African-American actor Reginald VelJohnson is the ideal choice for "urban everyman" roles: his sour-apple facial expression, bald pate, and chubby frame are perfectly suited for the many policemen and blue-collar workers he has played over the years. Beginning in small parts in films like Ghostbusters (1984), VelJohnson gained a following with supporting roles in Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Die Hard (1988). A guest spot as an undercover cop on a 1989 episode of TV's Perfect Strangers led to VelJohnson's longest professional engagement to date. In the company of former Perfect Strangers regular Jo-Marie Payton-France, Reginald VelJohnson, since the fall of 1989, starred as Chicago cop Carl Winslow on the weekly comedy series Family Matters.
Reginald VelJohnson
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- His first acting role was in elementary school, where he played a teddy bear in a toy shop.
- Among his high-school classmates were adult-film star Ron Jeremy and former CIA director George Tenet. While VelJohnson had a starring role in the class production of The King and I, Jeremy played piano in the orchestra.
- Was the only Family Matters cast member to appear in every episode of the series, which was a spinoff of the sitcom Perfect Strangers.
- In 1993, he was awarded the inaugural Spirit Award for his volunteer work with the Catholic Big Brothers organization.
- Learned the long-running Family Matters was canceled when he received a call to clean out his dressing room.
- Portrayed Sgt. Al Powell in the first two Die Hard films, provided the character's voice in the 2002 video game Die Hard: Vendetta and reprised the role in the 2008 "Chuck Versus Santa Claus" episode of NBC's Chuck.
- Wrote and starred in the 2005 film short Sunday Evening Haircut, about a couple whose marriage is troubled because he feels his wife is overly religious.