Thomas Ian Griffith
Thomas Ian Griffith is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, musician, and martial artist.His best-known roles include Terry Silver in John G. Avildsen's 1989 martial arts film The Karate Kid Part III, which he later reprised in the fourth through sixth and final season of the Netflix television series Cobra Kai, as well as voicing his character in the video game Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising ; head vampire Jan Valek in John Carpenter's 1998 neo-Western action horror film Vampires; warrior Taligaro in Raffaella De Laurentiis' 1997 sword and sorcery picture Kull the Conqueror; recurring character Larry Sawyer in the first season of The WB's teen drama series One Tree Hill ; and Catlin Ewing in NBC's soap opera Another World from 1984–1987. He also portrayed screen legend Rock Hudson in ABC's 1990 television biopic Rock Hudson, and serial killer Doug Clark in CBS's 2000 television biopic A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle.
Griffith wrote, story edited, co-produced, or supervised produced over sixty episodes of NBC's fantasy police procedural drama horror program Grimm from its second through sixth and final season, and has written, supervised producer, or co-executive produced over thirty episodes of Netflix's romantic drama series Virgin River during its fifth through seventh seasons. He and his wife, Mary Page Keller, formed the independent film production company Ian Page Productions in the late 1980s, through which they produced a handful of films, including Night of the Warrior, Ulterior Motives, Excessive Force, and Avalanche.
During the early 1990s, he was positioned to be one of Hollywood's next big action stars. From critics and journalists, he received frequent comparisons to actors like Jean Claude van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Jeff Speakman, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, and even Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, and Mickey Rourke. Writing for the New York Daily News in 1992, Nancy Stedman offered, "He's being touted as a better-looking version of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude Van Damme. But with a difference: Muscles are a sideline with Griffith; he has spent years acting in theater." At the eighth annual ShowEast film industry conference held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in October 1992, Griffith received the Star of Tomorrow Award.
Early life
Birth and family background
Thomas Ian Griffith was born in Hartford, Connecticut on March 18, 1962, the son of Irish-American Hartford natives Mary Ann and Dr. Thomas Joseph Griffith. His maternal grandfather, John J. O'Neil, was born in Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland, and emigrated to Hartford in the 1920s. His maternal grandmother, Margaret, was also born in County Kerry, Ireland and spent most of her life in Hartford. His paternal grandparents, Michael J. Griffith and Mary Agnes, were both born in County Mayo, Ireland, and emigrated to Hartford in the 1910s.Griffith's mother, who was voted Mrs. Connecticut of 1964, was the founder and director of the noted Irish dancing academy, The Griffith Academy of Dance in Wethersfield, Connecticut. She was a graduate of the University of Hartford, and received a Master's degree in counseling from St. Joseph College. She was also accredited by the An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha as a Teagascóir Coimisiún Le Rinci Gaelacha - an official Irish dance teacher. His paternal grandmother, Mary Agnes, was also a member of The Irish Dancing Commission. His father served in the Navy during World War II and later hosted a weekly Sunday radio show, The Irish Hour. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Hartford and went on to earn three Master of Science degrees and a PhD in Education from Boston University. He was an assistant professor in business administration at the University of Hartford, before moving to Florida to teach at Lynn University in Boca Raton and Broward College in Davie.
Griffith has an older sister, Colleen Marie, and a younger sister, Mary Beth, both of whom continued in their mother's footsteps and teach at The Griffith Academy. His family's dancing background and the taking over of the academy by his sister after his mother's passing would later be developed by Griffith into a television program, The Dunnings.
Education, extracurricular studies, and early plays (1962–1980)
Griffith grew up in Wethersfield, Connecticut. During the 1960s, he was part of the youth Irish dancing group The Griffith Dancers, under the direction of his mother. The dancing group traveled around the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland, performing and taking part in competitions. In addition to learning various forms of dancing from his mother, he also learned to sing and play several instruments, including the piano and the accordion. He was so proficient on the accordion that he won United States and Connecticut State championships. At certain shows he would dance a jig and play his accordion, and would usually accompany The Griffith Dancers on the instrument. Of his dancing, he later said "I never had a formal dance lesson in my life, I picked up tap dancing while playing the piano for allowance money as a child in Hartford, Connecticut." Griffith also juggled and wrote songs.He attended South Catholic High School in Hartford, graduating with the class of 1978, where he was Treasurer his junior year, Vice-President his senior year, and also co-editor of the school's yearbook, the Canticle. He won awards in algebra, biology, and chemistry, and was a member of the State Creative Youth. He focused on sports his freshman year, playing football and basketball, but was later drawn into music and theater, as a member of the school's madigral and glee club. His sophomore year, he joined the school's drama club, The South Catholic Players, when it needed a last-minute replacement piano accompanist for a production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. As a way to meet girls who acted in the plays, Griffith also wound up acting in the school's productions. His senior year, under the direction of John Kiely, he played the lead, Albert Peterson, in a March 31–April 1, 1978 production of the musical comedy Bye Bye Birdie. The play also starred Marie Fischetti, Steve Dolin, and Ellen Smith.
