Wesley Thompson

Born in Chicago and raised in Pasadena, California, Wesley Thompson began his career on the stage. He was voted Best Actor in college for his leading role in prolific playwright and director George C. Wolfe's very first play, "Up For Grabs". Since receiving his degree in Theater Arts from San Francisco State University & Cal State Los Angeles, he's performed all over the Southland in such roles as Honey in "A Member of the Wedding" (with the legendary Virginia Capers), convicted felon Ice in Miguel Pinero's prison drama "Short Eyes", and in three long-running productions at West LA's Odyssey Theater: Filtch in Molière's "The Miser" with George Murdock, soldier McGlade in a Vietnam drama, "The Bridgehead", directed by Stephen Tobolowsky, and wisecracking relief pitcher Duke in the baseball comedy hit, "Bullpen", which moved, after its initial run, to Boston's Hasty Pudding Theater at Harvard. He has since gone on to do dozens of plays all over, but none as rewarding as his supporting role as the lovable loan shark Jumbo in the 2000 production of the romantic-comedy "Panache". It opened at the Pasadena Playhouse but within two months was swiftly moved to off-Broadway, to the Players Theater in Greenwich Village, in which The New York Times called Wesley "an electric, on-stage presence". His television roles are too numerous to mention. From The White Shadow (1978) to The Larry Sanders Show (1992) to Seinfeld (1989), he has done most of the best shows. He was a series regular on two ABC programs: He's the Mayor (1986) and Pursuit of Happiness (1987). His most recent stints include Friends (1994), Providence (1999), Just Shoot Me! (1997), Malcolm in the Middle (2000) and recurring roles on ER (1994) and Grounded for Life (2001). He has been very fortunate to have done over 200 commercials over the years. His first audition for film was for a low-budget drama intended as a documentary where the actors had to be believed as real people. The director, a young newcomer to feature filmmaking, hired him on the spot. The director was Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), The Devil's Advocate (1997)). The film, Teenage Father (1978), won the Academy Award as Best Live Action Short. From there Wesley has never looked back, working in the Walter Hill film Brewster's Millions (1985) with Richard Pryor and John Candy, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), directed by Joe Dante and working alongside Alfre Woodard in the Ivan Passer film Pretty Hattie's Baby (1991). Other film roles include the stage manager in Mick Jackson's, L.A. Story (1991) with Steve Martin; Christina Ricci's teacher, Mr. Curtis, in the Brad Silberling-directed/Steven Spielberg-produced Casper (1995); as John Travolta's boss in Desmond Nakano's White Man's Burden (1995) with Harry Belafonte and the winner of the Discovery Award at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival, Smiling Fish & Goat on Fire (1999) produced by Martin Scorsese. He was last seen with Vivica A. Fox in Two Can Play That Game (2001) written and directed by Mark Brown (writer of Barbershop (2002)). He has been blessed with love, encouragement and faithful support from teachers, friends and his long time mentors, the late Abel Franco and his late mother, Gloria Thompson.