Sam Hennings

Sam Hennings was born in Macon, Georgia, of German, English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. Deciding in the early 1980s to pursue acting as a full-time profession, he moved to Los Angeles where he studied at the prestigious Beverly Hills Playhouse (for 20 years) with prominent acting teacher, Milton Katselas. In 1984, with encouragement from his teacher, Hennings launched his theatrical stage career, a medium he fell in love with and continues to return to whenever possible. In 1985, Hennings made his professional acting debut on Moonlighting (Pilot) (1985). Over the next few years, he continued to improve his craft through study and stage work and landed several TV guest-starring roles including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dallas, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Hunter. In 1989, Hennings had his first break when director Randy Roberts, who had directed the actor earlier in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, invited him to co-star with Louis Gossett Jr. in The Last Plane from Coramaya (1989). The 1990s brought Hennings more substantial television roles and well deserved exposure. In 1991, he made his film debut as a hard-nosed, Texas sheriff in the 1960s era film Shout (1991), which earned mixed reviews from critics but garnered the actor praise for his performance. This opened the door for the actor to play Loyola Marymount basketball coach David Spencer in Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story (1992). In 1992-93, he landed his first series regular role in the short lived series Secrets (1992), and on NBC's Trade Winds (1993). He was then cast as the lead in Seasons of the Heart (1993), playing a weary, Civil War-era man relocated to Oregon, where his children are dying of cholera. In 1994, John Badham cast him as a rogue, skydiving, DEA agent opposite Gary Busey in Drop Zone (1994), which starred Wesley Snipes. CBS then cast Hennings as a killer in One Day Out West (1998). That same year, he was cast in Point Last Seen (1998), starring Linda Hamilton. He finished the decade with a recurring role on Pensacola: Wings of Gold (1997). Hennings's star continued to rise in the early 2000s as he continued to pour on his magic in every role he accepted. In 2002, NBC cast him as a charming, CIA operative in the long running series ER and in 2004, he accepted the lead role as Ben Steed in the trilogy (2004-2006) film series, The Work And The Glory. Later that year, Martin Scorsese cast him in The Aviator (2004). In 2005, he was cast in Havoc (2005). TNT then cast him in a recurring role as Holly Hunter's brother in the series, Saving Grace (2007). In 2009, he was cast in the film, Stolen, with Jon Hamm and Jessica Chastain. Finishing out the year, he accepted guest starring roles in television shows such as Eleventh Hour, Dollhouse, Cold Case, CSI Miami, and CSI Crime Scene Investigation. In 2010, George Clooney and Grant Heslov, co-founders of Smokehouse Productions, who knew Hennings from his early days at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, cast him as a series regular opposite Jason Lee and Alfre Woodard in Memphis Beat (2010) for TNT, which ran for two seasons. The Hollywood Reporter's review read: "But even as the cop genre seems beyond saturation, along comes TNT's Memphis Beat, a series with a fresh character in a fresh environment with a fresh look and sound that proves, against all odds, that good actors and agile execution trump format every time." In 2011, while on hiatus from the show, Hennings was cast in a guest role on Supernatural (2005), playing real-life legendary gunsmith Samuel Colt. In 2012, director Jon Avnet drafted Hennings as a recurring character, "Col. Harold", for the YouTube series Lauren (2012). In 2013, director Wayne Kramer offered the actor a role in Pawn Shop Chronicles (2013), an anthology series. He essayed challenging guest starring roles on such TV shows as Castle, Criminal Minds, and Red Widow. He returned to his favorite medium, the stage, in such plays as Hanging Alice and Ten Tricks; the latter was made into a film starring Hennings, Lea Thompson and Raymond Cruz. In 2013, Lifetime Network cast him as a stern, polygamous husband in Escape from Polygamy (2013). In 2017, he was cast in Hypnotized, playing a politician based on President Bill Clinton. In 2019, he appeared in Netflix's Juanita (2019). His latest project was Rodrigo García's drama, Four Good Days (2020), starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis.