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Barry Pepper

Barry Pepper has built a career around characters who operate under pressure: soldiers, officers, lawmen, survivors and men caught inside difficult moral choices. The Canadian actor brings a focused, tightly wound presence to the screen, whether he is part of a large ensemble or carrying a real-life figure at the centre of a story. Born on April 4, 1970, in Campbell River, British Columbia, Pepper was the youngest of three boys. When he was five, his family left Canada aboard a homemade yacht and spent five years sailing through the South Pacific islands. He studied through correspondence courses and schools in Polynesia, while improvisation and acting games helped provide entertainment aboard the boat. After the family returned to Canada and settled on Denman Island, Pepper eventually studied marketing and design at Camosun College before moving to Vancouver and committing to acting classes. Four years of study, including time at the Gastown Actors Studio, led to a recurring role on the television series Madison. His film career took a major step forward with Private Daniel Jackson, the sniper in Saving Private Ryan. Roles as David Pratt in Enemy of the State and Corrections Officer Dean Stanton in The Green Mile followed, establishing Pepper as a valuable presence in serious, high-stakes dramas. He went on to play journalist Joseph L. Galloway in We Were Soldiers, Frank Slaughtery in 25th Hour, Mike Norton in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Sergeant Michael Strank in Flags of Our Fathers. Pepper has also taken on several real people, including baseball player Roger Maris in 61*, racing driver Dale Earnhardt in 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story and Robert F. Kennedy in The Kennedys. His performance in The Kennedys earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Later roles have ranged from Lucky Ned Pepper in True Grit to Vince in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure, and Dave Keller in Crawl. Across genres, Pepper remains particularly effective when a story calls for resolve, restraint and an edge of uncertainty.