Lee Tergesen

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Biography

Recent Role:
Clayton Boone on Army Wives
Gender:
Male
Born:
7-8-1965
Birthplace:
Ivoryton, Connecticut
Birth Name:
Lee Allen Tergesen
Lee Allen Tergesen was born on July 8, 1965 in Ivoryton, Connecticut. Lee graduated from Valley Regional High School in Deep River, Connecticut, and was 18 when he moved to New York to become an actor. After graduating from the American Theatre and Dramatic Academy in 1985, Lee did a lot of stage work, and upon finding there was no money in it, he decided to grow his hair long to counteract the straight-arrow type of roles his agents thought he should try for. During this time, Lee primarily worked at the Empire Diner where he met Tom Fontana (the award-winning producer and writer whose… More work includes "Oz," "Homicide: Life on the Street," and "St. Elsewhere"), who lived around the corner from the diner.

In 1990, Lee accompanied Fontana to Los Angeles to help him move. While dining at a restaurant on the day after arriving in L.A., a casting director and friend of Fontana's asked Lee if he was an actor. It was this encounter that led to Lee being cast in the surfing-action-detective movie "Point Break”.

Lee subsequently appeared as Terry, the cameraman, in "Wayne's World" and became part of two major pieces of pop culture: The "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene and uttering the "I love you, man" line that was adopted for Budweiser commercials.

In 1993, he began a series of recurring appearances in Tom Fontana's "Homicide: Life on the Street." He then was a series regular in 1994-1997 as Chett, the bullying older brother, in "Weird Science."

In 1997, Lee went East for an episode of "Homicide" and met up with Tom Fontana. They discussed a prison drama that Fontana was producing for HBO. Soon, Lee was cast as a central character in "Oz," playing Tobias Beecher, a part Fontana wrote for him.

After "Oz" ended its run in 2003, Lee had numerous guest appearances and/or supporting roles in TV shows and movies.

From October 2004 into January 2005, following his desire to return to theatre, he appeared in an off-Broadway play, "The Foreigner," a comedy with Matthew Broderick.

Most recently, Lee can be seen in a new TV series, "Wanted," which begin airing July 31, 2005, on TNT and has also appeared on several episodes of “Desperate Housewives” in spring 2006. His most recent film is as a biker in the horror/slasher film, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”.

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  •  
    9.2 Superb
    This fellas deserves some seriously juicey roles! hide show

    Its too bad wanted wasn't that great, I felt he was miscast on the show. His performances on OZ were absolutelty heatbreaking. Man what that character had to endure.
    According to TV Guide, Lee will appear in the episode airing March 26 as a character named "Peter MacMillian", and will be featured on the show for much longer than previously expected.
    I just watched a rerun of Rescue Me the other day and I thought "Sully" looked like the AA partner for the redhead in Desperate Housewives. I was amazed it was the same guy. Anybody else find it ironic that in both roles, he's a sex addict?

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    Critterish Added Jun 1, 2006 All my reviews
  •  
    9 Superb
    Down to earth and excellent at portraying "real life". hide show

    One of the things that I find most appealing about Lee is that he always seems to be able to add a "real life" feel to the characters that he plays. I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet, but for me it's very easy to connect with his characters and feel like they could be my neighbor, brother, etc.

    There aren't many actors that I've seen that can pull that off on a consistent basis, and those that are able to do that are making a lot of money on the big screen.

    Hopefully he'll get more exposure and bigger roles as time goes on so that everyone can see exactly how good he really is.

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    Bradzinser75 Added Dec 29, 2005 All my reviews
  •  
    10 Perfect
    Why doesn't he have his own show??? hide show

    You just have to watch OZ to see what a great actor Lee is. Watching him be taken apart by OZ and the struggle to put himself back together again was one of the main reasons why I watched the show (one of the others was Christopher Meloni). Hopefully, one day he'll get his own show! Until then I have to settle for watching him in 'Wanted.'

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    marleigh116 Added Aug 7, 2005 All my reviews
  •  
    10 Perfect
    Lee Tergesen is a very Talented actor
    hide show

    Lee is one of my Favorite actors .... he is so talented.

    His role as Toby Beecher was one of his best that I have seen, he showed that he can do anything set out in front of him,he has the ability to take every role and make it a part of who he is as a person.

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    chrisluvstoby Added Jun 6, 2005 All my reviews
 

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