Griffith became obsessed with taekwondo when he was 12, studying at the S.K. Tae Kwon Do Academy in Hartford, and earned a black belt when he was 18. He later earned a black belt in American Kenpo while studying the sport in New York under Hyung Yup Chung. After moving to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, he studied with Jun Chong. In the 1990s, he picked up boxing under Benny Urquidez. He is also trained in kickboxing, wrestling, fencing, and stage combat.
Some sources state that he studied law at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was a dean's list student before leaving after his junior year to "make it" as an actor in New York. Other sources report that he was an English and music major at that same college, but that he graduated before setting out into acting. The college's website lists him as a class of 1982 student. Its 1980 yearbook, the Purple Patcher, lists him as a resident student, while its 1981 edition lists him as a player in the lacrosse team, but he is absent from the 1979 and 1982 editions. Griffith later mentioned taking part in the college's plays. In a 2021 interview, Griffith stated that he originally attended College of the Holy Cross, where he majored in English and music, but transferred to New York University between his sophomore and junior year after he was cast in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Career
Theater and soap operas (1980–1987)
In the summer of 1980, between his sophomore and junior year at College of the Holy Cross, Griffith made his Broadway debut when he replaced featured player Tom Cashin in the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, under the direction of Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune at the 46th Street Theatre. In a 1984 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor confided that Tune hired him more for his physique and dancing skills than his acting abilities. He later told The Star-Ledger in 1992, "They noticed 'Celtic step dancing' on my resume, and I was asked if I could demonstrate. So I cranked out a little step. They loved it." Griffith performed various roles in the play, including a stage manager, a cameraman, and a football player named Aggie #12 who does a specialty tap-dance. He remained with the play for about a year. Having a steady role in the play allowed the actor to move from Yonkers into an apartment in Manhattan, and he transferred to New York University, which he attended during the day. He also studied the Michael Chekhov acting technique in New York City during this time.The next year, he landed another role in the Broadway sports musical The First, which dramatized events from the life of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. In that play, which ran from October 19 to December 12, 1981, under the direction of Martin Charnin at the Martin Beck Theatre, Griffith also played various parts. He also appeared in off-Broadway productions.
He was hired and cast in the 1983–1984 season of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, appearing in the first two plays, The Threepenny Opera and Guys and Dolls. The theater's production of The Threepenny Opera starred Theodore Bikel, while Guys and Dolls
His stage and theater roles were usually credited under his shortened names, Tom Griffith or Thomas Griffith; he would not be credited as Thomas Ian Griffith until he was cast in Another World in late 1983, to avoid confusion with another actor, Tom Griffith, Fiend, Night of Horror, and Nightbeast ).
A New York casting director caught Griffith's work at the Guthrie Theater and arranged for him two auditions in late 1983; one for ABC and another for NBC. The one for an ABC soap opera did not pan out, but from the second audition, he received two simultaneous offers to join either Another World or Search for Tomorrow, both NBC daytime soap operas. The actor chose Another World, was signed to a nine-month contract, and was cast as the Texan "troublemaking-womanizer" Catlin Ewing. Griffith had initially planned to return to stage work after his nine-month contract expired, with the television experience added to his resumé, and he took acting lessons when he had time off from shooting. He was also noted for performing and choreographing his own stunts on the show. He made his television-acting debut in January 1984 and wound up playing Ewing for three years, until January 1987. After nine months on the show, he started dating his co-star and onscreen new love interest, Mary Page Keller; the couple eventually married in 1991.
Appearing on Another World made him "one of daytime television's more familiar and possibly popular faces," a "matinee idol," and a "soap superstar." He was featured on the cover of Soap Opera Digest
In December 1986, Griffith and Keller were invited to perform on the tenth annual televised benefit special Telethon of Stars, broadcast from CTV and TQS in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The 22-hour program was a fundraiser for research into children's diseases and featured such stars as Tony Bennett, James Brown, Ginette Reno, Daniel Lavoie, Joe Bocan, Ranee Lee, and Édith Butler. The couple performed two originals songs, but were plagued by issues. Reviewing their much-publicized set for The Montreal Gazette, a critic wrote "As for Thomas Ian Griffin and Mary Page Keller of Another World, they were downright livid and for good reason. On their first song, they couldn't hear themselves singing, and the camera cut away from them before the applause started. They were promised everything would be ironed out by their second tune, but when they started to lip-sync, the tape started halfway through the song. As soon as the song was over, they stormed off in a huff. Or was it a limo?"