Whether you know him as Jigsaw in the wildly successful Saw movies, Nordic in The Firm or even Ted Kaczynski in Unabomber --The Real Story, TOBIN BELL has displayed an uncanny – and occasionally chilling – ability to burrow deep into a character’s psyche. Tobin’s longevity and chameleon-like ability to assume any role has placed him in the upper echelon of consummate professional actors. His success as the star of the Saw movies is a fitting reward for almost 30 years spent appearing in movies and television shows, mainly in character roles.
Starting with the role of FBI agent Ernest Stokes in Mississippi Burning (1988), Tobin Bell has played a long line of interesting characters on both sides of the law: JFK conspirator David Ferrie in Ruby, Mendoza in In The Line Of Fire, the riveting Nordic in The Firm, gunfighter Dog Kelly in The Quick and the Dead, Lucian Morano in Serial Killer, a parole officer in Goodfellas, the voice of Zaragosa in DreamWorks’s Road to El Dorado, and roles in Overnight Delivery, HBO’s The Fourth Floor, Good Neighbor, Black Mask 2, Loose Cannons, Malice, and Powerplay.
Tobin is a familiar face to viewers of TV movies and dramas (though comedy fans will recognize him as Ron from Seinfeld). Tobin has been a prominent guest star on some of the most critically acclaimed and popular dramas of the last decade: as attorney Nathan Volk on the NBC drama Revelations, with Bill Pullman, Natasha McElone and John Rhys-Davies; as Peter Kingsley in five episodes of 24; as Agent Dreyer on Alias; and as Karl Storm in one of the fans’ favorite episodes of Walker: Texas Ranger. Tobin has also appeared on The West Wing, The Guardian, The Sopranos, Charmed, Once and Again, X-Files, Stargate, Silk Stalkings, ER, La Femme Nikita, NYPD Blue, Murder One, and Chicago Hope. His resume also includes the television movies-of-the-week One Hot Summer Night, Babysitter’s Seduction, Mortal Fear and Deep Red.
Tobin comes by some of his acting skill naturally; his mother is the British actress Eileen Bell. But Tobin also learned from the best, studying with Lee Strasberg and Ellen Burstyn at the New York's Actor Studio and with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. On the New York stage Tobin has appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the New York Public Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, and Playwright’s Horizons.
Tobin was born in New York City and raised in Weymouth, Mass. As befits the star of “thinking men’s horror movies,” Tobin is a graduate of Boston University, with a master’s degree in Environmental Education from Montclair State College. Hobbies include playing the guitar, taking wildlife photographs and making frequent climbing trips to the Presidential Range of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Also a writer, Tobin has completed several screenplays and stage plays. He is married, with two children, and splits his time between homes in New York and Los Angeles.
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