Thomas Ian Griffith

Birth and family background Thomas Ian Griffith was born in Hartford, Connecticut on March 18, 1962, the son of Irish-American Hartford natives Mary Ann (née O'Neil; 1934–1990) and Dr. Thomas Joseph Griffith (1927–2017). His maternal grandmother, Margaret (née Galvin), was also born in County Kerry, Ireland and spent most of her life in Hartford. His paternal grandparents, Michael J. Griffith and Mary Agnes (née Radigan), were both born in County Mayo, Ireland, and emigrated (separately) to Hartford in the 1910s. Griffith's mother, who was voted Mrs. Connecticut of 1964, was the founder and director of the noted Irish dancing academy, The Griffith Academy of Dance in Wethersfield, Connecticut. His father served in the Navy during World War II and later hosted a weekly Sunday radio show, The Irish Hour (produced by his brother William E. Griffith). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Hartford and went on to earn three Master of Science degrees and a PhD in Education from Boston University. Griffith has an older sister, Colleen Marie, and a younger sister, Mary Beth, both of whom continued in their mother's footsteps and teach at The Griffith Academy. His family's dancing background and the taking over of the academy by his sister after his mother's passing would later be developed by Griffith into a television program, The Dunnings. Education, extracurricular studies, and early plays (1962–1980) Griffith grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut. During the 1960s, he was part of the youth Irish dancing group The Griffith Dancers, under the direction of his mother. The dancing group traveled around the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland, performing and taking part in competitions. In addition to learning various forms of dancing (such as Irish step-dancing, Celtic folk-dancing, and hornpipe dancing) from his mother, he also learned to sing and play several instruments, including the piano and the accordion. and would usually accompany The Griffith Dancers on the instrument. Of his dancing, he later said "I never had a formal dance lesson in my life, I picked up tap dancing while playing the piano for allowance money as a child in Hartford, Connecticut." He won awards in algebra, biology, and chemistry, and was a member of the State Creative Youth. As a way to meet girls who acted in the plays, Griffith also wound up acting in the school's productions. The play also starred Marie Fischetti, Steve Dolin, and Ellen Smith. He later earned a black belt in American Kenpo while studying the sport in New York under Hyung Yup Chung. Some sources state that he studied law at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was a dean's list student before leaving after his junior year to "make it" as an actor in New York. Other sources report that he was an English and music major at that same college, but that he graduated before setting out into acting. The college's website lists him as a class of 1982 student. Its 1980 yearbook, the Purple Patcher, lists him as a resident student, while its 1981 edition lists him as a player in the lacrosse team, but he is absent from the 1979 and 1982 editions. Griffith later mentioned taking part in the college's plays. In a 2021 interview, Griffith stated that he originally attended College of the Holy Cross, where he majored in English and music, but transferred to New York University between his sophomore and junior year after he was cast in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. ==Career==

Theater and soap operas (1980–1987) In the summer of 1980, between his sophomore and junior year at College of the Holy Cross, Griffith made his Broadway debut when he replaced featured player Tom Cashin in the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, under the direction of Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune at the 46th Street Theatre. In a 1984 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor confided that Tune (for whom he audition) Griffith performed various roles in the play, including a stage manager, a cameraman, and a football player named Aggie #12 who does a specialty tap-dance. He also studied the Michael Chekhov acting technique in New York City during this time. while Guys and Dolls' starred Roy Thinnes, Jerry Stiller, Barbara Sharma, and Mike Mazurki (Griffith had a small part as one of the craps-shooters, which had a couple of singing numbers). Griffith was scheduled to appear in five other productions at the Guthrie Theater that season, The Entertainer (September 23 to October 23, 1983), The Seagull (October 28 to November 20, 1983), A Christmas Carol (November 24, 1983 to January 1, 1984), The Importance of Being Ernest (January 