Mitch Pileggi

Appearing All Days

Mitch Pileggi is an American actor, best known for his role as Walter Skinner on The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Colonel Steven Caldwell and on Supernatural as Samuel Campbell/Azazel. In 2008, he began a recurring role as Ernest Darby in Sons of Anarchy and starred as Harris Ryland in the TNT revival of Dallas (2012–2014).

In the 1980s, Pileggi starred in several films including Three O’Clock High as Duke “The Duker” Herman, an over zealous tough-as-nails high school parking lot security guard, and in Shocker as body-possessing serial killer Horace Pinker. Pileggi also appeared briefly in the 1992 film Basic Instinct as an investigating police officer in the interrogation scene of Michael Douglas.

His most notable role was as the FBI’s Assistant Director Walter Skinner on The X-Files. The role was originally recurring, but the part expanded, and in 2001 he became a regular member of the cast. He remained with the show until its end in 2002. Pileggi played the character in the 1998 film The X-Files: Fight the Future and in the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe. He will also reprise the role in the 2016 miniseries.

In 2005, he played the recurring role of character Colonel Steven Caldwell, Commander of the Earth Battlecruiser, Daedalus, in the second and subsequent seasons of the television series Stargate Atlantis. He also appeared in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in 2006 had a regular guest role on Day Break as Robbery/Homicide Detective Spivak.

In 2008, Pileggi was cast as Ernest Darby, the head of a white supremacist gang called the “Nordics”, in the critically acclaimed FX drama Sons of Anarchy. Pileggi played Samuel Campbell aka Azazel in the hit CW series Supernatural in the 2008 and 2010/2011 seasons. Pileggi has also done some voice acting, most notably as Commissioner James Gordon on the new Kids WB! animated show The Batman. As of 2012, Pileggi starring as Harris Ryland in TNT drama series Dallas as Harris Ryland, Brenda Strong’s ex-husband. He was promoted to series regular during the second season.