David Rasche (born August 7, 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American actor. He started in theatre, but also has appeared on numerous movies and television series. He became a member of the Chicago Second City, after John Belushi moved on to Saturday Night Live. In 1974, he fronted $1,000 to help start Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. His most famous role by far, is the title role in the late 1980s series Sledge Hammer!: Rasche's inimitable performance as a violent and chauvinistic cop earned him rave reviews and the series is considered a cult classic. A few years earlier, an almost unrecognizable Rasche played a nuclear terrorist in the groundbreaking 1983 TV movie Special Bulletin.
He had a minor role as a photographer in the movie Cobra alongside Brigitte Nielsen. He also starred in the early-'90s NBC sitcom Nurses.
Rasche has a scholarly background (graduate degree from the University of Chicago) and also worked as a teacher and writer before going into showbusiness full-time. He even appeared on a PBS special.
In addition to his work as a screen actor, Rasche can also be heard as Captain Piett in the NPR radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back.
Rasche played the President in the 2006 film The Sentinel. He starred as a crooked police officer in the Tom Selleck movie An Innocent Man. He also portrays the late Donald Greene, one of the passengers of doomed flight 93, in Paul Greengrass' controversial 9/11 film United 93. He is presently working on Garrett Bennett's "The Spy & the Sparrow."
