Early life and career

Patrick Fischler was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 29, 1969. His father, Bill, purchased a restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, when Fischler was five years old, and named it "Patrick's Roadhouse" after him. The restaurant has since become a hotspot for such celebrities as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Penn, Goldie Hawn and Johnny Carson. After graduating from high school, Fischler attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he met and started dating his future wife, actress Lauren Bowles, the half-sister of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. After graduating from Tisch, Fischler and Bowles moved back to Los Angeles, where, along with other New York University graduates, they, formed a theater group called Neurotic Young Urbanites. An agent who saw Fischler perform at a Neurotic Young Urbanites production arranged for him to attend an audition for the 1994 action film Speed, which became Fischler's first film acting job. In the film, Fischler played one of the men trapped inside an elevator that nearly falls due to an attack by a bomber.

In 1998, Fischler starred in the independent film The Week That Girl Died, a romantic comedy about three long-time friends in a small New England fishing town. For the part, he received a best lead actor award by the American Film Institute International Film Festival's New Directions jury, which honors independent films. Fischler also appeared in David Lynch's 2001 psychological thriller Mulholland Drive as a man describing a horrible nightmare he had. He also appeared in the 2002 television film Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, a biopic about comedian Gilda Radner, where he played the real-life comedian Eugene Levy. He appeared in the films Twister (1996), Ghost World (2001), and Old School (2003). and The Great Buck Howard (2008), and played assistant district attorney Ellis Loew in Brian De Palma's 2006 crime film The Black Dahlia. The character was referred to in the film as "Jewboy", Film reviewer Stephen Cole called his role in that film "a caricature that is as coarsely anti-Semitic as any sequence in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ." Fischler also appeared as a guest star in television shows Angel, Nash Bridges, Burn Notice, Lie to Me, Bones, Cold Case, Monk, Star Trek: Enterprise, Girlfriends, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. By 2009, he had more than 60 film and television credits.

Education and Training

A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Fischler co-founded the Los Angeles-based theater group Neurotic Young Urbanites. During a performance there, he was approached by an agent to audition for the action film Speed (1994), his first film credit. After guest starring on several television shows, Fischler received increased exposure for his role on Mad Men, for which he based his character in part on entertainer Joey Bishop. Fischler filmed his parts for Lost and Southland simultaneously and, although originally only slated for two Lost episodes, he actually appeared in nine.

Increased recognition

Fischler auditioned for the role of insult comic Jimmy Barrett on the AMC drama series Mad Men, of which he was a fan. Alex Witchel, a writer from The New York Times Magazine who sat in on Fischler's audition, said he was "breathtakingly good". The character, Jimmy Barrett, is a client of the advertising company within the show, and his wife sleeps with protagonist Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm. Series creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner cast Fischler because he felt the actor had a "New York quality" that he wanted the character to have. Weiner said of him: "Patrick has this tremendous edge. There was something very old-fashioned about the way he dealt with the character." Fischler said entertainer Joey Bishop was a major influence on how he played the role because he wanted Jimmy Barrett to have a charming element to him and make people laugh even while he said horrible things, as Bishop did. Fischler received a great deal of exposure and increase in name recognition after his role on Mad Men. During one episode, Fischler's character tells Don's wife Betty about her husband's infidelity, then confronts Don and tells him off about his cheating. Fischler called receiving that script "the highlight of my career so far", adding: "After Mad Men I got a lot of 'How dare you speak to Don Draper like that? ... People, mainly women, were mad at me that I told Don off. I took it as a compliment." Fischler had been in talks to appear on the Showtime drama series Californication, but he was unable to do so due to scheduling conflicts with Mad Men.

Starting in 2009, Fischler became a recurring cast member on both the ABC drama series Lost and the NBC police drama Southland. He was cast in Lost immediately after the pilot for Southland was filmed and worked on both shows over the course of six months. To do so, he constantly flew back and forth between Hawaii, where Lost is filmed, and Los Angeles, where Southland is filmed, while simultaneously dealing with his wife's pregnancy. Fischler said the Lost producers were "incredibly accommodating" to his schedule. On Southland he played Detective Kenny No-Gun; series creator Ann Biderman described him as a "brilliant, incredibly versatile actor". Although originally expected to appear in only two Lost episodes, he ended up guest starring in nine, appearing in the fifth season as Phil, a member of the Dharma Initiative during a part of the show set in 1977. When he auditions for the role, Fischler did not know the storyline was moving from the present to the past, and did not learn it until he was handed his first script. In a May 2009 interview, Fischler said, "This is not a joke: a year ago if you were to ask me what are the two shows I want to be on, I would have said Mad Men and Lost."

