Frank Grillo

Biography:

Frank Grillo was born in New York City into a working-class Italian-American family with Calabrian roots. Raised in the Bronx and Rockland County, New York, he began wrestling at age eight and took up boxing at eighteen. In 1991, he started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Rickson Gracie and currently holds a brown belt. Grillo earned a business degree from New York University and briefly worked on Wall Street before being cast in a Miller Genuine Draft beer commercial, which launched his acting career. He later revealed on The Fighter and the Kid podcast that he also holds Italian citizenship.

Grillo began acting in commercials for brands like American Express and Sure deodorant before landing his first film role in The Mambo Kings (1992). He went on to appear in Minority Report (2002), April’s Shower (2006), Pride and Glory (2008), and iMurders (2008). In 2010, he starred in the horror film Mother’s Day and the next year appeared as MMA trainer Frank Campana in Warrior. He followed with notable performances in The Grey (2012) alongside Liam Neeson, End of Watch (2012), and Collision (2013).

In 2014, Grillo joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, reprising the role in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and other MCU projects. That same year, he starred as Leo Barnes in The Purge: Anarchy and returned for The Purge: Election Year (2016).

Grillo’s later film credits include The Crash (2017), Demonic (2015), Big Sky (2015), and Beyond Skyline (2017). He appeared opposite Bruce Willis in Reprisal (2018), which later gained popularity on Netflix. He also starred in and produced Boss Level (2021), released by Hulu, and appeared in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021). Other recent films include Copshop, Ida Red, A Day to Die, The Yacht, and This Is the Night. In 2022, he portrayed Ferruccio Lamborghini in Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend.

In 2024, Grillo was revealed to be joining the new DC Universe (DCU) as Rick Flag Sr., debuting the role in the animated series Creature Commandos before reprising it in live-action for Superman (2025) and the second season of Peacemaker.

Grillo’s television career began with roles in Silk Stalkings (1993) and Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996). He became known for playing Hart Jessup on Guiding Light (1996–1999) and later appeared in For the People, Prison Break, Blind Justice, and The Kill Point. He starred in the short-lived sci-fi series The Gates (2010) and achieved further acclaim as MMA coach Alvey Kulina in the DirecTV drama Kingdom (2014–2017). More recently, he appeared in Billions (Season 5) and voiced Crossbones in Marvel’s What If…?

In 2024, Grillo voiced Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos, marking the first entry in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. He later joined Tulsa King Season 2 as Kansas City mob boss Bill Bevilaqua opposite Sylvester Stallone and is confirmed to appear in Seasons 3 and 4.

Grillo married his first wife, Kathy, in 1991; they had a son in 1997 and divorced in 1998. He met actress Wendy Moniz on the set of Guiding Light in 1996, and the two married on October 28, 2000, having two sons together, born in 2004 and 2008.