Rolston's early career was in the theatre in the United Kingdom. He made his stage debut at the age of 19, in the
West End play
Are Now Or Have You Ever Been in 1976, about the
House Un-American Activities Committee. He then starred in
Miss Julie at the
Edinburgh International Festival,
Sam Shepard's
Action at the
London Festival Fringe, and
Bus Stop at
The Mill at Sonning. He played the title role in a US national touring production of
Richard II for the
National Shakespeare Company. In 1984, he was cast in a minor role in the
Al Pacino film
Revolution. His role was cut from the final film, but he leveraged it into his audition for
Aliens, and was cast as PFC Drake, his film debut. Rolston played Hans in
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Herb in
Prancer (1989), Stef in
RoboCop 2 (1990), Bogs Diamond in
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), J. Scar in
Eraser (1996), Chief Dennis Wilson in
Daylight (1996), Wayne Bryce in
Hard Rain (1998), and Special Agent Warren Russ in
Rush Hour (1998). Rolston acted in
Martin Scorsese's Academy Award winning 2006 film
The Departed and the television horror film
Backwoods. Many of Rolston's screen roles are villains due to his well-known icy stare. He also co-starred in 2008's
Saw V and 2009's
Saw VI. In 1994, he portrayed convicted killer "Karl Mueller" in the
Babylon 5 episode "
The Quality of Mercy", as well as "Richard Odin", leader of a
vegetarian cult in an episode of
The X-Files titled "
Red Museum". In 2004, Rolston would guest star in two episodes of the critically acclaimed
24. He appeared in a minor role in
The CW series
Supernatural during the fourth season as the demon Alastair. He also appeared as Sheriff Hall in the
Criminal Minds episode, "Blood Hungry". Rolston has also voiced several
Marvel and
DC characters, voicing
Firefly in
The New Batman Adventures and
Justice League (he was originally considered to voice the supervillain in
Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, although the character was deemed unsuitable for the series and ultimately dropped). He voiced
Lex Luthor in the animated series
Young Justice, Deathstroke in
Batman: Arkham Origins and
Batman: Arkham Knight, as well as
Norman Osborn in the
Spider-Man Insomniac Games. ==Personal life==