Early life Gammon was born in
Newman, Illinois, the son of Doris Latimer (
née Toppe), a farm girl, and Donald Gammon, a musician. After his parents divorced, he made his way to
Orlando, Florida. He worked at Orlando's
ABC TV affiliate
WLOF-TV (Channel 9), as a cameraman and director. In his 20s, he moved to
Hollywood to find work.
Acting career In the 1970s, Gammon helped found the Met Theatre in
Los Angeles. While performing there, a representative from
The Public Theater saw him and had him cast as Weston in
Sam Shepard's
Curse of the Starving Class in 1978. The two became friends afterward. He made his sole Broadway appearance as Dodge in a revival of
Sam Shepard's
Buried Child. He was nominated for a
Tony Award for his performance. He appeared on stage in Sam Shepard's San Francisco debut of
The Late Henry Moss along with
Nick Nolte,
Sean Penn,
Cheech Marin (both from
Nash Bridges), and
Woody Harrelson in 2000. Gammon may be best remembered for his characters Lou Brown, manager of the
Cleveland Indians in the
Major League films; and Nick Bridges, the father of
Don Johnson's title character in the television series
Nash Bridges. He appeared in the films
Cool Hand Luke (1967),
Macon County Line (1974),
Urban Cowboy (1980),
Any Which Way You Can (1980),
Silverado (1985),
Noon Wine (1985),
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988),
Major League (1989),
Revenge (1990),
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993),
Major League II (1994),
Wyatt Earp (1994),
Wild Bill (1995),
Truman (1995),
The Hi-Lo Country (1998),
Cold Mountain (2003), and more recently
Appaloosa (2008). He also had an uncredited role in
Natural Born Killers (1994). Gammon portrayed a
Korean War veteran on the hit
ABC series ''
Grey's Anatomy. He played Charles Goodnight in Streets of Laredo. In 2006, he played the stern grandfather, Sam, brother of notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy, in the film Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy''. Gammon provided the voices of the animated characters Marv Loach and Floyd Turbeaux in the 1999
Warner Bros. feature film
The Iron Giant. ==Personal life==