Recent projects

Fischler appeared in the 2010 comedy film Dinner for Schmucks as Vincenzo, one of the guests at a dinner where rich people bring eccentric guests and compete for who can bring the biggest loser. In the film, Fischler's character has a pet vulture, which he feeds by chewing food and spitting it directly into the bird's mouth. Fischler also portrayed the real-life gangster Mickey Cohen in the video game L.A. Noire, which was released in May 2011. The game uses a facial performance-capture technology called MotionScan to record the performances of actors, then convert them to the graphics of the game. The game's casting directors worked on Mad Men and specifically approached Fischler for the Cohen character, and he accepted because he likes the film noir genre. Fischler said of the experience: "You really get to act in those scenes cause they’re capturing every moment on your face. A slight smile. A small frown. Everything."

Fischler appeared in Red State as ATF Agent Hammond in 2011.

In January 2012, Fischler appeared in One for the Money, a crime thriller film adapted from the 1994 novel of the same name by Janet Evanovich, the first in a series featuring bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. He portrayed Vinnie Plum, a bail bondsman and Stephanie Plum's cousin. He portrayed poet Lew Welch in the 2013 Michael Polish film Big Sur, based on the autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac. He played the antagonistic Author on the second half of the fourth season of ABC's Once Upon a Time'. In 2016, he appeared in The Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar!

Personal life

Patrick Fischler and Lauren Bowles were married in 2004. They have a daughter named Fia Lucille (born April 2009).

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Speed	Friend of Executive
1994	The Shadow	Sailor
1994	Swimming with Sharks	Moe
1996	Twister	The Communicator
1998	The Week That Girl Died	Ralph
2001	Mulholland Drive	Dan
2001	Ghost World	Masterpiece Video Clerk
2002	Full Frontal	Harvey - probably's Assistant
2003	Old School	Michael
2003	Something's Gotta Give	Stage Manager
2004	Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!	Waiter	Uncredited
2004	The Seat Filler	Irwin
2006	The Black Dahlia	Deputy DA Ellis Loew
2006	Idiocracy	Yuppie Husband
2007	Three Days to Vegas	Kenneth
2007	Live!	Trevor
2008	The Great Buck Howard	Michael Perry
2008	Finding Amanda	Kevin - TV Executive
2008	Garden Party	Anthony
2010	Miss Nobody	Pierre JeJeune
2010	Dinner for Schmucks	Vincenzo - Vulture Lover
2011	Red State	Agent Hammond
2011	Atlas Shrugged: Part I	Paul Larkin
2012	One for the Money	Vinnie Plum
2013	Big Sur	Lew Welch
2013	The Test		Short film
2013	2 Guns	Dr. Ken
2013	Haunted Trumpet		Short film
2014	The Pact 2	FBI Agent Ballard
2015	The Diabolical	Austin
2016	Hail, Caesar!	Communist Writer #2
2016	Rules Don't Apply		Completed

