CSI: crime scene investigation

“Gil Grissom” (William Petersen)

Grissom has been promoted from senior officer on the graveyard forensics shift to head of the Las Vegas Criminalistics Bureau. An investigator of the old school, with 17 years on the job, Grissom eschews computer simulations and readouts for hands-on technique and legwork. CSI is his life. He supervises a team of very diverse professionals, and often goes to the wall to protect them from department interference – and sometimes, from the consequences of their own risky decisions, on and off the job.

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William Petersen comes to this series with an extensive background in film, theater and television. His credits include the television films Long Gone, The Rat Pack, The Kennedy’s of Massachusetts, which won a Golden Globe Award, The Beast and Keep the Change, which he also produced, and the CBS television mini series Haven.

His film credits include To Live and Die in L.A., Manhunter, Fear, Cousins, Young Guns II, Hard Promises, and Skulls. Last fall, Petersen was seen in the Dreamworks film The Contender with Joan Allen and Gary Oldman.

Petersen made his Broadway debut in the revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana. In 1979 he founded the Remains Theater Ensemble in Chicago with a group of fellow actors. He has appeared in a number of stage productions including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Time Of Your Life, Glengarry Glen Ross, Fools For Love and Speed the Plow.

Petersen was born in Evanston, Illinois and first discovered acting while on a football scholarship at Idaho State University. Upon graduation, Petersen traveled to Spain to study acting.

He currently resides in Los Angeles. His birth date is February 21.