Sudduth worked for a year as director of alumni relations at his alma mater in the administration of the college's president
Josiah Bunting III, author of
The Lionheads and future commandant of
Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. Sudduth then worked for a year as apprentice to the winemaker with poet and vintner Tom O'Grady at Rose Bower Vineyard and Winery. During this period, Sudduth was acting in community and campus theater and writing original comedy and directing and producing the annual comedy review,
Parting Shots, at Hampden–Sydney College. The following year, Sudduth returned to school entering the acting program in the Department of Drama at the
University of Virginia. At UVA, he met and worked with Spencer Golub, who would go on to head the Drama Department at
Brown University. Golub's emphasis on physically liberating the imagination through extensive guided improvisation became the foundation for Sudduth's approach to acting. Sudduth acted extensively during his time at UVA playing leading roles in
Anton Chekhov's
The Cherry Orchard,
Sam Shepard's
Curse of the Starving Class (opposite
Nip/Tuck's
Dylan Walsh), and
Peter Shaffer's
Equus, which featured the first full male and female nudity ever allowed on stage in a production at UVA. Sudduth moved to Chicago in December 1985 aspiring to work with the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company. During his four and a half years in Chicago, Sudduth played in many stage productions including
Samuel Beckett's
Waiting for Godot,
Emily Mann's
Execution of Justice, and
Nebraska (by screenwriter
John Logan, who penned
The Aviator). He has appeared in stage adaptations of
The Grapes of Wrath,
On the Waterfront and
A Clockwork Orange, and acted in the 1999
Broadway production of
The Iceman Cometh (alongside
Kevin Spacey) and the 2003 debut performance of
Woody Allen's play
Riverside Drive (starring with
Paul Reiser). He also appeared in
Twelfth Night at
Lincoln Center (with
Helen Hunt). Sudduth's movie career has seen him play numerous small parts in
54 (1998),
A Cool, Dry Place (1998), and
Spike Lee's
Clockers (1995), as well larger roles with
Robert De Niro in
Ronin (1998) and
Flawless (1999). Sudduth, who is a keen amateur racing/stunt driver, performed nearly all of the driving his character does in
Ronin. Skipp Sudduth had a recurring role in the TV
soap opera One Life to Live, but is better known for his portrayal of
NYPD officer John "Sully" Sullivan in the
NBC drama
Third Watch. Sudduth appeared in all six seasons of the show and his character is one of the leading ensemble of eight around whom the underlying
story arc revolves. He earned his
Directors Guild of America card directing the episode "Collateral Damage, Part II" in season four. Sudduth has also made guest appearances in
Homicide: Life on the Street,
Law & Order,
Oz,
Trinity,
Cosby, and
Mad About You. Sudduth is also a singer-songwriter. His acoustic-rock band Minus Ted has released three albums:
Hope and Damage (1994),
Really Really (1999) and
Hope and Damage Revisited (2005). The last two are available on
iTunes. He was a member of New York's Rumble in the Redroom comedy troupe (1996–99) and has recorded several notable audio books including one short story in the acclaimed
Stephen King collection,
Just After Sunset and
Peter Canellos's biography of
Ted Kennedy,
Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy, both for
Simon & Schuster. In 2008, Sudduth created the role of Captain George Brackett in the Tony Award-winning revival of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
South Pacific at Lincoln Center. Sudduth finished the year appearing in the New York premiere of
Prayer for My Enemy, a play by
Craig Lucas. The play was the second time Sudduth worked with director
Bartlett Sher who had also directed
South Pacific. The production ran at the
off-Broadway theater Playwright's Horizons from November 14 to December 21 and also featured
Victoria Clark,
Michele Pawk, and
Jonathan Groff. In the play, Sudduth played a recovering alcoholic coping with his son's return from the Iraq War. Sudduth officially began his career as a director during his years in the cast of
Third Watch by directing one episode in each of the last three years of the series. Since then, Sudduth has directed episodes of
ER,
Criminal Minds, ''
Women's Murder Club, CSI: Cyber, and multiple episodes of CSI: NY. In 2012, he starred on the short-lived police drama NYC 22'' as NYPD Detective Tommy Luster. == Filmography ==