Life and career

Gries was born in Glendale, California, the son of Mary Eleanor Munday, an actress, and Thomas Stephen "Tom" Gries, a writer, director, and producer. His first film role came at the age of 11, when he played the Boy Horace in the Charlton Heston film Will Penny, which was written and directed by his father. Some of his signature roles have come in cult classics. He played Lazlo Hollyfeld in Real Genius (1985), Azzolini in Rainbow Drive, Shawn McDermott in the TV series Martin (1992-1994), Ronnie Wingate in Get Shorty (1995), Harvey in The Rundown, and Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite (2004). Gries has played a werewolf on several occasions, such as Fright Night Part II and The Monster Squad. In the historical Western film September Dawn, he played executed murderer John D. Lee, in a performance praised by critics who otherwise panned the film. He played Casey in the films Taken (2008), Taken 2 (2012), and Taken 3 (2015), and was also in TerrorVision, as O.D. He also lent his voice for the video game Hitman: Absolution.

Among his television roles are that of a terrorist in season two of the hit show 24 and as Broots on the NBC series The Pretender. He had a guest role on The X-Files in the episode "Sleepless". He played Dylan McKay's drug dealer in season 5 of Beverly Hills, 90210. He played Ben Linus' father Roger in a recurring role on the TV series Lost. He played Shawn on the Fox sitcom Martin during the first two seasons. He appeared twice in the TV series "Quantum Leap". First, as a bookie in the episode "The Right Hand of God" and as a band member in the episode "Glitter Rock". He appeared as Rusty the Bum in two episodes of Seinfeld. In "The Beard", when Elaine rips George's toupee off and tosses it out the window, Rusty finds it and puts it on. In "The Bookstore" Kramer and Newman start a rickshaw business powered by bums, but on its maiden run, Rusty takes off with the conveyance. In 2007 he played the menacing dad to Samaire Armstrong in Around June. In 2008, he appeared in the CSI: NY episode "The Box" as the father of that episode's victim. In 2010 Jon wrapped production on A True Story. Based on Things that Never Actually Happened. ...and Some that Did and appeared in one episode of Nikita. He also played Martin in the TV Show Supernatural in the episodes "Sam, Interrupted" (2010), "Hello, Cruel World" (2011) and "Citizen Fang" (2012). He played Bob, a former drug addict who operates a safe haven for abused Mexican women, in The Bridge (2013 TV series). He played Strabinsky in the TV Show Psych in the episode "One, Maybe Two, Ways Out" (2010).

Filmography

Movies

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Will Penny	Horace (Button)	Credited as Jon Francis
1976	Born of Water	Friend
1977	The Chicken Chronicles	Tom	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1979	Sunnyside	Wild Child	Credited as Jonathon Gries
	More American Graffiti	Ron	Credited as Jonathon Gries
	Swap Meet	Doug
1983	Joysticks	King Vidiot	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1985	Real Genius	Lazlo Hollyfeld	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1986	TerrorVision	O.D.	Credited as Jonathon Gries
	Running Scared	Det. Tony Montoya	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1987	Number One with a Bullet	Bobby Sweet	Credited as Jonathon Gries
	The Monster Squad	Desperate Man	Credited as Jonathon Gries
	Che's Revenge	Jack	Short
1988	Fright Night Part 2	Louie	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1989	Kill Me Again	Alan Swayzie	Credited as Jonathon Gries
	Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog	Max	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1990	The Grifters	Drunk's Friend	Credited as Jonathon Gries
1993	Ed and His Dead Mother	Rob Sundheimer
1995	Get Shorty	Ronnie Wingate
1997	Casualties	Bill Summers
	Men in Black	Van Driver
	The Maze	Dr. Holmes
	Mitzi & Joe	Joe
1999	Twin Falls Idaho	Lawyer Jay Harrison
2001	The Beatnicks	B Cool
	Jackpot	Sunny Holiday / Glen Allen Johnson
2003	Northfork	Arnold
	The Big Empty	Elron
	The Snow Walker	Pierce
	The Rundown	Harvey
2004	Napoleon Dynamite	Uncle Rico
2005	Confessions of an Action Star	Donald Buckheim
	Waterborne	Ritter
	Last Best Chance	Bernard Wheeler	Video
2006	The Sasquatch Gang	Chilcutt
	Stick It	Brice Graham
	The Astronaut Farmer	FBI Agent Killbourne
	Car Babes	Gary
2007	Frank	Colin York
	American Pastime	Ed Tully
	Bicentennial Curious	Mick Jones	Short
	Fathom		Short
	September Dawn	John D. Lee
	The Comebacks	Barber
2008	Taken	Casey
	Bar Starz	Ricky Fabulous
	South of Heaven	Hood #1
	So Long Jimmy	Levi Franklin
	Around June	Murry
2009	Elsewhere	Mr. Tod
	The Smell of Success	Early Dunchamp
	A Lone Star State	Wyatt Kinney	Short
2010	Crazy on the Outside	Edgar
	Good Intentions	Sherriff Ernie
	Pearblossom	Harry	Short
2011	5 Time Champion	Melvin Glee
	Natural Selection	Peter
	Not Quite College	Tone Cash
	Redemption: For Robbing the Dead	Tom Sutter
2012	Deep in the Heart	Dick Wallrath
	Unicorn City	Shadowhawk
	Noobz	Greg Lipstein
	Taken 2	Casey
	Byron's Theme	Butcher	Short
2013	Bad Turn Worse	Sheriff Shep
	A True Story	Richard Simpkins
	Skinwalker Ranch	Hoyt
2014	Eternity: The Movie	Barry Goldfield, Jr.
	Faults	Terry
	Locker 13	Archie	Segment: Title Story
	After We Rest	Mr. Norman	Short
	The Last Survivors	Carson
	Taken 3	Casey
	Brothers	Ronnie	Short
2015	Americons	Billy
	Pass the Light	Franklin
	Endgame	Principal Thomas
	A Country Called Home	Tyler
	Mucho Dinero	Jon Waters
2016	Villisca	Greg
	Falsely Accused	Gus
	Durant's Never Closes	Dizzy Dean
	The Knife Thrower	Circus Manager