6 to February 12, 1984), and Hedda Gabler (February 17 to March 11, 1984), but he departed for New York. he would not be credited as Thomas Ian Griffith until he was cast in Another World in late 1983, to avoid confusion with another actor, Tom Griffith (who appeared in horror films The Alien Factor (1978), Fiend (1980), Night of Horror (1981), and Nightbeast (1982)). A New York casting director caught Griffith's work at the Guthrie Theater and arranged for him two auditions in late 1983; one for ABC and another for NBC. he received two simultaneous offers to join either Another World or Search for Tomorrow, both NBC daytime soap operas. Griffith had initially planned to return to stage work after his nine-month contract expired, with the television experience added to his resumé, and he took acting lessons when he had time off from shooting. He made his television-acting debut in January 1984 and wound up playing Ewing for three years, until January 1987. a "matinee idol," He was featured on the cover of Soap Opera Digest's October 1984 issue. By 1985, he was a frequently invited guest at international trade shows and exhibitions, where he met fans and signed autographs. During one of these promotional tours to the Southern United States in the fall of 1985, Griffith landed an uncredited bit part as an extra in the Miami Vice episode "Phil the Shill," which was filmed in Miami, Florida in late October and early November 1985. The episode, which guest starred Phil Collins, was directed by John Nicolella and was broadcast on NBC in December 1985. As early as July 1986, news circulated that Griffith, although playing a popular character on Another World, was not going to renew his contract once it ended in January 1987, and the importance of his role was gradually diminished in the writing of the show. In December 1986, Griffith and Keller were invited to perform on the tenth annual televised benefit special Telethon of Stars, broadcast from CTV and TQS in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The 22-hour program was a fundraiser for research into children's diseases and featured such stars as Tony Bennett, James Brown, Ginette Reno, Daniel Lavoie, Joe Bocan, Ranee Lee, and Édith Butler. The couple performed two originals songs, but were plagued by issues. Reviewing their much-publicized set for The Montreal Gazette, a critic wrote "As for Thomas Ian Griffin [sic] and Mary Page Keller of Another World, they were downright livid and for good reason. On their first song, they couldn't hear themselves singing, and the camera cut away from them before the applause started. They were promised everything would be ironed out by their second tune, but when they started to lip-sync, the tape started halfway through the song. As soon as the song was over, they stormed off in a huff. Or was it a limo?" to Los Angeles, California (she was a native of Monterey, California); Griffith remained behind as Another World was mostly filmed in Brooklyn, but he joined her in early 1987, when his contract expired. There, they made their home and formed an independent film production company, initially named A Place to Hide Productions but later renamed Ian Page Productions, after the couple's middle names, and he began writing the screenplay for A Place to Hide (later filmed as Night of the Warrior). He also appeared in a production of the Gianni Schicchi opera at the University of Southern California. In 1988, Griffith had a guest role on NBC's prime-time television crime drama series In the Heat of the Night; he appeared in the Peter Levin-directed two-part season two premiere episode "Don't Look Back," which aired on December 4, 1988. Griffith plays the role of Luke Potter, a transient carnival worker suspected of committing a murder with voodoo connections, one that has the same modus operandi as an unsolved murder from twenty years prior. In the film, he portrays Terry Silver, a rival martial arts expert who influences Daniel LaRusso against his friend and mentor, Mr. Miyagi. Although many reporters assumed that he won the role of Silver because of his knowledge of martial arts, Griffith explained that he landed the part solely because of his acting experience as the character of Silver, as originally written when he auditioned, didn't have much fighting in the film. His agent heard that ABC was casting for its television biopic of late screen actor Rock Hudson and sent Griffith over to audition for director John Nicolella. Although Griffith only did a cold reading, Nicolella loved his delivery and asked him to repeat the audition for a dozen ABC executives; the following day, Griffith was informed that he had the part. Producer Frank Konigsberg later told newspaper reporters that he felt it was more