David Rasche's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Sledge Hammer! Sledge Hammer High Society Peter DAG President W… Nurses Jack Trenton

Main Movie Roles 2009 - Peter and Vandy 2009 - In the Loop 2009 - Crimes of the Past 2008 - Burn After Reading 2007 - The Girl in the Park 2006 - Flags of Our Fathers 2006 - United 93 2006 - The Sentinel 2005 - The L.A. Riot Spectacular 2003 - Just Married 2002 - Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood 1999 - The Big Tease 1997 - That Old Feeling 1995 - Magic in the Water 1991 - Bingo 1991 - Delirious 1989 - An Innocent Man 1989 - Wicked Stepmother 1987 - Made in Heaven 1986 - Cobra 1984 - Best Defense 1981 - Honky Tonk Freeway 1979 - Manhattan

BIOGRAPHY:

David Rasche (born August 7, 1944) is an American actor.
Biography Early life and career Rasche was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a minister and farmer.[1] Rasche started in theatre, but also has appeared on numerous movies and television series. He became a member of the Chicago Second City, after John Belushi moved on to Saturday Night Live. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the title character in the cult television classic, Sledge Hammer!.
Rasche has a scholarly background (graduate degree from the University of Chicago) and also worked as a teacher and writer before going into show business full-time. After Second City, he starred in the Organic Theater's 1974 production of Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," which established the playwright's characteristic blend of earthy, sometimes brutal dialogue. He later played to critical acclaim in the Broadway production of Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow", and an Off-Broadway revival of Mamet's Edmond. He was Petruchio to Frances Conroy's Kate in a production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew directed by Zoe Caldwell at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut in the mid-1980s.
In 1974, he fronted $1,000 to help start Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. He began appearing on TV and films in 1977, making his film debut in 1978 in An Unmarried Woman, directed by Paul Mazursky. The following year, he had a small part in Woody Allen's Manhattan. Later, he appeared on the Miami Vice episode "Bushido" (first aired November 22, 1985) as a KGB agent attempting to capture a former colleague of Lt. Castillo (Edward James Olmos). Ironically, during his subsequent starring role on Sledge Hammer! his character would often makes jokes about Miami Vice, the show Rasche himself had guest starred on. Rasche is married to Heather Lupton with whom he has three children and who made a guest appearance in the series Sledge Hammer as Hammer's ex-wife.[2]
Sledge Hammer! He played the title role in the late 1980s series Sledge Hammer!, a spoof series about a violent and chauvinistic policeman. A few years earlier, he played a terrorist in the 1983 television movie Special Bulletin.





TRIVIA:

• Blond, handsome actor best known for his Clint Eastwood 'Dirty Harry' take-off on TV's "Sledge Hammer!" in the late 1980s.
• A member of Chicago's Second City in the 70s, he replaced John Belushi when Belushi took off to do SNL.
• Has played the President in the show "DAG" (2000) and the film Sentinel, The (2006)
• Graduated from Elmhurst College and the University of Chicago.
• Was on the original artistic board--nicknamed the Eight Great Tomatoes--of Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre along with 'Warren Casey (I)' (qv), Cecil O'Neal, Mac McGuinnes, 'Cordis Heard' (qv) (then Cordis Fejer), 'Stuart Gordon (I)' (qv), Roberta Maguire and June Pyskacek. Each chipped in $1,000 or the equivalent toward the new venture, circa 1973.
• His close association with David Mamet led to him becoming a major interpreter of the playwright's works -- including "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," "Speed-the-Plow" and "Edmond."
• Born in St. Louis but raised in Illinois.
• His wife 'Heather Lupton' (qv) has a guest role in "Sledgehammer" (1986), as ex-Mrs. Hammer (ep. 'Here's to You, Mrs. Hammer').