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Knots Landing	Office Worker #2	Episode: "Blind Side"
1993	Love & War	Delivery Boy	Episode: "The Big Lie"
1993	Flying Blind	Steve	Episode: "The People That Time Forgot"
1993	The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	Guard	Episode: "Crystal Hawks"
1994	Sister, Sister	Lenny	Episode: "Free Billy"
1995	Double Rush	Anthony	Episode: "The Show We Wrote the Day We Found Out We Were Going on Opposite Roseanne"
1996, 2001	NYPD Blue	Johnny DuMont / Ken Thornton	2 episodes
1996-2001	Nash Bridges	Pepe	Recurring cast
1997	The Pretender	Toby	Episode: "Exposed"
2001	18 Wheels of Justice	Andrew 'Andy' Jacobs	Episode: "Past Imperfect"
2002	Off Centre	Donald	Episode: "Marathon Man"
2002	Charmed	Foreman	Episode: "Trial by Magic"
2002	Gilda Radner: It's Always Something	Eugene Levy	TV movie
2002	Judging Amy	Phil Brown	Episode: "Thursday's Child"
2003	Birds of Prey	Dr. Will Kroner	Episode: "Feat of Clay"
2003	Angel	Ted	Episode: "The Magic Bullet"
2003	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Mr. Lee / Wolfie	Episode: "Fur and Loathing"
2003	Line of Fire	James Henkel	Episode: "Undercover Angel"
2004-2007	Girlfriends	Clark	3 episodes
2004	ER	Chamber Tech	Episode: "Blood Relations"
2004	My Wife & Kids	Director	Episode: "Hand Model"
2004	The West Wing	Walter Sprout	Episode: "Impact Winter"
2005	Monk	Eddie	Episode: "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra"
2005	CSI: NY	Brent the Screenwriter	Episode: "The Fall"
2005	Star Trek: Enterprise	Mercer	Episode: "Demons"
2005	CSI: Miami	Vince Nolan	2 episodes
2005	E-Ring	Mark Sinclair	Episode: "Cemetery Wind: Part 1"
2006	Four Kings	Server Phil	Episode: "Night of the Iguana"
2006	The New Adventures of Old Christine	David	Episode: "Open Water"
2006	Him and Us	Dr. Parker	TV movie
2007	What About Brian?	Schmitty	2 episodes
2007	Drive	Brad	2 episodes
2007	According to Jim	Darryl	Episode: "Any Man of Mine"
2007	Veronica Mars	Russell Marchant	Episode: "Weevils Wobble But They Don't Go Down"
2007	Moonlight	Alan	Episode: "B.C."
2007	Bones	Gil Bates	Episode: "The Boy in the Time Capsule"
2008	NCIS	George Stenner	Episode: "In the Zone"
2008	The Middleman	Dr. Rollin Newleaf	Episode: "The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum"
2008	Burn Notice	Jimmy	Episode: "Breaking and Entering"
2008	Mad Men	Jimmy Barrett	Recurring role
2008	Cold Case	Monty Moran '53	Episode: "Pin Up Girl"
2008	Pushing Daisies	The Waffle Nazi	Episode: "Comfort Food"
2009	Lost	Phil	Recurring role
2009-2010	Southland	Detective Kenny 'No-Gun'	Recurring role
2010	Dark Blue	Ray Blake	Episode: "Brother's Keeper"
2010	Weeds	Don, the hotel manager	Episode: "A Yippity Sippity"
2010	Lie to Me	Olson	Episode: "Darkness and Light"
2010	The Whole Truth	Medical Examiner	Episode: "When Cougars Attack"
2010	Chase	Ed Castwick	Episode: "The Longest Night"
2010	Law & Order: LA	Josh Solomon	Episode: "Ballona Creek"
2011	Criminal Minds	Jack Fahey	Episode: "Lauren"
2011	Franklin & Bash	John Stills	Episode: "Big Fish"
2011	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Stu	Episode: "The Smiley Face"
2011	Grimm	Billy Capra	Episode: "Lonelyhearts"
2012	County	Hendricks	TV movie
2012	Body of Proof	Joey Jablonsky	Episode: "Occupational Hazards"
2012-2013	Californication	Gabriel	4 episodes
2012	Grey's Anatomy	Jake Steiner	Episode: "Migration"
2012	The Finder	Jason Stefanian	Episode: "The Boy with the Bucket"
2012	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Dr. Gene Brightman	Episode: "Strange Beauty"
2012	Veep	Jen	Episode: "Baseball"
2012	Scandal	Arthur 'Artie' Hornbacher	Episode: "Hunting Season"
2012	Castle	Leo	Episode: "After Hours"
2013	Hawaii Five-0	Ryan Webb	Episode: "Hana I Wa'la"
2013	Newsreaders	Bram Strunk	Episode: "CCSI/Boston"
2013	The Mentalist	Gary Beinhart	Episode: "Red Velvet Cupcakes"
2013	Mob City	Meyer Lansky	Episode: "Stay Down"
2014	Suits	Elliott Stemple	Episode: "Moot Point
2014	Maron	Ted Curtis	Episode: "Radio Cowboy"
2014-2015	Married	Jay	2 episodes
2015	Shameless	Wade Shelton	2 episodes
2015	Once Upon a Time	Isaac Heller	Recurring role
2015	Battle Creek	Attorney Milner	Episode: "The Hand-Off"
2015	Silicon Valley	Dr. Davis Bannercheck	3 episodes
2015	Grandfathered	Frederick	Episode: "Deadbeat"
2016	Fresh Off the Boat	Mr. Jaffey	Episode: "Rent Day"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]