Leon Rippy was born in Charlotte, N.C. His first acting job was in The Lost Colony where he received $25 weekly. Eventually, he founded 2 theatre companies and even became a respectable ballet dancer. As an actor, he appeared in countless movies such as The Alamo, The Life of David Gale, The Patriot, Beyond the Law, The Tracker and Young Guns II to name a few. Moreover, he became part of the television series Deadwood as Tom Nuttall.
Tom Nuttall is the owner and bartender of No. 10 Saloon in Deadwood which is where Wild Bill Hickock was killed.
Leon Rippy is an American actor born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He ran away from home at the age of 15, managing to stay away from his parents for several months. After a string of high school and college plays, he founded and operated two theater companies, while also performing for a time as a ballet dancer. He also experienced traveling with a circus and working with cattle, before going on to act in numerous television series and films. Among these are Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap, Stargate, The Patriot, Walker: Texas Ranger, Six Feet Under, The Alamo, and Deadwood.
Rippy is often cast as a heavy, stiff, and uncaring military officer or government authority because of his swarthy features and interesting dental work. After his first role on Firestarter in 1984 plus a guest appearance on the television series Hunter, he bagged a small role in Stephen Spielberg’s The Color Purple, followed by a supporting role to Emilio Estevez in Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive. Six years after his first break, Leon Rippy appeared in Moon 44 in 1990. this was to be followed by even more collaborations with director Roland Emmerich. The same year, he starred opposite Emilio Estevez, Christian Slater, and Charlie Sheen in Young Guns II. He then appeared as the main henchman of Slater in Kuffs in 1992. That same year, he appeared with Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier.
In Stargate, Rippy once again collaborated with Emmerich. In 1996, he played a government agent in a science fiction film called The Arrival, again with Charlie Sheen. The following year, he once again worked with Emmerich on the sci-fi series The Visitor. His other screen credits include The Thirteenth Floor, The Patriot, and Eight Legged Freaks. As for his television work, his credits include the TNT crime drama series Saving Grace.