Dean Norris

It’s easy to forget that the stars of Breaking Bad are real people just like the rest of us. Millions of fans enjoyed watching Walter White slowly transform into the murderous drug kingpin Heisenberg. And they weren’t the only ones. Actor Dean Norris, who played Walt’s brother-in-law Hank Schrader on...

Dean Norris’ memorable role as DEA Agent Hank Schrader on “Breaking Bad” led him, in a roundabout way, to Chuck Lorre’s new CBS sitcom “United States of Al.”. “Chuck was a big fan of ‘Breaking Bad’ and he cast me in six episodes of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ as a colonel,” said Norris, 58, who also plays Uncle Daddy on TNT’s “Claws,” returning in June for its fourth and final season.

Dean Norris, the dude who played the bombastic and well-meaning if off-putting DEA agent on Breaking Bad who did manage to bust Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), may look damned intimidating. He’s not. Though, like Hank, he does like to drink beer. Norris, a Harvard graduate who’s been in everything from...

Hank Schrader was a fan favorite character on Breaking Bad. As Dean Norris played him, how could you not love Hank? Even though Hank was the DEA Agent closest to Heisenberg, he was goofy and endearing enough to not be a threat. And, when Hank was in danger, you wanted him to prevail. A lot of that was due to Norris, according to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.

How invested the audience is in an actor will usually determine whether or not they remember every movie they’ve seen the person in since Dean Norris is a hard face to forget, even though some folks have done so in the past. Norris has starred in quite a few movies and TV shows in his time and it’s kind of impossible to remember all of them in one sitting, but there are a few movies that a lot of people appear to have forgotten that he was in, even if it was just for a few brief moments. The fun thing about this guy is that a lot of the time he does play some sort of law enforcement agent, or someone with at least some authority in his given profession. One might almost think that he has a kind of interest in law enforcement or in positions of authority, but looking at his bio it’s evident that he’s never held any position in the military or in law enforcement. It just happens that he has an affinity for playing such roles apparently, which is all well and good since it’s allowed him to do quite well in his career.

Makeup and wardrobe can do some amazing things since there are times when you really can’t remember who it is that’s under that getup and yet there are times when it’s someone that you probably should have recognized since they have such a familiar face. Back in the day though, Dean Norris might have been someone you could pick out of a crowd, but he still didn’t have the kind of fanbase that he’s amassed in recent years thanks to shows such as Breaking Bad and the many years he’s spent in the business. Dean has definitely made a name for himself over the years since he hasn’t always been front and center but he’s always been a reliable addition to a cast that helps to make it pretty solid. If you remember the original Total Recall movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and most do since the remake wasn’t so horrible that it can’t be watched but it definitely pales next to the original, you might remember the mutant Tony whose face looked like a half-finished calzone. The guy obviously didn’t like Quaide for his own reasons, even if the audience didn’t know yet that the character was supposed to be an undercover agent for the bad guys. Tony was just another rough and tough kind of guy that did have more to him than others in the town since was a part of the resistance that was trying to keep Cohaagen from taking over Mars completely.