Bruce A. Young on AllMovie

Actor Bruce A. Young defied the typecast of street-smart working-class roles commonly handed to African-American performers, courageously and dramatically expanding the boundaries of "urban" parts on his resumé to encompass a surprisingly varied spectrum of assignments. He made one of his earliest appearances as a mechanic in Michael Mann's gritty 1981 thriller Thief, then shifted gears altogether with a small but memorable turn as a kinky transvestite in the Paul Brickman-directed satire Risky Business (1983) and ushered in a performance as a colorful pool shark with an affinity for cowboy garb in Martin Scorsese's Hustler update The Color of Money (1986). Beginning with his portrayal of a hitman in the 1989 Lethal Weapon 2, Young placed a particularly heavy emphasis on action and thriller roles; projects included Basic Instinct (1992), Trespass (1992), Jurassic Park III (2001), and Enough (2002). Young also worked steadily on television in everything from one-episode guest-acting work to a regular role as Capt. Simon Banks on the UPN sci-fi adventure series The Sentinel (1996-1999).