Robert Knepper

Biography

Robert Lyle Knepper (born July 8, 1959, in Fremont, Ohio) is an American actor whose career spans film, television and theatre. He is best known for playing Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, the manipulative inmate in the Fox drama Prison Break, a role that brought him wide recognition and that many viewers regard as one of television's great villains. He has worked steadily since the mid-1980s, moving between recurring television parts and supporting roles in genre and action films.

Knepper grew up in Maumee, Ohio, near Toledo, where his mother's work at a community theatre first sparked his interest in performing. As a teenager he acted in local productions and school plays. After graduating from Maumee High School in 1977 he enrolled at Northwestern University to study drama, and while still a student he took professional roles in Chicago theatres. Shy of finishing his degree, he left Northwestern for New York City, where he kept working on stage. He had not planned a screen career, but in 1986 he began appearing in film and television, with early credits in The Paper Chase and Blake Edwards's That's Life!.

He soon built a steady run of guest parts and supporting roles in series including Law & Order, La Femme Nikita, Star Trek: The Next Generation, ER and The West Wing. On film he moved into larger roles in Young Guns II (1990), Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). After a recurring part in HBO's Carnivàle, he joined the cast of Prison Break. During its run he also made action films such as Hitman and Transporter 3, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. When Prison Break ended in 2009, he joined the final season of Heroes as the villain Samuel Sullivan and had a recurring role on Stargate Universe. He later revisited T-Bag in Breakout Kings, played Angus McDonough in iZombie and took a part in the revival of Twin Peaks, while also appearing in mainstream franchises such as The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.

His legacy rests largely on the lasting popularity of T-Bag, though his longer career spans a wide range of roles. In 2017 several women accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denied. One of them, costume designer Susan Bertram, filed a defamation suit that, according to reports from 2021, was settled on terms that were not made public. After an internal inquiry, The CW kept him on iZombie, although his exit from the show had already been planned, as he had signed for a single season. His current work is not detailed in the sources consulted.

Key films

• Good Night, and Good Luck (2005): appears in George Clooney's drama about broadcast journalism during the McCarthy era.
• Hitman (2007): plays one of the villains in this action adaptation of the video game.
• Transporter 3 (2008): part of the cast of the third entry in the action series led by Jason Statham.
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014): supporting role in the dystopian franchise based on Suzanne Collins's novels.
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016): appears in this action sequel starring Tom Cruise.
• Everyone Says I Love You (1996): appears in Woody Allen's musical comedy, one of his more art-house film credits.