Kyle Chandler - Career

Career

Chandler was signed by an ABC scout in 1988 on a talent search. His first major role on television was as Army Sergeant William Griner as a member of a special operations squad fighting in Vietnam in the series Tour of Duty. After that, he went on to play Cleveland Indians rightfielder Jeff Metcalf in the ABC show Homefront, a drama set in the post-World War II era in the fictional town of River Run, Ohio. In his next television role, Kyle moved from the past to play a man who had the ability to change future disasters as the central character in the CBS television series Early Edition. He portrayed bar owner Gary Hobson, a stockbroker turned hero who received "tomorrow's newspaper today", delivered to his door by a mysterious cat. In 1996 he received the Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television for his portrayal of Gary.

Subsequently in 2001, Chandler appeared opposite Joan Cusack as investment banker Jake Evans in the short-lived ABC comedy series What About Joan. He also played scheming lawyer Grant Rashton in the short-lived NBC series The Lyon's Den in 2003. Other roles of Chandler include: the 1930s film star Bruce Baxter (who was based on romantic film star Bruce Cabot, the actor who played Jack Driscoll in the original King Kong) in the 2005 film King Kong. Coincidentally he would later go on to play John Driscoll in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

In February 2006, Chandler appeared as the ill-fated bomb squad leader Dylan Young in "It's The End of The World" and "As We Know It", a two-part episode of the ABC series Grey's Anatomy that followed Super Bowl XL. He received substantial notice and press for the appearance as a result and subsequently received a nomination in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series category at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006. He appeared again in the February 15, 2007 episode of Grey's Anatomy: "Drowning On Dry Land", and the February 22, 2007 episode: "Some Kind of Miracle".

While working on his Emmy-nominated guest role in Grey's Anatomy, Kyle Chandler met Peter Berg, who was developing a drama series Friday Night Lights, which followed the lives of a high-school football coach, his family and players in a small Texas town. The series was inspired by the book and movie of the same name. Chandler learned that he would be cast as high school football coach Eric Taylor when he was on Christmas vacation in 2005 with his family. The show's pilot aired on NBC in 2006. Starting with the third season in 2008, first-run episodes of the show broadcast on DirecTV satellite channel The 101 Network before being repeated on NBC, and the final season ended in 2011.

In 2007, he appeared in the big screen movie The Kingdom. In December 2008, he appeared in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

In 2011, he appeared in a lead role in the science fiction movie Super 8 and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights.

He appeared in Ben Affleck's drama, Argo (2012). In November 2011, it was reported he joined the cast of Broken City starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones.