Chris Pedersen (actor)
Encyclopedia
Chris Pedersen played the character "Jack Diddley" in the cult Penelope Spheeris
produced film Suburbia
about punk rockers in L.A. He also appeared in the Oliver Stone
Oscar winning film Platoon
, and in other cult films such as Night of the Comet
and Point Break
among others.
Pedersen was never formally trained as an actor, instead was approached by director Penelope Spheeris at a park in Burbank, CA where the band TSOL was playing. According to Pedersen who was an unemployed aerospace worker at the time "I was thinking 'yeah, right' and didn't pay any attention to her until she said it paid $100 a day, which at the time was a lot of money. So I showed up for the audition on time and tried really hard not to screw it up. That was the start of my acting career."
He began to distance himself from the film industry in the early 1990's focusing instead on cars and technology. He had a brief racing history competing in weekly NASCAR events at Saugus speedway 1992-1995 and also Irwindale speedway in 2000 in the Los Angeles area. He was the team leader and founding member for the DARPA Grand Challenge http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/ team "AI Motorvators". The self funded team entered the the V-8 powered "IT Came From The Garage" which finished in the semi-finals in 2004 and 2005.
The Discovery Channel TV show "Monster Garage" did an episode of "Backyard Monsters" on the AI Motorvators in 2005 featuring Pedersen and the team competing in the 2005 Grand Challenge.
Chris was born in San Francisco, CA and grew up in Southern California.
Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization...
produced film Suburbia
Suburbia (film)
Suburbia, also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side, is a 1984 film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris about suburban punks who run away from home. The kids take up a minimalist, punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes...
about punk rockers in L.A. He also appeared in the Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
Oscar winning film Platoon
Platoon (film)
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth....
, and in other cult films such as Night of the Comet
Night of the Comet
Night of the Comet is a 1984 film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, and Kelli Maroney. It has elements of such diverse genres as science fiction, horror, zombie apocalypse, comedy, and romance....
and Point Break
Point Break
Point Break is a 1991 action film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty and Gary Busey. The title refers to the surfing term point break, where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline.The film was a box office success upon...
among others.
Pedersen was never formally trained as an actor, instead was approached by director Penelope Spheeris at a park in Burbank, CA where the band TSOL was playing. According to Pedersen who was an unemployed aerospace worker at the time "I was thinking 'yeah, right' and didn't pay any attention to her until she said it paid $100 a day, which at the time was a lot of money. So I showed up for the audition on time and tried really hard not to screw it up. That was the start of my acting career."
He began to distance himself from the film industry in the early 1990's focusing instead on cars and technology. He had a brief racing history competing in weekly NASCAR events at Saugus speedway 1992-1995 and also Irwindale speedway in 2000 in the Los Angeles area. He was the team leader and founding member for the DARPA Grand Challenge http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/ team "AI Motorvators". The self funded team entered the the V-8 powered "IT Came From The Garage" which finished in the semi-finals in 2004 and 2005.
The Discovery Channel TV show "Monster Garage" did an episode of "Backyard Monsters" on the AI Motorvators in 2005 featuring Pedersen and the team competing in the 2005 Grand Challenge.
Chris was born in San Francisco, CA and grew up in Southern California.