Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 and drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

tic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties

Family Ties

Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young...

and the Graboid

Graboid

The graboid is a fictional species that acts as the primary antagonist of the Tremors film series. As Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young explain, the "destruction of 'graboids', as they are quickly dubbed, becomes the central tension of the film." The creature made its debut in the 1990 film...

 hunter Burt Gummer

Burt Gummer

Burt Gummer is a fictional character, played by actor Michael Gross, from the Tremors film series and the short lived SciFi Channel TV program of the same name...

 from the Tremors

Tremors (film)

Tremors is a 1990 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood, based on a screenplay by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire...

franchise.
Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Virginia Ruth (née Cahill), a telephone operator, and William Oscar Gross, a tool designer. Coincidentally, Gross and his Family Ties co-star Meredith Baxter

Meredith Baxter

Meredith Baxter , also known for some years as Meredith Baxter-Birney, is an American actress and producer. She is known for her acting roles including three television series: Family , an ABC television-network drama, Family Ties , an NBC television-network situation comedy, and Dan Vs. , a...

 (who played his wife Elyse Keaton), were born on the same date, June 21, 1947.