Dennis Haysbert

It's not surprising that this commanding actor has played a striking number of athletes. The defensive end on his high-school football team, Haysbert turned down multiple sports scholarships in order to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. But he didn't quite leave his past behind. In his very first TV role he was cast as a basketball player on an episode of White Shadow and later he appeared in numerous sports-related projects (Love & Basketball, Grambling's White Tiger, Mr. Baseball). Throughout the '80s, Haysbert was a constant if anonymous small-screen presence, racking up guest spots on a diverse array of series, everything from Laverne & Shirley to Dallas to 227. He finally segued to features in the 1989 comedy Major League in which he played — surprise! — a baseball player. But the next year he proved that he had brains to go with his brawn when he landed what should have been his breakthrough role: a single father who falls for a white woman in the '60s period drama Love Field. But the project had problems from the start. He was reportedly the third actor cast in the role (after Denzel Washington dropped out and Eriq La Salle was let go) and once the film was completed, it sat on the shelf for two years due to its studio's financial difficulties. Once released, it won critical acclaim but a small audience. Although he continued to work steadily in features, Haysbert never did graduate to leading man. Instead he provided fine support to bigger stars, often playing law enforcement now that he was too old to be an athlete. In 2001, the journeyman actor suddenly found himself in the spotlight when he signed on to the taut action series 24 as a presidential hopeful who eventually won the White House. The next year, a critically acclaimed (and quite familiar) turn as a single father in love with a white woman in the '50s period piece Far From Heaven proved he still had big-screen clout. Although he left 24 in its third season, he continued to make guest appearances and in 2006 he headlined the military drama The Unit.