Dennis Haysbert Biography

Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954), commonly referred to as The Allstate Guy, is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the Major League film trilogy, President David Palmer on the American television series 24, and Sergeant Major Jonas Blane on the drama series The Unit, as well as his work in commercials for Allstate Insurance.

Personal life

Dennis Dexter Haysbert was born in San Mateo, California, the son of Gladys (née Minor), a homemaker and house cleaner, and Charles Whitney Haysbert, Sr., a deputy sheriff and airline security guard. He is the eighth of nine children, having two sisters and six brothers. His parents were from Louisiana. Haysbert was raised Baptist. He graduated from San Mateo High School in 1972. After high school, measuring tall, he was offered various athletic scholarships, but instead chose to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Haysbert is a divorced father of two. He announced in April 2009 that he was starting a TV, film, and documentary production company. His first project was to be a documentary for HBO about an up-and-coming boxer. During the 2010 California elections, Haysbert supported Democratic Senatorial Incumbent Barbara Boxer by appearing with her at campaign events as well as recording radio commercials.

Career

Television

Haysbert has been acting in film and television since 1979, starting with a guest role in The White Shadow. His television guest starring roles include Lou Grant, Growing Pains, Laverne & Shirley, The A-Team, Night Court, Dallas, The Incredible Hulk, Magnum, P.I. and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, in which Haysbert appears in the first season episode "A Dream of Jennifer" in a one-time role as a spaceport guard. In the second season, Haysbert becomes a crew member of the science starship Searcher. Haysbert played "the helmsman" in the The Guardians (season 2, episode 3) which is currently available online at Hulu.. He has the most lines in "The Hand of the Goral" (season 2, episode 9), wherein he is named Lt. Parsons. and Duckman. In 1993, he had a featured role in Return to Lonesome Dove as outlaw Cherokee Jack Jackson. In 1999, Haysbert starred with Eric Close in Now and Again, which was cancelled after its first season.

In 2001, Haysbert became better known when he was cast in 24 as U.S. Senator David Palmer, who served as America's first African American President (in the context of the show) during the second and third seasons. He also returned as a guest star in the last six episodes of season 4 and the first episode of season 5. He was nominated for a Golden Globe and for a Golden Satellite Award in 2002 for this role. Haysbert stated in an interview for the show that the three men he admires most"?Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Colin Powell"?collectively embody his idea of what a President should be. Haysbert believes that his playing of David Palmer on 24 helped Barack Obama"?whom Haysbert supported"?to win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Haysbert was the first actor to portray DC Comics character Kilowog, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, in a medium outside of comics. He provided the voice of Kilowog on various episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

On March 4, 2006, Haysbert guest starred on the Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Natalie Portman as the host of a live action/animated TV Funhouse cartoon called "Belated Black History Moment". In his role, Haysbert paid homage to fictional short-lived Saturday morning cartoons featuring black characters, such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Outer Space. He also portrayed Nelson Mandela in Goodbye Bafana (also released under the name The Color of Freedom).

Haysbert portrayed the lead character Jonas Blane in the CBS action-drama The Unit, which ended after its fourth season on May 10, 2009.

Haysbert hosted and narrated the Military History Channel presentation of Secrets of Pearl Harbor, which documented his scuba dives with a film team on World War II era Japanese and American warships in the Pacific Theater of action.

In March 2013, Haysbert narrated the documentary "The World According to Dick Cheney" on the Showtime television channel

Film

In 1989, Haysbert got his first major film role portraying Pedro Cerrano, a voodoo-practicing Cuban refugee baseball player, in the movie Major League. In it, he uttered the memorable line: "Is very bad to steal Jobu's rum; is very bad". Haysbert followed that up with a role in 1990's Navy SEALs, which also starred Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn, before moving on to another baseball movie, Mr. Baseball with Tom Selleck. In 1991, he also starred in 'K-9000', where he played a police officer named Nick Sanrio. In 1992, he co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field, a film about a series of events occurring contemporaneously with the assassination and funeral of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1994, Haysbert reprised his role as Cerrano in Major League II. This was followed by low key appearances in Waiting to Exhale, Heat, and Absolute Power. In 1998, Haysbert made another appearance as Cerrano in Major League: Back to the Minors. In 1999, Haysbert played a police detective in three different films: The Minus Man, The Thirteenth Floor, and Random Hearts.

In 2000, Haysbert played the role of Zeke McCall in Love & Basketball. In 2002, Haysbert played the role of gardener Raymond Deagan in Far From Heaven. He won three awards (Satellite Award, Black Reel Award, and Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award) for Best Supporting Actor for that role. In 2005, he had a supporting role in Sam Mendes's film, Jarhead. In 2007, Haysbert returned to the big screen to portray Nelson Mandela in Goodbye Bafana and an FBI agent in Breach.

On December 5, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Haysbert will replace the recently deceased Michael Clark Duncan as Manute in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Commercials

Haysbert is the official spokesman for the Allstate Insurance Company. His commercials typically end with one of the two Allstate Corporation official slogans, either Are you in good hands? or That's Allstate's stand. More recently however his commercials have combined the two with "That's Allstate's stand. Are you in good hands?". In 2009"2010 Allstate used the Neil Sedaka song "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" in television commercials to promote Allstate's car insurance. Breaking up is hard to do, the ads averred, unless one has an Allstate agent to undertake the deed for the customer (switching from another insurer to Allstate). The viewer learned that "breaking up is easy to do" as reassured on the screen by Haysbert. In his role as spokesman for Allstate, Haysbert officiated the coin toss prior to the 2007 Sugar Bowl between LSU and Notre Dame.

