Tom Ligon

A star athlete in high school, Tom Ligon set his sights on a career in sports. However, an injury to his leg cut his professional football aspirations short, and Ligon soon turned his focus to acting. After enrolling at Yale, Ligon was discovered by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams, who was impressed by Ligon's performance as Kilroy in Williams's "Camino Real." Soon after, Ligon became a much sought-after actor in Hollywood, with notable performances as a back-up catcher in the baseball drama "Bang the Drum Slowly" and a recurring role as Lucas Lorenzo Prentiss on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless." In 2001, Ligon earned critical acclaim for portraying Alvin Yood, a small-town sheriff convicted of aggravated assault, on the HBO prison series "Oz." When he's not acting on television or the movies, Ligon is heavily involved in the New York theater scene, where he continues to act in off-Broadway plays.