Early life

Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University. Patton was raised on a farm, where his parents ran a foster home for wayward teenagers. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and The Actors' Studio in New York City, New York.

Career

Patton won two Obie Awards for best actor for his performances in Sam Shepard's play Fool for Love and the Public Theater production of What Did He See?. He portrayed the evil antagonist in Desperately Seeking Susan, and had a significant role in No Way Out, his first major film. He was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of General Bethlehem in The Postman. He also portrayed coach Bill Yoast in Remember the Titans and FBI agent Melvin Purvis in the 1991 made-for-television film Dillinger. Patton provided the voice for the audio version of The Assault on Reason by Al Gore, as well as the role of Alan Wilson on the TV show 24. He has also recorded the audio version for 22 books written by best-selling mystery writer James Lee Burke. Patton plays the character of Sam Conroy in the film American Violet.

In 2011, Patton stars as Colonel Weaver in the TNT sci-fi television series Falling Skies, executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1981	Kent State	Peter	Television film
1983	Variety	Mark
	King Blank	Bar Customer
	Silkwood	Joe
1985	The Equalizer	Officer Nick Braxton
	The Beniker Gang	Forest Ranger
	Desperately Seeking Susan	Wayne Nolan
	After Hours	Horst
1986	Chinese Boxes	Lang Marsh
	Belizaire the Cajun	Matthew Perry
1987	A Gathering of Old Men	Lou Dimes
	No Way Out	Scott Pritchard
1988	Wildfire	Mike
	Stars and Bars	Duane Gage
1989	Signs of Life	Mr. Coughlin
1990	Everybody Wins	Jerry
	A Shock to the System	Lt. Laker
1991	Dillinger	Melvin Purvis	Made for television film
	Deadly Desire	Giles Menteer	Made for television film
	Bright Angel	Woody	Uncredited
	The Rapture	Deputy Foster
	Cold Heaven	Father Niles
1992	The Paint Job	Wesley
	Lincoln and the War Within		Made for television film
	In the Soup	Skippy
	In the Deep Woods	Eric Gaines	Made for television film
	A Child Lost Forever: The Jerry Sherwood Story	Frank Maxwell	Made for television film
1993	Midnight Edition	Jack Travers
	Taking the Heat	Hadley	Made for television film
	Romeo Is Bleeding	Martie
1994	Tollbooth	Dash Pepper
	Natural Causes	Michael Murphy
	Judicial Consent	Alan Warwick
	The Client	Sergeant Hardy
	The Puppet Masters	Dr. Graves
1995	Copycat	Nicoletti
1996	Plain Pleasures
	The Spitfire Grill	Nahum Goddard
	Fled	Det. Matthew 'Gib' Gibson
1997	Inventing the Abbotts	Lloyd Abbott
	Hounddogg
	This World, Then the Fireworks	Lt. Morgan
	The Postman	General Bethlehem	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
1998	O.K. Garage	Sean
	Armageddon	Charles 'Chick' Chapple
	I Woke Up Early the Day I Died	Preacher
1999	Breakfast of Champions	Moe the Truck Driver
	Entrapment	Hector Cruz
	Jesus' Son	John Smith
2000	Gone in 60 Seconds	Atley Jackson
	Trixie	W. 'Red' Rafferty
	Remember the Titans	Coach Bill Yoast
2002	The Mothman Prophecies	Gordon Smallwood
2004	Family Sins	Philip Rothman	Made for television film
	The Punisher	Quentin Glass
	The Last Ride	Aaron Purnell	Made for television film
2006	Road House 2	Nate Tanner
2007	Code Name: The Cleaner	Riley
	A Mighty Heart	U.S. Diplomatic Security (DSS) Special Agent Randall Bennett
	The List	Michael Harriston
	Dog Days of Summer	Eli Cottonmouth
2008	Wendy and Lucy	Mechanic
	American Violet	Sam Conroy
	Lucky Days	J.C.
2009	Barbarian Princess	Sanford B. Dole
	Looking at Animals	Raymond
	The Canyon	Henry
	The Fourth Kind	Sheriff August
	Waking Madison	Madison's Father
	The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond	Old Man Dobyne
2010	Brooklyn's Finest	Lt. Bill Hobarts
	Meek's Cutoff	Solomon Tetherow
	Knucklehead	Vic Sullivan
2014	November Man	Perry Weinstein
2016	The Scent of Rain and Lightning		Filming
	Megan Leavey		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Episodes
1982-1983	Ryan's Hope	Ox Knowles	2
1984-1985	Search for Tomorrow	Kentucky Bluebird
1995	VR.5	Dr. Frank Morgan	5
1997	The Protector
2001-2003	The Agency	Jackson Haisley	44
2005	Into the West	James Fletcher	Miniseries
2006-2007	Numb3rs	Lt. Gary Walker	4
2009	24	Alan Wilson	5
2010	CSI	Craig Haliday	1
2011-2015	Falling Skies	Captain Dan Weaver	Main cast
2013	Grant vs. Lee	General Robert E. Lee	Main cast

Voice work

Audiobooks

• House of the Rising Sun James Lee Burke (2015)
• Finders Keepers by Stephen King (2015)
• Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (2014)
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (2014)
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (2013)
• Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (2013)
• My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman (2012)
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (2012)
• Creole Belle by James Lee Burke (2012)
• Deliverance by James Dickey (2011)
• Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke (2011)
• The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke (2010)
• Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (2010)
• Light in August by William Faulkner (2010)
• Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson (2009)
• Swan Peak by James Lee Burke (2008)
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac (2007)
• The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (2007)
• The Assault on Reason by Al Gore (2007)
• Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 by Annie Proulx (2008)
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (2007)
• Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke (2007)
• Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (2006)
• Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke (2006)
• Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke (2006)
• Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke (2006)
• The Thomas Berryman Number by James Patterson (2006)
• To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (2006)
• A Dave Robicheaux Audio Collection by James Lee Burke (2006)
• When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt (2006)
• Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo (2005)
• In the Moon of Red Ponies by James Lee Burke (2004)
• Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke (2004)
• White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke (2003)
• Bitterroot by James Lee Burke (2001)
• Cadillac Jukebox by James Lee Burke (2001)
• Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke (2000)
• Boone's Lick by Larry McMurtry (2000)
• Burning Angel by James Lee Burke (1999)
• Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke (1999)
• Heartwood by James Lee Burke (1999)
• Primal Fear by William Diehl (1999)
• Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke (1999)
• A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke (1998)
• Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke (1998)
• The Sea-Wolf by Jack London (1997)
• Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry (1996)
• The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy (1995)
• The Fermata by Nicholson Baker (1995)
• Gump & Co. by Winston Groom (1995)
• Gone South by Robert R. McCammon (1994)
• The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke (1986)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]