Rex Linn

The banker who preferred shootouts

Rex Linn was working at a bank in Oklahoma when he decided he would rather get shot on screen. It was 1982, and his job as vice president at Lakeshore Bank didn't fit with his desire to appear on screen.

He gave up financial security to move to Los Angeles.

His first steps were modest but steady. He worked construction while chasing auditions that could pay the rent. In 1989, he landed a small role in Night Game. It was the start of a career built on an imposing physique and a baritone voice that sounds carved from granite.

The villain who fell off the mountain

His big break came in 1993 with Cliffhanger. He played Richard Travers and shared the marquee with Sylvester Stallone in a production that cost 70 million dollars.

That was when Hollywood realized Linn worked wonders as an antagonist in a uniform or a work suit.

His ability to project authority effortlessly opened the doors to major action productions. He appeared in Wyatt Earp in 1994 and in The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1996. And although he wasn't always the lead, his appearances gave the tense scenes the solid presence they needed. Linn understands that genre films rest on the shoulders of the supporting cast.

From Miami Labs to New Mexico

Television gave him the stability that movies denied him in the 1990s. In 2003, he joined the cast of CSI: Miami to bring detective Frank Tripp to life.

Appeared in 187 episodes of the crime series.

But his range wasn't limited to interrogations and chases through the swamps. In 2016, he joined the world of Better Call Saul to play Kevin Wachtell. As the manager of the Mesa Verde bank, his role was an unintentional nod to his own past in Oklahoma banking.

In 2017, he began his journey in Young Sheldon, playing Principal Petersen.

That same year, he shot Under the Silver Lake under the direction of David Robert Mitchell. Linn prefers long shoots where he can build a close relationship with the crew. In 2020, he began a personal relationship with Reba McEntire that also carried over into their work together.

The two worked together in 2022 during the filming of the series Big Sky.

In 2023, he starred in the TV movie The Hammer for the Lifetime network. The production was shot entirely on location in Canada to cut logistical costs.