important to cast an actor who could play Hudson's tortured spirit than an exact lookalike, The two-hour Rock Hudson film was broadcast on ABC in January 1990. Through Ian Page Productions, Griffith wrote and co-produced the action flic Night of the Warrior, which originated from a screenplay and story he wrote in 1988 titled A Place to Hide. The film, when initially scheduled to start shooting in late November 1988 (before being delayed when Griffith was cast in The Karate Kid Part III), was a mystery-drama flic about a poet who works at a strip club. By 1989, the film's cast had changed to star Lorenzo Lamas (Dahl's real-life son) replacing Griffith; the former also came in as co-producer through his film production company, Blueline Productions/Erwin, Lamas, Kirishima Productions (co-owned with Mike Erwin and J. Max Kirishima). With new producers Lamas and Kirishima on board, the script was drastically changed to include more martial arts and turn it into more of an action film, about which Griffith was unhappy (the film was also retitled Night Warrior). the movie was finally filmed between March–May 1990, with director Rafal Zielinski and starring Lamas, Kathleen Kinmont (Lamas' real-life wife, replacing Keller), Dahl, Erwin, Anthony Geary, and Danny Kamekona. Griffith and Keller next co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in the political action thriller film Ulterior Motives (working title Deadline Directed by James Becket, its cast also included Ken Howard, Ellen Crawford, M.C. Gainey, Hayward Nishioka, Tyra Ferrell, and Joe Yamanaka. Ulterior Motives was again produced in cooperation with Erwin and Lamas' film production company, Erwin, Lamas, Kirishima Productions, and was filmed between June–August 1990 for $3 million. It was screened in February and March 1991 at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California, was then presented out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival in France through Filmstar in May 1991, then received limited screenings via Pangea Film Group in 1991. A larger release happened two years later in late 1992, when Imperial Entertainment issued it on video and laserdisc. Within two weeks, New Line Cinema's president Michael Lynne had agreed to finance and distribute the film and wanted Griffith to also star in it. It was also organized as a co-production with Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg, and Howard Klein's 3 Arts Productions. Ultimately, the offer evolved into a three-picture writing-producing-starring-directing deal for Ian Page Productions, though Griffith did not use his option to direct the film. For his role, Griffith did research by spending time with real Chicago cops who patrolled rough areas of the city and was present during a raid on a crack house. during which Griffith embarked on a promotional tour to plug the film. and by May 1993, the film was in theaters everywhere. Although the film fared poorly at the box office, grossing only $1.1 million in the US, it sold so well when issued on VHS and laserdisc that same year via New Line Home Video (with distribution through Image Entertainment), grossing a profit within months, That sequel was eventually produced, Excessive Force II: Force on Force, but without any input from Griffith. Between 1991–1993, Griffith was positioned to be one of Hollywood's next big action stars. From critics and journalists, he received frequent comparisons to actors like Jean Claude van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Jeff Speakman, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, and even Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, and Mickey Rourke. Writing for the New York Daily News, Nancy Stedman offered "He's being touted as a better-looking version of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude Van Damme. But with a difference: Muscles are a sideline with Griffith; he has spent years acting in theater." The film deals with Jack Wild (Griffith), a burnt-out cop who is taken to a mountain resort by his brother, sister-in-law, and newborn child to help him recover emotionally from the death of his wife. There, he befriends a tour guide (Kinski), but the entire resort is soon held hostage by a master criminal (Plummer) and his henchmen, who threaten to bury it under an avalanche using explosives. Crackerjack was produced by North American Releasing and was distributed theatrically in the United States by Worldvision Enterprises and had its world premiere at the American Film Market on February 25, 1994. A sequel was produced in 1995, Crackerjack 2, but with Judge Reinhold taking over Griffith's role; a third film was produced in 1999, Crackerjack 3, but with no relation to the first two movies. He then