Dennis Haysbert

Dennis Haysbert
Dennis Haysbert, April 2007
Born	Dennis Dexter Haysbert (1954-06-02) June 2, 1954 San Mateo, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Elena Simms (1980–1984) Lynn Griffith (1989–2001)

Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the Major League film trilogy, President David Palmer on the American television series 24, and Sergeant Major Jonas Blane on the drama series The Unit, as well as his work in commercials for Allstate Insurance.

Personal life

Dennis Dexter Haysbert was born in San Mateo, California, the son of Gladys (née Minor), a homemaker and house cleaner, and Charles Whitney Haysbert, Sr., a deputy sheriff and airline security guard. He is the eighth of nine children, having two sisters and six brothers. His parents were from Louisiana. Haysbert was raised Baptist. Haysbert graduated from San Mateo High School in 1972. After high school, measuring 6 feet 4.5 inches (1.94 m) tall, he was offered various athletic scholarships, but instead chose to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Haysbert is a divorced father of two. He announced in April 2009 that he was starting a TV, film, and documentary production company. His first project was to be a documentary for HBO about an up-and-coming boxer. During the 2010 California elections, Haysbert supported Democratic Senatorial Incumbent Barbara Boxer by appearing with her at campaign events as well as recording radio commercials.

Career

Television

Haysbert has been acting in film and television since 1979, starting with a guest role in The White Shadow. His television guest starring roles include Lou Grant, Growing Pains, Laverne & Shirley, The A-Team, Night Court, Dallas, The Incredible Hulk, Magnum, P.I. and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, in which Haysbert appears in the first season episode "A Dream of Jennifer" in a one-time role as a spaceport guard. In the second season, Haysbert becomes a crew member of the science starship Searcher. Haysbert played "the helmsman" in the The Guardians (season 2, episode 3) which is currently available online at Hulu."Buck Rogers: 'The Guardians'". hulu.com. p. 2. . He has the most lines in "The Hand of the Goral" (season 2, episode 9), wherein he is named Lt. Parsons. and Duckman. In 1993, he had a featured role in Return to Lonesome Dove as outlaw Cherokee Jack Jackson. In 1999, Haysbert starred with Eric Close in Now and Again, which was cancelled after its first season.

In 2001, Haysbert became better known when he was cast in 24 as U.S. Senator David Palmer, who served as America's first African American President (in the context of the show) during the second and third seasons. He also returned as a guest star in the last six episodes of season 4 and the first episode of season 5. He was nominated for a Golden Globe and for a Golden Satellite Award in 2002 for this role. Haysbert stated in an interview for the show that the three men he admires most—Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Colin Powell—collectively embody his idea of what a President should be. Haysbert believes that his playing of David Palmer on 24 helped Barack Obama—whom Haysbert supported—to win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Haysbert was the first actor to portray DC Comics character Kilowog, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, in a medium outside of comics. He provided the voice of Kilowog on various episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

On March 4, 2006, Haysbert guest starred on the Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Natalie Portman as the host of a live action/animated TV Funhouse cartoon called "Belated Black History Moment". In his role, Haysbert paid homage to fictional short-lived Saturday morning cartoons featuring black characters, such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Outer Space. He also portrayed Nelson Mandela in Goodbye Bafana (also released under the name The Color of Freedom).

Haysbert portrayed the lead character Jonas Blane in the CBS action-drama The Unit, which ended after its fourth season on May 10, 2009.

Haysbert hosted and narrated the Military History Channel presentation of Secrets of Pearl Harbor, which documented his scuba dives with a film team on World War II era Japanese and American warships in the Pacific Theater of action.

In March 2013, Haysbert narrated the documentary "The World According to Dick Cheney" on the Showtime television channel

Film

In 1989, Haysbert got his first major film role portraying Pedro Cerrano, a voodoo-practicing Cuban refugee baseball player, in the movie Major League. In it, he uttered the memorable line: "Is very bad to steal Jobu's rum; is very bad". Haysbert followed that up with a role in 1990's Navy SEALs, which also starred Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn, before moving on to another baseball movie, Mr. Baseball with Tom Selleck. In 1991, he also starred in 'K-9000', where he played a police officer named Nick Sanrio. In 1992, he co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field, a film about a series of events occurring contemporaneously with the assassination and funeral of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1994, Haysbert reprised his role as Cerrano in Major League II. This was followed by low key appearances in Waiting to Exhale, Heat, and Absolute Power. In 1998, Haysbert made another appearance as Cerrano in Major League: Back to the Minors. In 1999, Haysbert played a police detective in three different films: The Minus Man, The Thirteenth Floor, and Random Hearts.

