Patrick Fischler

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Patrick Fischler
Patrick Fischler.jpg
Fishcler in 2011
Born Patrick S. Fischler[1]
(1969-12-29) December 29, 1969 (age 54)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active 1994–present
Spouse(s) Lauren Bowles (m. 2004)
Children 1

Patrick Fischler (born December 29, 1969) is an American actor best known for his roles as Jimmy Barrett on the drama series Mad Men, Dharma Initiative worker Phil on the drama series Lost and Detective Kenny No-Gun on the police drama Southland. He has had more than 60 film and television credits, including the films Mulholland Drive (2001), Ghost World (2001), Old School (2003), The Black Dahlia (2006) and Dinner for Schmucks (2010).

Fischler portrayed real-life gangster Mickey Cohen in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire, which utilized facial performance-capture technology to convert performances in the game's graphics. Two years later he played gangster Meyer Lansky in scenes with Cohen's character in the TNT mini-series Mob City. In 2012, he appeared in One for the Money, a crime thriller adapted from Janet Evanovich's novel of the same name.

The Santa Monica restaurant "Patrick's Roadhouse" was started by his father and is named for him.[2]

Early life and career

Patrick Fischler was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 29, 1969.[3] 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.[4][5] 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.[4] 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.[4] 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.[4]

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.[6] Fischler also appeared in David Lynch's 2001 psychological thriller Mulholland Drive as a man describing a horrible nightmare he had.[7] 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.[8] He appeared in the films Twister (1996),[9] Ghost World (2001),[10] and Old School (2003).[4] and The Great Buck Howard (2008),[11] 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."[12] Fischler also appeared as a guest star in television shows Angel,[10] Nash Bridges, Burn Notice,[4] Lie to Me,[9] Bones, Cold Case, Monk,[13] Star Trek: Enterprise, Girlfriends, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY.[5] By 2009, he had more than 60 film and television credits.[4]

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".[14] 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.[15] 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."[4] 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.[4][15] 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",[5] 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."[4] 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.[16]

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.[5][16] Fischler said the Lost producers were "incredibly accommodating" to his schedule.[5] On Southland he played Detective Kenny No-Gun;[13] series creator Ann Biderman described him as a "brilliant, incredibly versatile actor".[4] Although originally expected to appear in only two Lost episodes, he ended up guest starring in nine,[5][16] appearing in the fifth season as Phil, a member of the Dharma Initiative during a part of the show set in 1977.[13] 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.[16] 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."[13]

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.[17] 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."[18]

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.[19] He portrayed poet Lew Welch in the 2013 Michael Polish film Big Sur, based on the autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac.[20] He played the antagonistic Author on the second half of the fourth season of ABC's Once Upon a Time'. [21] In 2016, he appeared in The Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar![22]

Personal life

Patrick Fischler and Lauren Bowles were married in 2004. They have a daughter named Fia Lucille (born April 2009).[4][13]

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"

References

  1. According to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com
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  21. Once Upon a Time Season 4
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External links