William Louis Petersen (born February 21, 1953) is a Golden Globe and Emmy nominated American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He played President John F Kennedy in the 1998 TV film The Rat Pack.
Petersen, the youngest of six children, was born in Evanston, Illinois, to parents who worked in the furniture business. His father is Danish-American, and his moth...
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William Louis Petersen (born February 21, 1953) is a Golden Globe and Emmy nominated American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He played President John F Kennedy in the 1998 TV film The Rat Pack.
Petersen, the youngest of six children, was born in Evanston, Illinois, to parents who worked in the furniture business. His father is Danish-American, and his mother is German-American. He graduated from Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho, in 1972. He was accepted to Idaho State University on a football scholarship. While at Idaho State, Petersen took an acting course which changed the direction of his life. He left school along with his wife, Joanne, in 1974 and followed a drama professor to the Basque country where he studied as a Shakespearean actor. Petersen was interested in Basque culture and he studied the Basque language, Euskera, and gave his daughter the Basque name Maite (meaning love)....
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