starred in Nu Image's suspense-action production Blood of the Innocent, which was filmed on location in Nieborów, Czerwińsk nad Wisłą, and Warsaw, Poland between August and September 1994, as a co-production with Poland's Mondofin. The film's working title was Angel of Death and it co-starred John Rhys-Davies and Rutger Hauer. The film premiered on Showtime in December 1994, and was later released on VHS via Republic Pictures in 1995, under the alternative title Beyond Forgiveness. Though some stock footage of Boston's landscape was used during the opening, and the police cars bared that city's name, the movie was shot entirely in Montreal, Quebec during seven weeks between April and May 1995. Hollow Point was directed by Sidney J. Furie and co-starred Tia Carrere, John Lithgow, and Donald Sutherland. Vidmark Entertainment released the film on VHS in the United States, Sterling Entertainment Group released it on DVD in the United States, while TVA Films issued it on DVD in Canada. The thirty-minute made-for-video film co-starred Keller (who also co-produced) as Kirby the clown, along with Meltzer's pupils, the Kick Time Kids, showing a basic skills non-aggressive, non-contact program. In 1996, Griffith was cast in a co-starring role in Korsala Productions/Raffaella De Laurentiis Productions' sword and sorcery picture Kull the Conqueror, which was shot in Slovakia and Croatia between August and October 1996. The actor was re-teamed with director John Nicolella (from the Rock Hudson biopic) and Tia Carrere (from Hollow Point). The movie starred Kevin Sorbo and featured Gary "Litefoot" Davis, Roy Brocksmith, Harvey Fierstein, and Karina Lombard. The story deals with a barbarian, Kull (Sorbo), who wins the throne of Valusian in a sword fight, much to the dismay of Taligaro (Griffith) and others who each feel they are the rightful inheritors of that position, and who attempt to kill him. The film was released via Universal Pictures in August 1997. Griffith next starred in Motion Picture Corporation of America's Orion Pictures-distributed action/war film Behind Enemy Lines. Directed by Mark Griffiths, it co-stars Chris Mulkey, Mushond Lee, Courtney Gains, and Maury Sterling, and was filmed in the Philippines. After Weston is betrayed and imprisoned, three of his former Marine friends (Lee, Gaines, and Sterling), along with his sister and a Vietnamese compatriot, help to rescue the pair. In March 1997, NBC announced it had filmed a pilot episode for a proposed television drama series named The Angel (later renamed The Guardian), for its fall 1997 schedule. The premise of the show, which was written and directed by Rob Cohen, had Griffith starring as Ray Angelotti (known as The Guardian Angel), an ex-thief and martial arts expert with a sixth-degree Kenpo Karate black belt, who comes out of prison determined to right wrongs and make up for his past misdeeds. The pilot episode also included Stephanie Niznik, Rebecca Rigg, Brian Thompson, and Tippi Hedren. The plot deals with a modern-day vampire hunter (Woods) and his partner (Baldwin), hunting for the world's first vampire (Griffith) in the American south, using his latest victim (Lee) to track him down. The film, which was produced through Spooky Tooth Productions and Storm King Production was distributed via Largo Entertainment, and released through Columbia Pictures in October 1998. In The First Vampire, a bonus feature included on Vampires' collector's edition Blu-ray, Griffith recalls coming into the production through an audition with Carpenter's wife, producer Sandy King, before going to the Philippines to film Behind Enemy Lines. While filming Behind Enemy Lines, Griffith received news from his agent that he got the part in Vampires. The movie was directed by their son, Anthony Pullen Shaw, and was filmed between November and December 1997, on location in Ireland, France, and Morocco. and the network hoped it would lead to additional Emily Pollifax films. Griffith also helped with the script. The film was shot at Hatcher Pass, Knik Glacier, and Anchorage, Alaska from October to December 1998, and includes footage of real avalanches, which Kroschel had spent four years documenting and filming beforehand. Co-starring in the movie are Caroleen Feeney, R. Lee Ermey, John Ashton, and C. Thomas Howell. The film's plot deals with a helicopter pilot, Neal Meekin (Griffith), who helps an EPA employee (Feeney) try to prevent an oil company's new pipeline from causing a major avalanche. