David Strickland

David Strickland had carved out a thriving acting career, starring as a regular on the NBC sitcom "Suddenly Susan" and making the move to film with a supporting role in the successful romantic comedy "Forces of Nature" (1999) before taking his own life at age 29. Born in Glen Cove, New York and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, Strickland did not consider an acting career until, as a teenager, he moved with his family to Pacific Palisades, California. A veteran of over fifty student films, he made his big screen debut with a small role in 1994's "Postcards From America," but was first notably featured opposite Ron Eldard in the festival screened independent "Delivered" (1998). He starred in this quirky comedic thriller as rant-prone pizza delivery man who records all of his (often violent) rambling thoughts. When his recorder gets into the hands of a murderer (Eldard), the killer relates to the pizza man and endeavors to act on all of his gripes and revenge fantasies. A smaller role that exposed him to a much wider audience came with "Forces of Nature" (1999), a romantic comedy starring Ben Affleck, Sandra Bullock and Maura Tierney. In this blockbuster film, Strickland played Tierney's former boyfriend Steve, who holds a torch for her and tries to win her back the day before her impending marriage to Affleck. He shone in this supporting role, capably playing a likable but misguided victim of love whose botched attempts to win Tierney's affection offer both poignancy and inanity.