time--as Skinner's secretary, named Arlene.
My dorm when I was studying in Munich was an old SS barracks that was supposedly haunted. One night we were sitting around, making fun of the spirits. At some point I went back to my room. There was a big brass candelabra on the dresser. I knelt down to get into the closet and the candelabra came crashing down and just missed my head. It was on a totally flat surface. Nothing could have knocked it over. It was very weird. I apologized to the spirit immediately.
Mitch Pileggi
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Mitchell Craig Pileggi
5 April 1952, Portland, Oregon
Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi (born April 5, 1952) is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell. He appeared in the 2008 film, Flash of Genius.
Pileggi, one of several children, was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Maxine, a homemaker, and Vito Pileggi, a defense contractor. His family moved frequently because of his father's occupation, and Pileggi lived in Oregon, California, and Texas before spending most of his adolescence in Turkey.
Pileggi was a high school athlete, concentrating on wrestling and football. He attended the University of Texas in Austin, receiving a degree in business. For a while he worked in Iran as a defense contractor, until the 1979 Iranian revolution caused him and his brother to have to flee the country, escaping to Greece.
Pileggi began acting while he was a high school student in Turkey, playing musical theater. After returning to Austin from Iran, he performed in local theaters, and continued his acting career with small roles in B-movies, and guest roles in television shows such as Dallas, China Beach, Code of Vengeance, and Walker, Texas Ranger.
In the 1980s, Pileggi starred in several films including Three O'Clock High as Duke "The Duker" Herman, an over zealous tough-as-nails high school parking lot security guard, and in Shocker as body-possessing serial killer Horace Pinker.
His most notable role was as the FBI's Assistant Director Walter Skinner on The X-Files. The role was originally recurring, but the part expanded, and in 2001 he became a main member of the cast. The character gradually became the most integral character besides the two leads. He remained with the show until its television end in 2002. Pileggi also played the character in the 1998 X-Files film and, six years after the show's end, reprised the character in the film The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Pileggi's recent work has included starring in the short-lived TV show Tarzan and co-starring with Barbara Hershey and Oliver Hudson in the short-lived TV show The Mountain. Since 2005, he has played the recurring role of character Colonel Steven Caldwell, Commander of the Earth Battlecruiser, Daedalus, in the second and subsequent seasons of the television series Stargate Atlantis. He also acted in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in 2006 had a regular guest role on Day Break as Robbery/Homicide Detective Spivak. Pileggi also appeared on the show Cold Case in the episode "Offender", in which he played father accused of murdering his own son, who then threatens to commit one murder per day until the case is reopened and solved. Pileggi also played the role of Larry Jennings, chairman of the board of the hospital, in Grey's Anatomy, and of Red Forman's friend Bull in an episode of That '70s Show.
Pileggi appeared in two episodes of Law and Order: SVU as DEA agent Jack Hammond. In the first, season five's "Loss", Hammond and his partner, DEA agent Tim Donovan, investigate the murder of a hooker who was an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agent. At the end of the episode, ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) is shot by a hired assassin. Cabot is presumed dead, but instead is placed in the Witness Protection Program, a status only known to Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson. Pileggi's character reappears in season six's "Ghost", when Hammond appears in the office of SVU Captain Donald Cragen to notify him Cabot is still alive. Hammond and Cragen travel to Wisconsin to inform Cabot of the capture of the man who shot her, Liam Connors. Cabot opts to return to New York and testify against Connors. Cabot's testimony, along with that of an 8-year old who witnessed the murder of his parents, sends Connors to prison on four murder charges and Cabot's attempted murder. Hammond informs Stabler, Benson, Cragen, and Cabot's successor as ADA, Casey Novak, that Cabot and the young witness must be given new identities in WITSEC.
Since 2008, Pileggi has played Ernest Darby, the head of a white supremacist gang called the "Nordics", in the critically acclaimed FX drama Sons of Anarchy . He also played spree killer Norman Hill (AKA The Road Warrior) on a season four episode of Criminal Minds, entitled "Normal".
Pileggi has also done some voice acting. His voice was featured as the githzerai Dak'kon in the video game Planescape: Torment. Another role he voices is Commissioner James Gordon on the new Kids WB! animated show The Batman. Pileggi also hosted the controversial FOX specials Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed and Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?
Pileggi currently plays Sam and Dean Winchester's maternal grandfather, Samuel Campbell in the TV series Supernatural.
Pileggi's first marriage was to Debbie Andrews; the couple were married from 1978 to 1983.
