By Mark Rhoads
Illinois-native actor Tom Berenger has played diverse roles from an aging catcher for the Cleveland Indians to Col. Theodore Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill. He played a crazoid sergeant in Platoon, a confederate general in Gettysburg, and one of the college classmate mourners in The Big Chill. He has been a western lawman, a high school teacher, a police detective, and a plumber on Cheers. The fact that he is always believable in each different role is a tribute to his acting abilities.
Tom Berenger's birth name was Thomas Michael Moore when he was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Chicago on May 31, 1949. Tom played football at Rich East Township High School in Park Forest but he also acted in school plays and was a member of the Spanish National Honor Society. Tom graduated from Rich East in 1967 and attended the University of Missouri as a journalism major. His goal was to be a sport's writer. But during college, Tom appeared in a stage production of "Who Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" and caught the acting bug in a more serious way.
Tom filled the years of the early 1970s doing regional theater in Illinois and other midwestern venues. He moved to New York in the middle 1970s and appeared on some TV soap operas before he started making films such as Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Platoon. He has worked steadily since about 1977 appearing in one movie or TV show every year.
Tom was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a villain in Platoon. One of his most recognizable roles in many reruns of a film on TV is that of Jake Taylor, catcher for the Cleveland Indians in Major League (1989) and the sequel Major League II (1994). He has said that his favorite role was that of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet in Gettysburg (1993).
According to his website, Tom and a partner formed a production company called First Corps (in honor of Gen. Longstreet) in 1995. He produced a TV movie called Avenging Angel.
The Tom Berenger website states:
"In 1997, Tom starred in, and was executive producer to, the Emmy Award-winning TNT television mini-series Rough Riders, which depicted Teddy Roosevelt and his army during the Spanish-American War. It scored high with viewers and became the highest rated mini-series in cable TV history."
In 1999, Tom appeared in an amazing six movies including Shadow of Doubt, The Gingerbread Man, Murder of Crows, The Company of Spies, Diplomatic Siege and his own project One Man's Hero.
Tom Berenger has five daughters from two marriages and lives most of the time in his home in South Carolina.
For a complete list of Tom Berenger films and TV shows, click here to see his page on the Internet Movie Database.
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