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1999, out of competition, It received numerous home media releases, notably a VHS in the United Kingdom by Entertainment In Video in 1999, and a VHS and DVD by First Look Home Entertainment in April 2002, under the alternative title Escape from Alaska. It was later re-issued on DVD by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment in 2017, also under its alternative title. He then appeared in the dystopian-science fiction film For the Cause (also known as Final Encounter), filmed in April 1999 in Bulgaria. Although second-billed as co-star, Griffith only appears in less than a third of the movie before being killed, and as such is more of a supporting character. Justin Whalin and Jodi Bianca Wise, who are third and fourth billed (behind Dean Cain and Griffith) have more screen time. The plot deals with a future civilization that has been in a hundred-year war with another colony, but its general, Murran (Cain), wishes to bring peace between them. He assembles a team, including Evans (Griffith), Sutherland (Whalin), Abel (Wise), Stoner (Trae Thomas), and Layton (Michelle Krusiec), to lead him across to the other side where, unbeknownst to his crew, he plans to set off a bomb. The film was written and directed by David Douglas (and co-directed by his brother Tim), through their Grand Designs Entertainment production company. After a failed distribution deals with Miramax, the picture was finally released via Dimension Films / Nu Image, initially in foreign markets in early 2000, before premiering in the United States in February 2001. The first was a Christmas-time western drama set in Oregon in 1903, starring McEntire as Rose Cameron, a widow whose farm is about to be foreclosed by dishonest bank president Harlan Gotch (Ronny Cox), only to be reluctantly rescued by Harry Withers (Griffith), a lone rider in town. Originally titled Christmas in Calico, after the book on which it is based, it was retitled to Secret of Giving, a song the singer recorded for the film and which is included on her album Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection, which serves as its semi-soundtrack. The picture was directed by Sam Pillsbury and was filmed in Maple Ridge, Vancouver, and Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada from June to July 1999. and had its official television premiere on CBS on Thanksgiving day in November 1999. The actor also co-starred in McEntire's music video for her song "What Do You Say," the lead single from her album So Good Together, released in November 1999 though the record label MCA Nashville. The video was co-produced and directed by Robert Deaton and his firm Deaton-Flanigen Productions, and depicts a mother dying of cancer and how it affects her husband (Griffith) and their two adolescent children. The music video was later included in McEntire's DVD collection Video Gold I, released in November 2006. At the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards in February 2001, the video was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. Griffith was next cast to co-star as serial killer Doug Brister, a character based on real-life serial killer "Sunset Strip Slayer" Doug Clark, in the thriller A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle. The film stars Melissa Gilbert as Donielle Patton (the real-life woman who helped capture Clark), a woman with psychic capabilities who has visions of murdered victim's killers and helps the police apprehend a local serial killer. The movie was co-produced through director-producer Donald Wrye's SpyGaze Pictures company, who had bought the rights to the story directly from Patton. before premiering on CBS in February 2000. Final starring roles (2000) In February 2000, Griffith signed with the Metropolitan Talent Agency, where he was represented by Chris Barrett and Karen Forman. He was also managed by Himber Entertainment. Variety described the plot as "Based on a true story, life on the streets becomes a nightmare when a bodyguard to L.A.'s top call girls falls in love with one of his charges." High Adventure was filmed first during the summer of 2000 in Bulgaria, as a co-production with Evgeni Mihailov's Boyana Film Company. It had a two-day premiere screening in February 2001 at the AMC Theater in Santa Monica, California. However, the film was released on DVD only in Europe; for its German release by E-M-S in October 2001 it was retitled Quatermain - Der Schatz der Könige (Quatermain - The Treasure of Kings), while in France it was retitled Les aventuriers du trésor perdu (Adventurers of the Lost Treasure). The Sea Wolf was next filmed in the fall of 2000 in Cuba, as a co-production with Camilo Vives' Productora Cinematografica Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). The plot deals with boat Capitan Jeffery Thorpe (Griffith), an ex-United States Navy and self-proclaimed pirate, who comes across a map of Montezuma's treasure shown to him by a mysterious Columbian woman, Helena (Gerit