In 1996, he married his second wife, Arlene Warren. They have one daughter, Sawyer, born May 24, 1998. Warren and Pileggi were originally introduced to each other by David Duchovny, who was later the best man at their Hawaii wedding. Warren had worked on the set of The X-Files as a stand-in for Gillian Anderson. Later on in the run of the series, Warren was featured as Skinner's fictional secretary, also named Arlene.
Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.
Daughter Sawyer Scout Pileggi was born May 24, 1998.
Italian-American
Mitch and his wife Arlene were married in Hawaii on Christmas Break 1996.
David Duchovny was best man at his wedding.
Besides David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, he is the only other actor to appear in "The X Files" (1993), The X Files (1998) and The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008).
Pileggi was working as a defense contractor in Isfahan, Iran, about two weeks before Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was deposed, in 1979. Due to strained relations between Iran and the United States, the company he worked for was evacuating the employees on a Pan American flight. Pileggi said in a 2008 radio interview that for some reason, possibly for a supernormal reason, he booked his own flight with Swiss Air, on the plane that would be the last out of the country for many days. They were supposed to land in Baghdad, Iraq, but a thunderstorm prevented any landings, so the pilot flew them to Athens, Greece. Pileggi said, "I think we got there on fumes.".
His favourite X-Files episode is "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose".
Mitch worked as a defense contractor for several years in Saudi Arabia
His favourite football teams are St. Louis Rams and Washington Redskins.
Mitch Pileggi played bull in the episode the good son on That' 70s show.
He appeared as Terry Waters in the tv series "ER".
He personally did the voice of A.D Walter Skinner in the x-files game Resist or Serve.
Mitch Pileggi appeared as D.E.A. Agent Hammond on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" .
Mitch Pileggi appeared as a senator for "The West Wing".
Mitch Pileggi played Dr. Russell Marcus on Nip/tuck.
He appeared in the pilot of Day break.
Pileggi became involved with regional theater, performing in such productions as Jesus Christ Superstar, Lone Star and Bent. After landing a few small parts on television, Pileggi made the move to Los Angeles.
He landed his The X-Files role as F.B.I. Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner partly because the producers wanted to play against type and introduce a quietly dynamic bureaucrat rather than the stereotypical paper-pusher.
Wife: Debbie Andrews (married. 1978, divorced. 1983)
Skinner's character was based on his father.
He was credited on the opening credits in the last season of The X-Files.
He was a cop in the movie "Basic Instinct".
Wes Craven was impressed by his performance when he made his audition for the movie "Shocker". Craven gave him the leading role as Horace Pinker.
He lived in Turkey for awhile.
After college in Germany, he got a job working for a defense contractor in Iran, where he met his first wife.
Mitch Pileggi played football in high school.
"When I was younger, I was a small, skinny kid," says Pileggi, recalling a time before his sex symbol status.
He has many fans due to the serie "The X-Files".
To get the role of Skinner, he had to audition three times. "I thought, this guy {X-Files creator Chris Carter} either hates me or I must be a totally bad actor," says Pileggi. "But he told me later it was because my shaved head was too extreme for an FBI agent." The role was originally intended to be a minor one, but it fit Pileggi so well that he was soon getting more and more lines.
Pileggi is the first to admit that life is sweet these days.
After guest-starring as Assistant Director Walter Skinner in a first-season episode of The X-Files in 1994, Pileggi was asked back for several episodes of the second season. The character gradually became the most important character besides the two leads, and remained with the show until its end in 2002.
David Duchovny was best man at his wedding.
Mitch and his wife Arlene were married in Hawaii on Christmas Break 1996.
He is Italian-American.
He played a hitman in "Model INC". (during the 2 last episodes of the serie)
Mitch Pileggi's daughter Sawyer Pileggi was born on May 24, 1998.
Mitch Pileggi graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a degree in business.
Mitch Pileggi married Arlene Warren, Gillian Anderson's stand-in on the "The X-Files" in 1996 and she had a recurring role as A.D. Skinner's Assistant. She is listed as Arlene Pileggi in the credits.
(about putting forward script ideas to the writers) No, I'm just too lazy. I come up with typical X-FILES character names sometimes - SAM CLUTCH, for instance.
(about watching X-Files) I had heard people talking about it for a long time, and I honestly hadn't watched the show until I did it. And then, once I did it, and started watching it, then I was like, man, this is a good show. (laughs) I really got hooked into it...
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