- Born
- Birth nameChelcie Claude Ross Jr.
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- He was born in Sacramento, California, the eldest of three sons of a career Air Force Officer. A military "brat", he attended many schools in the United States and abroad, graduating Stateside from Pemberton Township High School in New Jersey. Very athletic, Chelcie lettered in Baseball, Football and Basketball. Up until this point, he still had yet to discover acting. It wasn't until he was a Senior at Southwest Texas State University, that he took on his first theatre production, playing the Title Role in William Shakespeare's King Lear. Along with acting, he continued his collegiate baseball career, and also became the Commander of the AFROTC Corp of Cadets.
After college Chelcie became a radio disc jockey in Texas, but left that line of work in order to go on active duty as a Commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the USAF. He spent one year in Than Son Nhut, Saigon, Viet Nam, and was a recipient of the Bronze Star. The following year he was stationed at the Pentagon, and after that assignment, Captain Ross resigned his commission to become an actor.
In 1970, he entered the MFA program at the Dallas Theatre Center. It was during that time, in which he appeared in his first feature film, Keep My Grave Open. He spent the next four years as a member of the resident acting company of the DTC. In 1975, Chelcie left Dallas and moved to Chicago, where his stage debut was in a local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ten years later, He was cast opposite Gene Hackman in Hoosiers It would be the first of many major film roles.- IMDb mini biography by: Industry Central
- ChildrenIan Ross
- Frequently cast in Sam Raimi films.
- In high school, Chelcie was a multi-sport star, playing baseball, football and basketball. He also has starred in movies involving those sports, including "Rudy" (football), "Hoosiers" (basketball), and both "Major League" and "For Love Of The Game" (baseball).
- He was nominated for a 1976 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for his performance in "Bus Stop" at the Drury Lane Theatre North in Chicago, Illinois.
- He has appeared in over 80 plays.
- He was nominated for a 1981 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Musical for "The Magnolia Club" at the Novel Ventures Ltd. Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
- Graduated from Southwest Texas State University
- (Advice to actors) We all know actors who are waiters. Some are waiting for the "big break", others are waiting tables. There is nothing wrong with the latter. We all have to eat. Just remember to make a way to do our work. Study as much as you can afford to. Find the people who will let you act. Community theatre, church drama, four friends who want to do scenes, they are all changes to exercise these instruments. I have done all those forms plus industrial films, live industrials, legit theatre, musical theatre, reader's theatre, radio D.J., radio drama, on-camera commercials, voice-over, TV, independent film, and major studio, big budget whoppers. Everyone of them contributed to what I bring to the job today.
- (On his advice to aspiring actors) Be good to your fellow players: We are all in this together. Whether you are working, or in-between jobs, you need all the help you can get. I just read an interview with a very famous director who decided to slum a bit and try the other end of the camera. He reported that this acting thing is a stroll in the park and he was mystified as to what the big deal is. I've got a hint for him: What that little experiment missed is the part where you go 0 for 22 in auditions, spend 11 months wondering where the next paycheck is coming from, your mother suddenly has health problems that tap half of your cash reserves, your summer love from Shakespeare Under The Stars lands a network series, and you mentor (and probably the best actor you have ever seen) gives it up because he can't get cast and has to feed the family. Factor that stuff in and then come tell me how easy it is. Try to remember that your contemporaries now will be the same 30 years from now. You need them. Treat them like family.
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