Kling, who also plays her twin sister Marlena), and the two must find it before The Colonel (Barry Flatman) claims it for his own. It was later distributed by Canadian company Cinemavault Releasing, which arranged for a television premiere in January 2003, It was later re-issued on DVD by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment in 2004, also under its alternative title. Continued co-starring roles and return to theater (2000–2002) Griffith had a co-starring role in Laura Ingalls Wilder's biopic sequel Beyond the Prairie II: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Continues, which was produced by Dori Weiss' D.W. Productions and financed by CBS. In the movie, Griffith plays the role of a drifter, Cornelius Loudermilk, who is offered work on Wilder's (portrayed by Meredith Monroe) farm when her husband, Almanzo Wilder (portrayed by Walton Goggins) gets sick. The teleplay, written and produced by Stephen Harrigan, was directed by Marcus Cole and filmed around Austin, Texas (including Spicewood, Texas) in March–April 2001. Beyond the Prairie II: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Continues was scheduled to air in November 2001, but it was postponed due to the Emmys' broadcast on CBS; it finally aired four months later in March 2002. With Greg Mellott, he co-wrote the psychological thriller Black Point, in which he also co-starred; the film starred David Caruso and Susan Haskell, and also co-starred Miguel Sandoval and Gordon Tootoosis. the plot deals with John Hawkins (Caruso), a divorced father whose life has been derailed when his daughter went missing years prior. He befriends and falls in love with Natalie Travis (Haskell), a woman who has moved into the little coastal town in which he lives, but soon learns that her partner is Gus Travis (Griffith), a criminal who is physically abusive to her. Through a series of double-cross and deception, Natalie uses Hawkins to get rid of Travis and get away with the money he is laundering for mobster Malcolm (Sandoval). Black Point was directed by David Mackay, produced by Canadian producer Raymond Massey (grandson of actor Raymond Massey) through Massey Productions and Black Point Films, and had financing and distribution via Promark Entertainment Group/Das Werk AG Company and HBO. Although announced as a television film, At the fifth annual Marco Island Film Festival in October 2002, the film won the Best Feature Thriller award. It was eventually released on VHS and DVD in 2002, in Canada via Videal/Universal Studios/Remstar, and in the United States via CityHeat Productions/Artisan Entertainment. Griffith was then hired by producer Edgar Lansbury to co-star in Cohort Productions' drama film Italian Lessons, which was planned to be shot during the summer of 2001. The play was directed by Gordon Hunt and starred Orson Bean as Benjamin Franklin, Roger Rees as John Adams, Griffith as Thomas Jefferson, Marcia Mitzman Gaven as Abigail Adams, and Beth Malone as Martha Jefferson. It ran for a planned week and a half, from September 4–16, 2001 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Reuniting with director Rob Cohen (who had written and directed the pilot for The Guardian in 1997), Griffith was given a featured part in the spy-action flick xXx, in which he portrays NSA Agent Jim McGrath, who gets shot during the opening scene while running through a Rammstein concert; his dead body is then passed around via crowd surfing. Griffith's scenes were filmed between December 2001 and March 2002, in Prague, Czech Republic, where most of the movie is set. The film, which stars Vin Diesel and co-stars Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento, and Marton Csokas, was produced for Revolution Studios and released by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures in August 2002. The music video was also later included on Rammstein's DVD Lichtspielhaus, which was released via Motor Music, Republic Records, and Universal Music in December 2003, and the Blu-ray edition of xXx. Griffith next co-starred in the cyberpunk science fiction action film Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision (a sequel to Jean-Claude van Damme's 1994 film Timecop), which was shot at the Universal Studios Lot in Universal City, California between March and April 2002. In the sequel, van Damme's role is replaced by Time Enforcement Commission agent Ryan Chang, portrayed by Jason Scott Lee. Griffith plays Brandon Miller, another Time Enforcement Commission agent with altruistic ideals, who travels back in time to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Chang and Miller get into physical fights in different periods of time as the former realizes the latter is out to erase his lineage, thereby making