AllMovie

A hulking actor whose early performances in such efforts as Hudson Hawk (1991) and Street Fighter (1994) utilized his girth to maximum effect, actor Andrew Bryniarski has crafted an impressive career in action films while considerably honing his acting skills. Born in Philadelphia in 1969, it was on a summer vacation to Hollywood that Bryniarski stumbled into acting after being spotted by a talent scout and screen testing for legendary Hollywood director Joel Silver. Soon acting alongside Bruce Willis in the notorious Hollywood bomb Hudson Hawk (1991), roles in Batman Returns (1992) and Street Fighter (1994) proved Bryniarski was an onscreen talent to be reckoned with. Of course, he was a natural for sports films, and with such efforts as Necessary Roughness (1991), The Program (1993), and Any Given Sunday (1999), Bryniarski took to the gridiron with bone-crunching results. After smashing skulls in both Pearl Harbor (2001) and Rollerball (2002), Bryniarski teamed with legendary Hong Kong film director Tsui Hark for a villainous role in Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002). After stepping into Gunnar Hansen's formidable shoes for the role of legendary screen villain Leatherface in the 2003 Hollywood horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it was back to the gridiron in the same year's The Playmakers of New Orleans.