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Helter Skelter	William Garretson	TV Movie
1977	Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn	Uncredited	TV Movie
	Mulligan's Stew	Adams	1 Episode, Melinda Special
1979	240-Robert	Brad	1 Episode, Poison Air
1980	The White Shadow	Uri Kogenski	1 Episode, The Russians Are Coming
1983	The Powers of Matthew Star	Brad	1 Episode, The Road Rebels
	September Gun	Brian Brian	TV Movie
	The Jeffersons	Frank	1 Episode, I Do, I Don't
	High School U.S.A.	Dirty Curt	TV Movie
1987	The Twilight Zone	Nick Gatlin, Segment: Shelter Skelter	1 Episode, Joy Ride/Shelter Skelter/Private Channel
	Cagney & Lacey	Hands Callahan	1 Episode, The City is Burning
1988	Tattingers	Rick Jurasky	2 Episodes
1989	Paradise	Emmett	1 Episode, Dead Run
1990	Falcon Crest	Stone	1 Episode, Finding Lauren
	Jake and the Fatman	Lenny Maddox	1 Episode, By Myself
	Tour of Duty	Maj. Rex Chapman, USAF	1 Episode, The Raid
	Rainbow Drive	Azzolini	TV Movie
1991	Quantum Leap	Flash McGrath	1 Episode, Glitter Rock - April 12, 1974
	Fever	Bobby	TV Movie
1992	L.A. Law	Dr. Harold Benson	1 Episode, I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. Markowitz
	Four Eyes and Six Guns		TV Movie
1992 - 1994	Martin	Shawn McDermott	54 Episodes
1993	Bakersfield P.D.	Ray Coombs	1 Episode, A Bullet for Stiles
1994	The X-Files	Salvatore Matola	1 Episode, Sleepless
	Beverly Hills, 90210	Mr. Trilling, Dope Dealer	4 Episodes
1995	Chicago Hope	Jack Kimball	1 Episode, Hello Goodbye
	Strange Luck	Henry Bloom	1 Episode, Last Chance
	Seinfeld	Homeless Man	1 Episode, The Beard
1996	Race Against Time: The Search for Sarah	Steve	TV Movie
1996 - 2000	The Pretender	Broots	82 Episodes
1998	Seinfeld	Rusty	1 Episode, The Bookstore
2001	The Pretender 2001	Broots	TV Movie
	ER	Defense Attorney Marty Nesmith	1 Episode, Fear of Commitment
	The Pretender: Island of the Haunted	Broots	TV Movie
2002	24	Joseph Wald	1 Episode, Day 2: 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
2003 - 2005	Carnivàle	Texas Ranger	2 Episodes
2004	Las Vegas	Greg Walker	1 Episode, Sons and Lovers
2007 - 2010	Lost	Roger Linus	6 Episodes
2008	CSI: NY	Jim Warren	1 Episode, The Box
2010	Cold Case	Bill Shepard '78	2 Episodes
	Sons of Anarchy	Passport Forger	1 Episode, So
	Psych	Strabinsky	1 Episode, One, Maybe Two, Ways Out
	Nikita	The Engineer	1 Episode, Dark Matter
	Supernatural	Martin Creaser	2 Episodes
2011	Hawaii Five-0	Liam Miller	1 Episode, Lapa'au
2012	Dr. Fubalous	Dr. Reed	2 Episodes
	Napoleon Dynamite	Uncle Rico	6 Episodes
	BlackBoxTV	Dad	1 Episode, Silverwood: The Hunger
2013 - 2014	The Bridge	Bob	7 Episodes
2014	Criminal Minds	Clifford Walsh	1 Episode, The Road Home
Upcoming	Dream Corp, LLC	Dr. Roberts	Unknown number of episodes

Video Games

Year	Title	Role
2012	Hitman: Absolution	Sheriff Clive Skurky (voice)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]