In 2008, Haysbert was featured in national television ads to raise public awareness about lending discrimination. The ads were commissioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. In one of these ads, Haysbert warns consumers about lenders' targeting minorities for inferior loan products.

For the 2006 college football season, Haysbert did voice work for ticket sales promotions for Brigham Young University. He did it as a favor to his younger brother Adam, who played wide receiver at BYU in the early 1980s.

Haysbert also voices the Military Channel's commercials with their official slogan: "The Military Channel"?Go Behind the Lines."

Video games

In addition to his acting, Haysbert has also done voice work for various video games, most notably as Irving Lambert in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series and narrator of Call of Duty: Finest Hour. He also voiced David Palmer in '.

Theater

In June 2010, Haysbert joined the cast of David Mamet's Race on Broadway as character Henry Brown, performing alongside actors Eddie Izzard, Richard Thomas, and Afton Williamson. The play ran until August 21, 2010.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Scoring	Lt. Harrigan
1989	Major League	Pedro Cerrano
1990	Navy Seals	Graham
1992	Mr. Baseball	Max "Hammer" Dubois
1992	Love Field	Paul Cater
1993	Suture	Clay Arlington
1994	Major League II	Pedro Cerrano
1995	Heat	Donald Breedan
1995	Waiting to Exhale	Kenneth Dawkins
1996	Amanda	Seven/Sir Jordan
1997	Absolute Power	Tim Collin
1998	How to Make the Cruelest Month	Manhattan Parks
1998	Major League: Back to the Minors	Pedro Cerrano
1999	The Minus Man	Graves
1999	The Thirteenth Floor	Detective Larry McBain
1999	Random Hearts	Detective George Beaufort
2000	What's Cooking?	Ronald Williams
2000	Love & Basketball	Zeke McCall
2002	Far from Heaven	Raymond Deagan	Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture Nominated"?Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor
2003	Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas	Kale
2005	Jarhead	Major Lincoln
2007	Goodbye Bafana	Nelson Mandela
2007	Breach	Dean Plesac
2011	The Details	Lincoln
2011	Kung Fu Panda 2	Master Storming Ox
2012	LUV	Mr. Fish
2012	Wreck-It Ralph	General Hologram
2013	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Manute	post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Lou Grant	Victor	Episode: "Schools"
1979	The White Shadow	Basketball Player	Episode: "Wanna Bet?"
1979	Laverne & Shirley	Navy Shore Patrolman	Episode: "What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor?"
1980	Quincy M.E.	Fred	Episode: "New Blood"
1980	The Incredible Hulk	Guard	Episode: "Nine Hours"
1980	Galactica 1980	Imperious Leader	Episode: "Space Croppers"
1980-1981	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century	Various	5 episodes
1981	Quincy M.E.	Driver	Episode: "Headhunter"
1981	Grambling's White Tiger	James "Shack" Harris	Television movie
1981-1982	Code Red	Stuff Wade	8 episodes
1983	The A-Team	Psych Ward Staff	Episode: "One More Time"
1984	Dallas	Dr. Forbes	Episode: "Killer at Large"
1984	Riptide	Odell	Episode: "Father's Day"
1984	Gimme a Break!	Rev. Winfield	Episode: "Baby of the Family"
1984-1985	Off the Rack	Cletus Maxwell	7 episodes
1985	Magnum P.I.	Lieutenant Jameson, USN	Episode: "Blood and Honor"
1985	What's Happening Now!!	Policeman	Episode: "I'll Be Homeless for Christmas"
1985	Growing Pains	Police Officer	Episode: "Weekend Fantasy"
1986	The Fall Guy	Jeremy Wolf	Episode: "Trial by Fire"
1986	227	Sgt. Banks	Episode: "Redecorating Blues"
1986	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Kimambo	Episode: "Billy's Lost Weekend"
1986	The Young and the Restless	Ron Clark	8 episodes
1987	Growing Pains	Officer Wright	Episode: "Gone But Not Forgottten"
1987	Knots Landing	Police Officer	Episode: "The Unraveling"
1987	Easy Street	Chip	Episode: "The Country Club"
1987	Valerie	Dr. Ervin	Episode: "Oedipus Wrecks"
1987	Our House	Unknown	Episode: "Sounds from a Silent Clock: Part 2"
1987	The Facts of Life	Sgt. Evans	Episode: "Before the Fall"
1988	Growing Pains	Frank	Episode: "State of the Union"
1988	Crime Story	Franklin Himes	2 episodes
1988-1989	Just the Ten of Us	Coach Duane Johnson	9 episodes
1989	Night Court	James Morgan	Episode: "Pen Pal"
1989	The Robert Guillaume Show	Mr. Peterson	Episode: "Guaranteed Not to Shrink"
1991	K-9000	Nick Sanrio	Television movie
1993	Queen	Davis	Television movie
1993	Return to Lonesome Dove	Jack Jackson	3 episodes
1993	American Playhouse	Rev. Oliver Crawford	Episode: "Hallelujah"
1998	The New Batman Adventures	Barkley James	Episode: "Mean Seasons"
1998-1999	Superman	Agent #1	2 episodes
1999-2000	Now and Again	Dr. Theodore Morris	22 episodes Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Actor " Television Series Drama
2001	Soul Food	Rick Grant	2 episodes
2001	The Outer Limits	Joshua Finch	Episode: "Rule of Law"
2001-2007	24	David Palmer	81 episodes Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated"?Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2003-04, 2006) Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2003, 2005)
2001-2002	Static Shock	Chief Barnsdale	3 episodes
2001-2004	Justice League	Kilowog	3 episodes
2006-2009	The Unit	Jonas Blane	69 episodes Nominated"?Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series (2007-09)
2013	Newsreaders	Det. Fenster Landau	Episode: "CCSI: Boston"