In 2000, Haysbert played the role of Zeke McCall in Love & Basketball. In 2002, Haysbert played the role of gardener Raymond Deagan in Far From Heaven. He won three awards (Satellite Award, Black Reel Award, and Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award) for Best Supporting Actor for that role. In 2005, he had a supporting role in Sam Mendes's film, Jarhead. In 2007, Haysbert returned to the big screen to portray Nelson Mandela in Goodbye Bafana and an FBI agent in Breach.

On December 5, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Haysbert will replace the recently deceased Michael Clark Duncan as Manute in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Commercials

Haysbert is the official spokesman for the Allstate Insurance Company. His commercials typically end with one of the two Allstate Corporation official slogans, either Are you in good hands? or That's Allstate's stand. More recently however his commercials have combined the two with "That's Allstate's stand. Are you in good hands?". In 2009–2010 Allstate used the Neil Sedaka song "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" in television commercials to promote Allstate's car insurance. Breaking up is hard to do, the ads averred, unless one has an Allstate agent to undertake the deed for the customer (switching from another insurer to Allstate). The viewer learned that "breaking up is easy to do" as reassured on the screen by Haysbert. In his role as spokesman for Allstate, Haysbert officiated the coin toss prior to the 2007 Sugar Bowl between LSU and Notre Dame.

In 2008, Haysbert was featured in national television ads to raise public awareness about lending discrimination. The ads were commissioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. In one of these ads, Haysbert warns consumers about lenders' targeting minorities for inferior loan products.

For the 2006 college football season, Haysbert did voice work for ticket sales promotions for Brigham Young University. He did it as a favor to his younger brother Adam, who played wide receiver at BYU in the early 1980s.

Haysbert also voices the Military Channel's commercials with their official slogan: "The Military Channel—Go Behind the Lines."

Video games

In addition to his acting, Haysbert has also done voice work for various video games, most notably as Irving Lambert in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series and narrator of Call of Duty: Finest Hour. He also voiced David Palmer in 24: The Game.

Theater

In June 2010, Haysbert joined the cast of David Mamet's Race on Broadway as character Henry Brown, performing alongside actors Eddie Izzard, Richard Thomas, and Afton Williamson. The play ran until August 21, 2010.

Filmography

• Galactica 1980 (1979) Episode "Space Croppers"
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1980) Episode " A Dream of Jennifer"
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) Episode "Time of the Hawk"
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) Episode "The Guardians"
• Code Red (TV series) (1981–82)
• The A-Team (1983)
• Dallas (TV series, 1984)
• 227 (1986)
• Major League (1989)
• Navy SEALs (1990)
• K-9000 (1991)
• Mr. Baseball (1992)
• Love Field (1992)
• Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)
• Suture (1993)
• Alex Haley's Queen (1993)
• Major League II (1994)
• Heat (1995) -Donald Breedan
• Waiting to Exhale (1995)
• Absolute Power (1997)
• How to Make the Cruelest Month (1998)
• Major League: Back to the Minors (1998)
• Superman: The Animated Series Agent #1 – "Where There's Smoke" 042 September 19, 1998
• Now and Again (1999–2001)
• The Minus Man (1999)
• Random Hearts (1999)
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
• Love & Basketball (2000)
• What's Cooking? (2000)
• The Outer Limits (1995 TV series) "Rule of Law" Episode:164 August 25, 2001
• 24 (2001–2006), 79 episodes
• Justice League (2001–2004)
• Far from Heaven (2002)
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas"" (2003)
• Jarhead (2005)
• Empire (2005)
• The Unit (2006–2009)
• Breach (2007)
• Goodbye Bafana (2007)
• The Details (2010)
• Race (2010)
• Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
• Vanilla Gorilla (2011)
• Welcome to the Jungle (2012)
• Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
• LUV (2012)
• Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2013) Batteldogs" (2013)

References

• Dennis Haysbert's Official Website & DH6 Gear Store
• Dennis Haysbert's Official Facebook
• The World According To Dick Cheney - The A.V. Club

External links

• Dennis Haysbert's Official Website & DH6 Gear Store
• Dennis Haysbert at the Internet Movie Database
• Haysbert Bio at The Unit
• BostonHerald
• Race on Broadway