Robert Hammond Patrick is an American actor best known for portraying intense antagonists and authority figures. He broke out in 1991 with his iconic performance as the T-1000 in James Cameronโs Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where his cold, physical presence turned the character into one of cinemaโs most enduring villains.
Following Terminator 2, Patrick became a fixture across film and television, with notable roles in Fire in the Sky (1993), Last Action Hero (1993), The Faculty (1998), Walk the Line (2005), and Bridge to Terabithia (2007), as well as The X-Files (2000โ2002), where he portrayed FBI Special Agent John Doggett. He later led the military drama The Unit (2006โ2009) as Colonel Tom Ryan, the commanding officer overseeing an elite covert operations team, grounding the series with a disciplined, authoritative presence rooted in military realism. He also appeared in Scorpion (2014โ2018), where he played Cabe Gallo, the former federal agent who recruits and oversees the showโs team of geniuses.
Patrick also appeared in Peacemaker in 2022, a DC Comicsโbased series created by James Gunn, portraying Auggie Smith, a radical, authoritarian figure tied to Peacemakerโs past and ideology, a role that highlighted a darker and more unsettling side of his screen persona.
Outside of acting, Patrick is a longtime supporter of the U.S. military and the USO, a commitment shaped by his family history. The grandson of an Army veteran who served in World Wars I and II and the Korean War, he has participated in multiple USO tours since 2008, traveling to seven countries and regularly visiting military hospitals. He is also a dedicated Harley-Davidson enthusiast and co-owner of Harley-Davidson of Santa Clarita, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara, and their two children.
