How did CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's William Petersen go from football star to talented actor?
When you play sports, you already know how to entertain. You're playing (aka performing) in front of a crowd of thousands, not to mention the millions at home watching. So technically, a transition to something like acting isn't too far off. In fact, many athletes turn to film/TV when they retire.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's William Petersen was recruited by Idaho State University to play cornerback for their football team, and he was pretty good. Yet, his grade point average at the time was less than stellar, and to stay on the team, the institution put him in the theater department.
"They put me in the theater department because I had a really bad grade-point average," Petersen said during an interview with Newsday in 2002. "I was in there with a couple of linebackers. We were just painting flats and getting A's. They'd give you A's if you just showed up and screwed in a light bulb. I fell in love with the people in the theater department... I fell for the whole lifestyle, communal thing."
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The article didn't specify exactly when Petersen left football completely. However, it did say he followed a visiting professor to Spain after college and helped start a theater company in the Pyrenees Mountains. After being in Hamlet, he got married and had a child, then left Spain to go to Chicago to act.
Petersen played roles in productions such as Thief (1981), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), and The Twilight Zone (1986), among others. Decades later, he landed the main character role in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Gil Grissom.