him non-existent. Griffith's wife, Keller, plays the role of Doc and John Beck also co-stars as director O'Rourke. The film was produced by Mike Elliott and Gary Scott Thompson (the latter of whom also wrote the screenplay), and directed by Steve Boyum, as a direct-to-video release by Universal Studios' Universal Home Entertainment Productions, Periodic supporting roles in television and theater (2002–2007) After filming wrapped for Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision in April 2002, Griffith took a year-and-a-half hiatus from acting. From then on, he only sporadically appeared in television and theater productions. In late 2003, he landed a semi-recurring role in the first season of The WB's teen drama series One Tree Hill, portraying Peyton Sawyer's (played by Hilarie Burton) adoptive father, Larry Sawyer. In the series, Sawyer was often away due to working on a boat, so his character only appeared in a sparse five episodes during the first season: "The Living Years" (which aired in January 2004), "Crash Course in Polite Conversations" (February 2004), "Spirit in the Night" (April 2004), "To Wish Impossible Things" (April 2004), and "The Leaving Song" (May 2004). The character was omitted from the series second season because the writers felt that Griffith and Burton's on-screen chemistry and energy came off as "too flirty". Directed by Kay Cole for Reprise! Theatre Company's Marvelous Musical Monday series, the play starred Sharon Lawrence as Heather, a middle-aged woman who wants to make a comeback musical show of her own material but is discouraged by her manager, Joe Epstein (Griffith). The book was in development since 1996, and was put together as a fund raiser to benefit Tobinworld, a non-profit special education school for autistic and other special needs children and adults in Glendale, California. Griffith played the role of Deputy District Attorney Thomas Yates who joins an investigation into the apparent suicide of an affluent family's butler, on trial for murder, when the police department and district attorney's office are not convinced of his guilt. Coincidentally, like the year before, the play went on the night before his episode of The Closer aired, on August 14, 2005, at the Hollywood Bowl. The rest of the cast also included Melissa Errico, Paxton Whitehead, James Barbour, Orson Bean, Malcolm Gets, Anthony Meindl, and Kevin Earley. The episode, "The Red and the Blue", which aired on December 10, 2006, reunited Griffith with Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision director Steve Boyum. The story follows an investigation into a cold case murder of a Tennessee musician when his three-piece country band, The Sugar Boys, played in Philadelphia six years earlier. Griffith portrays Mitch, a sleazy booking agent and club owner in Philadelphia, one of the many suspected of the crime after he is accused by his wife of murdering the musician. The plot deals with two dirty cops, Cash (Griffith) and Glen (Nelson), who kidnap the daughter of bank security expert Rachel McKenzie (Carlson) and demand as ransom that she crack her bank's high-tech security system in order to retrieve some incriminating evidence hidden in a dead cop's safety deposit box. The movie was directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and produced through Alpine Medien Productions (operated by producers Robert Halmi, Kevin Bocarde, Brian J. Gordon, Nick Lombardo, and Michael Moran), in association with Larry Levinson's Larry Levinson Productions. The Kidnapping was distributed via RHI Entertainment and had its American premiere on the Lifetime Movie Network television channel in February 2008. It was later released on DVD under its original title, Black Friday, by Paramount Home Video Entertainment. His final acting role was as a supporting character, playing the Russian Alexander Molokov in the one-night-only revival of the stage musical Chess, which went on at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on September 17, 2007.'' The play, which tells the story of two chess players during the Cold War, was produced and directed by Brian Michael Purcell as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Chess starred Kevin Early, Tom Schmid, Matthew Morrison, Susan Egan, and Cindy Robinson.'' Focus on writing and producing (2007–2020) After appearing in Chess in September 2007, Griffith retired from acting to focus on writing. Briefly retitled to Operation Troop Master, then to Mr. Troop Mom, the film premiered on Nickelodeon on June 19, 2009, and was released and distributed via Warner Home Video on DVD and Blu-ray on June 23, 2009. In the mid 2000s, Griffith went to see John Carpenter and his wife, producer Sandy King, at their Storm King Productions