Biography

An exciting, eclectic actor, Tim Abell is a man of his own making and when that making includes teaching ballroom dancing, horse training, writing, cooking, acting, producing and being a US Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment, you can see it is a formidable combination.

From the Maryland and Virginia area, as a young man Tim took up martial arts and boxing. He found a respect for wildlife conservation and a love for the land while hunting and fishing with his elders. At the age of 17 he joined the army, and owing to outstanding leadership skills, was promoted during basic training. He advanced quickly, attending AIT, Airborne School and Ranger School, all at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion, Ft. Lewis, Washington, as a Ranger after enduring the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP).

Gaining further promotions, Tim also achieved a substantial number of awards due to his expertise in many varied fields. During his final year in the Army he served with the 3rd US Infantry, "The Old Guard", Caisson Platoon. Here he excelled as a horseman and played Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson, charging into battle on his trusty steed, in the US Army dramatic re-enactment of the History of the United States Torch Light Tattoo, at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC, and a longer version called "The Spirit of America" performed in various places.

After five years of service Tim left the army to go to college. Once there he was encouraged to join the Arthur Murray Dance Studio and was soon teaching class to support himself through college. It was here that Tim first got involved with the theatre. Just short of graduating he took the decision to leave college and head to Los Angeles, where he took classes with Jeff Corey while searching for that all-important break.

Early on, after a series of low-budget films and many theatre projects, his break came, when April Webster recommended that Jerry Bruckheimer cast him in Soldier of Fortune (1997) as Benny Ray Riddle, a former Marine scout/sniper recruited by the Pentagon to work as part of a covert team. The syndicated series ran for two seasons. Then followed a series of films that made much of Tim's military experiences, including The Base (1999), where he starred opposite Mark Dacascos in a performance that had him compared to a young Willem Dafoe, and The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option (2001) which also starred Treat Williams and Bill Nunn.

Tim was to find himself starring with Dacascos again in the film adaptation of Lisa Gardner's book "The Perfect Husband". In Instinct to Kill (2001) Tim played psychotic killer Jim Beckett with Missy Crider as his long-suffering wife.

Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man (2001) for CBS, saw a change of direction for Tim into historical costume drama, which was then followed by roles alongside James Caan and Daniel Stern in Jason Bloom's award-winning "Dead Simple" a.k.a Viva Las Nowhere (2001), and in the much acclaimed We Were Soldiers (2002) starring Mel Gibson. Guest-starring roles in the television series' CSI: Miami (2002), NCIS (2003) and JAG (1995) bought Tim face to face with David Caruso, Mark Harmon and David James Elliott.

In recent projects Tim has been behind the camera as well as in front of it. He was co-producer on the multi-award-winning film Soldier of God (2005), directed by W.D. Hogan and produced by Mir Bahmanyar. To date, "Soldier of God" has won Best Feature Film awards for 2005 at The Deep Ellum Film Festival in Dallas, The Stratford upon Avon International Film Festival in England and The Berkley Film Festival in California. As well as being co-producer on "Soldier of God", Tim took on the emotional intensity of portraying the eponymous anti-hero, Rene. It was a tour de force for this talented actor.

Tim also starred in and was associate producer on the Thadd Turner-written Miracle at Sage Creek (2005) starring David Carradine, Wes Studi, Michael Parks and Irene Bedard. Further films with Thadd Turner in 2006 will see Tim star alongside Shania Twain, Michael Madsen and Kris Kristofferson in _Buttermilk Sky (2007)_ and _Hard Ride, The (2007)_ .

He has recently finished filming "The Tom Campbell Water Story", a.k.a "Breathe", in Florida and Santa Barbara, California. The film, directed by and starring Don Murray, is based on the true story of three scuba divers trapped in an underwater cave.