Robert Patrick

Overview

Born
November 5, 1958 · Marietta, Georgia, USA
Birth name
Robert Hammond Patrick
Height
6′ (1.83 m)

Biography

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Frequently plays corrupt, homicidal or unfriendly characters due to his intense presence and cold blue eyes.
Frequently plays characters who are involved in law enforcement or the military. Among his roles, he has played nine different "Colonels" and four different "sergeants", as well as one major general.
Gravelly voice with southern accent
Often cast by Robert Rodriguez

Trivia

Has played the same character (T-1000) in three movies: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Wayne's World (1992) and Last Action Hero (1993).
Has the distinction of being the only actor killed on screen by all three of the Planet Hollywood founders: Bruce Willis (in Die Hard 2 (1990)), Sylvester Stallone (in Cop Land (1997)), and most famously by Arnold Schwarzenegger (in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)).
Immediately after being cast in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), he took a martial-arts crash course, then began exhaustive strength, endurance, and weapons-training sessions. "For three months," he says, "all I did was sleep, eat, take vitamins, and train.".
The appearance of character Dale Gribble from the animated series King of the Hill (1997) is based on Patrick.
His first ten years in the film business consisted mostly of small parts in "B" pictures; he made so little money from acting that he had to take a job as a bartender to supplement his income.

Quotes

You can't think about how people will perceive you or your character. All you can do is focus on your work. The rest is up to the universe.
I've been acting for 16 years. I've done 55 movies and, in all seriousness, there's maybe five that are good and the rest are crap.
[on his preparations when he was cast as the T-1000] My intention was just to be a good adversary for Arnold to match. To match and be superior in character that you would believe that I could get the upper hand on him or else the whole movie wouldn't work. I obviously had a great deal of faith in Jim Cameron and Stan Winston and everyone involved, so that was where my commitment was, to really pull this off. I didn't want to let him down or let anybody down but I had hoped it would be this memorable, I had an inclination it would, but I don't think I realized what an impact it would have, and how it would change my life.
[on Wushu - the martial art training he studied for preparing the role of the T-1000] Everyday, I had to show up and convince myself that I literally was this guy (T-1000) and that's not easy to do. There are many distractions. I really consider the whole T2 experience sort of like a boot camp, military type of an experience that I endured and sort of graduated from if that makes any sense to you.
[on his favorite character] He's (T-1000) one of the ones that I'm the most proud of, but I can't say that he's my favorite. But he's one of my close top favorites. I've done some roles since that I'm really proud of. I was proud of what I did in Cop Land (1997). I really liked what I did in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991); there have just been a lot of characters since that I've done that I've really enjoyed. I REALLY enjoyed John Doggett. He was definitely a role that I very much enjoyed. He might be my favorite. Yeah, Doggett might be my favorite, actually. But I really liked the character I played in Cop Land (1997), a little movie I did called The Only Thrill (1997) with Sam Shepard, Diane Keaton and Diane Lane, and another movie, a very obscure little independent movie called A Texas Funeral (1999) with Martin Sheen.