office to pitch an idea for a new project. He proposed a story about a defrocked priest who has the gift of discernment - someone with the ability to see pure innocence and true evil, take the latter into themselves, and dissolve it - but with the added catch that while the evil is inside him, he becomes that demon/evil before it is dissolved. Carpenter and King were impressed with the premise, as it was not something they had seen used in film before, and King felt it gave a new twist to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character and story. In April 2011, Carpenter, King, and Griffith decided to tempt the networks again with their supernatural horror series Asylum, since they felt that other shows being produced at the time had broken new grounds. To help convey their vision with the network executives, King and Griffith had elaborate storyboards created which illustrated scenes that looked similar to a comic book. Although several major studios showed initial interest in the series, King later stated she felt they were more interested in using Carpenter's name for publicity and had no intention of respecting the artistic integrity and vision of the project. distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors in North America and the UK. On May 25, 2016, the fourteenth issue was released, bringing the second arc of the series to a close; In October 2017, Griffith and Keller teamed up with Grimm's executive producers Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner and their company, Hazy Mills Productions, to bring the hour-long show into development. Co-produced by Parton's Dixie Pixie Productions and Sam Haskell's Magnolia Hill Productions, along with producer Patrick Sean Smith, the series presents Parton's songs into televised stories. Griffith and Keller penned the episode "Sugar Hill," which recounts the long relationship of an elder couple together since childhood, starring Timothy Busfield, Patricia Wettig, Virginia Gardner, and Tom Brittney. It was directed by Lev L. Spiro, and was filmed in Georgia between September 2018 and January 2019; it was released (simultaneously with the entire series) on November 22, 2019. After The Dunnings fell through, Griffith and Keller co-created another television series, the political thriller drama ''The Translator's Daughter''. In 2019, Griffith and Keller reunited with Dolly Parton's Dixie Pixie Productions and Sam Haskell's Magnolia Hill Productions to help as consulting producers on the Christmas musical film ''Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square. Directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen, it was filmed in Georgia and stars Parton, Christine Baranski, Jenifer Lewis, Treat Williams, Jeanine Mason, and Josh Segarra. The plot follows the wealthy Regina Fuller (Baranski), returning to her hometown to evict the residents and sell the land to a mall developer, but ultimately has a change of heart. The movie premiered on Netflix on November 22, 2020. At the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square'' won the award for Outstanding Television Movie. Return to acting and continued writing and producing (2021–present) On December 21, 2020, Griffith took part of the Reunited Apart videocast that included most cast members of The Karate Kid series. In 2021, Griffith came out of his retirement from acting to reprise the role of Terry Silver in the fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons of Cobra Kai. He also voiced his character in the 2022 video game Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising. Griffith and Keller reunited with ''Dolly Parton's Heartstrings'' producer Patrick Sean Smith in 2022, who had been named new showrunner for the upcoming fifth season of Netflix's romantic drama series Virgin River. Griffith and Keller were brought in as supervising producers (working on all twelve episodes of the season), and also co-wrote the episode "Heroes Rise," which was directed by Martin Wood. The series is filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; filming for the fifth season began on July 18 and concluded on November 21, 2022, but was only released a year later on September 7, 2023. In April 2023, Griffith and Keller were promoted to co-executive producers for the show's sixth season, which was filmed between February 22 and May 31, 2024. Season six was released on December 19, 2024, and includes another episode penned by the couple, "Love Story," directed by Felipe Rodriguez. ==Personal life==

Girffith started dating his Another World co-star Mary Page Keller in late 1984, and the couple eventually married on November 16, 1991. The pair have two sons together. ==Filmography==

Film Television Video game ==Stage==