Mitchell and his identical twin brother Matthew appear occasionally together, beginning when they were children in a
margarine TV commercial which featured identical twins, and later in an episode of the TV series
Cop Rock. Although Matthew was a performer on
Saturday Night Live for its sixth season, Mitchell also appeared in uncredited roles on the show for a few seasons (1977–80) In 1989, Mitchell was in an AT&T commercial in which he played a man in a phone booth trying to dial Phoenix and was instead repeatedly getting Fiji. In the same year, Mitchell hosted a unsold pilot for a U.S. version of the long-running British game show
Mastermind, announced by
Charlie O'Donnell and was produced by A Mac III Production. The pilot was taped on August 19, 1989. Mitchell appeared on
Not Necessarily the News during the 1980s. Other recurring roles included the short-lived series
Roxie (1987; most of the episodes were unaired),
L.A. Law (1987−88),
Reasonable Doubts (1992–93),
Matlock (1988−95), and ''
Dawson's Creek. Guest roles have ranged from Laverne & Shirley, CHiPs, The Outer Limits, One Tree Hill, Night Court, Prison Break, MacGyver, Beauty and the Beast, Midnight Caller, Empty Nest, and Jake and the Fatman. He was in the "Apollo One" episode of the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon (1998). In the early 1990s he performed the role of Ben Arnold on the soap opera Santa Barbara''. He also has acted in
feature films such as
Stepfather II,
The Runestone,
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and
Urban Mythology, and TV movies (especially in the 1990s) including
The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery;
Perfect Crime;
To Love, Honor and Deceive;
Kiss and Tell;
Deadly Pursuits;
Inflammable; and
Death in Small Doses. He has been a radio disk jockey at WFMZ, a sports radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has hosted billiards tournaments and has provided sports commentary for ESPN. He has also been the host of a golf podcast,
Golf Connections with Mitch Laurance. ==Personal life==