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David Andrews

David Andrews has built a screen career around the kind of grounded, authoritative presence that works equally well in horror, historical drama, science fiction and television procedurals. Born on November 2, 1952, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he attended Louisiana State University before studying law at Duke University and Stanford Law School, graduating from Stanford in the late 1970s. His first major film role came in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street. During the rest of the decade, Andrews worked largely in television, including the 1987 BBC detective series Pulaski, while also taking the lead in Cherry 2000, which was released on videocassette rather than in theaters. He starred in the 1990 Stephen King adaptation Graveyard Shift and later played James Earp in Wyatt Earp. Andrews has often been cast as military officers, astronauts and other figures whose position needs to register quickly. He played astronaut Pete Conrad in Apollo 13 and Frank Borman in HBO's From the Earth to the Moon. In Band of Brothers, he appeared briefly as Major General Elbridge Chapman, while the final season of JAG found him playing Judge Advocate General Major General Gordon "Biff" Cresswell. His film work also includes appearances in Fight Club, Hannibal, A Walk to Remember, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Fair Game, in which he portrayed Scooter Libby. On television, his credits range from Mann & Machine and the TV films Our Son, the Matchmaker, Fifteen and Pregnant and Switched at Birth to a guest appearance in Criminal Minds. He also played Sheriff Tillman Napier in the third season of Justified, returning for one episode of season four. Across those roles, Andrews has shown the durable value of a character actor who can bring weight to a scene without pulling it out of shape.