Kyle Chandler

Actor

• Born: September 17, 1965
• Place of Birth: Buffalo, New York

Contribution: Kyle Chandler is an Emmy Award–winning actor, best known for the shows Early Edition (1996–2000) and Friday Night Lights (2006–2011) and the films Super 8 (2011) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012).

Background

Kyle Martin Chandler was born on September 17, 1965, in Buffalo, New York. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois, until his family moved to Loganville, Georgia, when he was eleven years old. He is the son of Edward Chandler, a pharmaceutical sales representative, and his wife Sally, a dog breeder. He has an older sister and two older brothers.

Chandler graduated from the George Walton Academy private school in 1983 in Monroe, Georgia. During his freshman year in high school he played on the 1979 state championship football team. He quit the team the following year after his father died, however, and joined the Walton theater program.

His interest in theater continued when he attended the University of Georgia as a drama major. He left school just seven credits short of graduating when, in 1988, a talent scout from the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) signed Chandler for the television series Tour of Duty.

Career

Prior to his work on Tour of Duty, Chandler had appeared in some television movies and series, including his debut role as Skinner in the 1988 television movie Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story. Chandler appeared in eight episodes of Tour of Duty in 1990 as Private William Griner. His next television role was also on another period show, the World War II drama Homefront, in which Chandler played professional baseball player Jeff Metcalf. Homefront lasted three seasons, from 1991 to 1993, and Chandler appeared in forty-two episodes.

He acted in several more television movies until 1996, when he was cast as the lead role in the fantasy-drama series Early Edition. Chandler played Gary Hobson, a stockbroker in Chicago who inexplicably receives the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before each edition is printed and published. Hobson uses the information from the newspaper to prevent tragic accidents and events. Chandler won the Saturn Award for best actor on television for his work in the series’ first season. Despite its consistently high ratings, the show was cancelled after its fourth season in 2000.

Following the cancellation of Early Edition, Chandler appeared on the ABC comedy series What about Joan (2001), another series set in Chicago. The show only lasted twenty-one episodes before it was canceled. He then starred in another short-lived show, The Lyons Den (2003), playing a lawyer named Grant Rashton. After the two canceled shows, Chandler turned to film, where he played dashing film star Bruce Baxter in the 2005 blockbuster remake of King Kong. The film received mainly positive reviews and became the fourth highest grossing release in Universal Pictures history.

Chandler returned to television in 2006 with a small role on the hospital-drama series Grey’s Anatomy, where he appeared in a two-part episode as bomb squad leader named Dylan Young. Critics praised Chandler’s performance and he was consequently nominated for outstanding guest actor in a drama series at the 2006 Emmy Awards. He reprised his role as Young in two more episodes of Grey’s Anatomy the following year.

While filming Grey’s Anatomy in 2005, Chandler met filmmaker Peter Berg, who was at the time developing a drama series called Friday Night Lights. The series, based on the novel and feature film of the same name, follows Texas high school football coach Eric Taylor, played by Chandler, and his family as they deal with various hardships on and off the field.

For his portrayal of Taylor, Chandler received acclaim and the show itself was a critical, if not commercial, success. Although it received generally low ratings, critics applauded the show’s portrayal of small town American life and the realistic marriage dynamic of Taylor and his wife. Chandler has stated that he drew from his own experiences as a husband and father for the role. The show ran for five seasons, concluding in 2011; the same year, Chandler won the Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.

After the end of Friday Night Lights, Chandler appeared in several high-profile films. He had a major role in the 2011 science fiction film Super 8, followed by roles in two Oscar-nominated films: Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, both released in 2012. In 2013 he appeared in a supporting role in the film Broken City, alongside actors Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe. That same year he was also featured in The Wolf of Wall Street, a film directed by Martin Scorsese.

Chandler appeared in a number of high-profile projects during the mid-to-late 2010s. He played the role of Harge Aird, the husband of Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) in the 2015 film Carol, which was adapted from Patricia Highsmith's 1958 novel The Price of Salt. That same year, he began starring in the Netflix series Bloodline (2015–17) as John Rayburn, a member of a prominent family in the Florida Keys whose older brother (Ben Mendelsohn) returns home to deal drugs from the family inn. Chandler was nominated for two consecutive Primetime Emmys, in 2015 and 2016, for best lead actor for his work on the show. In 2016, he appeared in the role of Joe Chandler, older brother of Casey Affleck's Lee Chandler, in the Emmy Award–winning film Manchester by the Sea. In 2019 he appeared as Colonel Cathcart in the television miniseries Catch-22, based on the novel by Joseph Heller. He also played Dr. Mark Russell in 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the sequel to the 2014's Godzilla, a reboot of the original 1954 monster film.

Chandler reprised his role as Dr. Russell in the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong. That same year, he also made a single guest appearance on the popular Mayor of Kingstown thriller streaming series. In 2022, he appeared in seven episodes of the Netflix series SuperPumped, where he Bill Gurley, as well as Slumberland, another Netflix project starting Jason Momoa.

In 2024, Chandler appeared in a series of United Airline ads that aired during the Super Bowl. The ads were targeted to six specific markets, and in them Chandler addressed the football fans of those city's professional teams.

Impact

Despite receiving high praise and numerous awards for his television work on Early Edition, Grey’s Anatomy, and Friday Night Lights, Chandler believes that it is the craft that comes first and that awards are only secondary. He has expressed in interviews that his family has remained the most important focus of his life throughout his acting career.

Personal Life

Chandler married television writer Kathryn (Kyl) Chandler in 1995. Together they have two daughters, Sydney and Sawyer, and live in Dripping Springs, Texas, where they moved in 2007.

Bibliography

Ausiello, Michael. “Friday Night Lights Emmy Nominees Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton Reflect on First Impressions, Lasting Friendship, and Saying Goodbye.” Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly, 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 19 June 2013.

Eells, Josh. “The Last Solid Dude.” Men’s Journal. Men’s Journal, 10 June 2011. Web. 19 June 2013.

Grathoff, Pete. "United Airlines will air this Super Bowl commercial about Chiefs fans only in KC." Kansas City Star, 6 Feb. 2024, www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article285109192.html. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.

Knutzen, Eirik. “TV Close-Up: Kyle Chandler.” Bend WeeklyNews. .Com Endeavors, 19 Jan. 2007. Web. 19 June 2013.

Smith, Emily. The Kyle Chandler Handbook: Everything You Need to Know about Kyle Chandler. Newstead: Emereo, 2013. Print.

Wilson, Leah, ed. A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas. Dallas: BenBella, 2011. Print.