Rick Rossovich

Rossovich is also recognized for his lead role in the TV series Pacific Blue, often described as a "Baywatch on bikes", which ran on the USA Network for five seasons between March 1996 and April 2000 and also gained popularity abroad. He also portrayed Dr. John Taglieri in the first season of ER and Spud Lincoln in the CBS series Sons and Daughters (1991).

• Name — Rick Rossovich • Birth Name — Frederic Enrico Rossovich • Born — 28 August 1957 • Birthplace — Palo Alto, California, U.S. • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1978–2017 • Spouse — Eva Rossovich • Children — 2

Rossovich was born Frederic Enrico Rossovich in Palo Alto, California, and grew up in Grass Valley, California, eventually graduating from Nevada Union High School. His brother, Tim, was a former professional football player and also an actor. He attended college at Sacramento State University. He was a bodybuilder during his late teens and early 20s. Rossovich has Croatian and Italian ancestry; his mother's family originates from the Tuscany region of Italy, while his father's family comes from Istria, Croatia. His great-grandfather emigrated to the United States from Mošćenička Draga, a coastal town in Istria, Croatia, whence the surname Rossovich originates, as it was first found there.

Rossovich's first big movie break came when he was cast as Cadet First Lieutenant Dante Pignetti in the drama-thriller The Lords of Discipline, with Bill Paxton and Michael Biehn. The movie helped launch Paxton and Biehn's careers, and Rossovich went on to work again with both Biehn and Paxton in The Terminator and Navy SEALs. Paxton and he worked together also in Streets of Fire, an American neo-noir rock musical film directed and co-written by Walter Hill. Rossovich's next movie was Losin' It, a "teenage romp down to Mexico... and [Rossovich] played a marine who the kids kept coming across, and which resulted in some high jinks." Losin' It was Tom Cruise's first lead role. Rossovich and Cruise, who Rossovich considers "a great guy," first met on the set of Losin' It. The two would become friends, and go on to star together in Rossovich's biggest hit and one of Tom Cruise's most memorable works, Top Gun. On the set of Top Gun, Rossovich also "really bonded with Val Kilmer," partly due to their respective roles in the movie and the relationship of their characters. Rossovich has stated that bonding with Kilmer came "so naturally," and that Kilmer and he were "kind of like brothers." In 1984, Rossovich was cast as Ginger's boyfriend Matt in The Terminator. Between 'that film and Top Gun, Rossovich starred in Streets of Fire, where he plays Officer Cooley, and meets again with Bill Paxton; the sci-fi horror film Warning Sign, where he plays Bob; the action film Let's Get Harry, in which he plays Kurt Kleein; and the neo noir mystery film The Morning After, where he plays the Detective.

In the wake of Top Gun, Rossovich gained a major role in the Golden Globe-nominated and critically acclaimed Roxanne, a modern retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah. He subsequently went on to star in the thriller Spellbinder alongside Kelly Preston; the dark fantasy horror comedy Waxwork; and the thriller Paint It Black, alongside Martin Landau and Sally Kirkland.

Rossovich started off the 1990s with what became one of his most notable roles, that of Corpsman James Leary in the military action film Navy SEALs, alongside Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, and Bill Paxton, with whom he had already worked multiple times. Rossovich starred in a number of minor movies in the early 1990s, the most notable of which was the direct-to-video erotic thriller Cover Me, alongside Paul Sorvino, Elliott Gould, and Corbin Bernsen. In the late 1990s, Rossovich landed a role on the long-running American medical drama television series E.R., playing Dr. John "Tag" Taglieri, Carol Hathaway's love interest in season one. From 1996 to 1998, Rossovich starred as the lead character in the crime drama series Pacific Blue. The series achieved some success in the U.S., and was run in many other countries; in some of these (such as Italy), the series is still being broadcast on national television to this day. In the late 1990s, Rossovich starred in a few other movies, the most notable of which being Truth or Consequences, N.M. with Kiefer Sutherland and the 1998 romantic comedy Telling You, for which he made an uncredited cameo.

Rossovich's career, which had been declining in the late 1990s, came to a halt in the 2000s. He starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Miracle in Lane 2 alongside Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz in 2000 and in the crime film Artworks alongside Virginia Madsen in 2003 before going into retirement. Upon selling his Hollywood Hills home, Rossovich moved from Los Angeles to Ojai, California, where his wife and he had spent 18 months restoring a house in the early 1990s. He then moved to Sweden, where he resided as of 2016. After giving up cinema and his Hollywood life, Rossovich attempted a return to acting in 2012, with the comedy drama Sandbar. Rossovich does not appear to be contemplating to return to acting steadily, as in 2012, he stated: "I've had a really great marriage and kids. I've saved my money and invested. I can do what I want. I guess that's a blessing and a curse. It takes away some of your drive to go out and be a workaholic." Rossovich has made guest appearances in such TV shows as Tales from the Crypt, Mad About You, Murder, She Wrote and Due South. In 2007, he appeared with his son, Roy, in an episode of House Hunters International set in Stockholm, Sweden.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1978 — Fantasy Island — Abdul (uncredited) — Episode: "King for a Day/Instant Family" • 1979 — Fantasy Island — Boris Smolensk (uncredited) — Episode: "Baby/Marathon: Battle of the Sexes" • 1980 — Fantasy Island — Ozzie (uncredited) — Episode: "Eagleman/Children of Mentu" • 1981 — B. J. and the Bear — Football Player — Episode: "Beauties and the Beasts" • Eight is Enough — Fred — Episode: "If the Glass Slipper Fits" • 1983 — Deadly Lessons — Craig — TV movie • 1984 — Single Bars, Single Women — Dolph — TV movie • 1985 — MacGruder and Loud — Officer Geller — Episode: "The Price of Junk" • 1988 — 14 Going on 30 — Roy 'Jackjaw' Kelton — TV movie • 1990 — Tales From the Crypt — Hans/Younger Carlton Webster — Episode: "The Switch" • 1991 — The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw — Ethan Cassidy — TV movie • Sons and Daughters — Spud Lincoln — 13 episodes • 1992 — Tequila and Bonetti — T.T. Boner — Episode: "Tequila and Boner" • 1993 — Mad About You — Sherman Williams — Episode: "The Painter" • 1994 — Touched by an Angel — Marshall — Episode: "Fallen Angela" • 1994-1995 — ER — Dr. John 'Tag' Taglieri — 11 episodes • 1995 — Due South — Mark Smithbauer — Episode: "The Blue Line" • 1996 — Murder, She Wrote — Steve Gantry — Episode: "Race to Death" • 1996-1998 — Pacific Blue — Lieutenant Anthony Palermo — 57 Episodes • 1997 — Legend of the Lost Tomb — Dr. Eric Leonhardt — TV movie • 1998 — Mike Hammer, Private Eye — Henry Spencer — Episode: "A New Leaf: Part 2" • 1999 — Killer Deal — Sgt. James 'Jimmy' Quinn — TV movie • 2000 — Miracle in Lane 2 — Myron Yoder — TV movie • Chicken Soup for the Soul — Don Yaeger — TV series

• Year — Title — Artist — Notes • 1988 — How Can the Laboring Man Find Time for Self Culture? — Martini Ranch — Adonis • 1992 — Watch Me — Lorrie Morgan — Boyfriend

• Year — Title — Role(s) — Notes • 1997 — Blue Heat: The Case of the Cover Girl Murders — Sgt. Bobby Colter — Based on Cover Me

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