Did You Know this Famous Actor Was Born in St. Cloud?

We have seen so many stories about famous people that are from Minnesota.  There's Prince, of course, who is probably the most famous person from Minnesota.  Judy Garland, Jessica Biel, Bob Dylan, Joel and Ethan Coen, Seann William Scott, James Arness, Rachael Leigh Cook and a few others.

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But one person who is famous, maybe not as famous as some of the others mentioned above, but Joel Gretsch was born in St. Cloud and grew up in the Albany area.  He is married to William Shatner's (Captain Kirk) daughter, Melanie.

Gretsch has mostly been a supporting actor, and got his start here in Minnesota at the Guthrie Theatre before moving out to California.  Some of the roles you may recognize him from are movies like PUSH, MINORITY REPORT, NATIONAL TREASURE - BOOK OF SECRETS, TV shows like THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, and walk on roles from such shows as NCIS, CRIMINAL MINDS, AGENTS of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a few more.  You can check out his acting credits and some directing and producing projects that he has in the works on his IMDB page.  

It's just nice to see people from the area that have actually made it big in the "biz" so to speak.  It just seems like most people that you see on TV and in the movies are generally from larger areas, or coastal areas.  Not a ton of them from the midwest, and even less from the upper midwest.

So, that was today's focus... Joel Gretsch.