William Petersen

William Petersen is an American producer, television, stage and film actor hailing from Evanston, Illinois. Petersen portrayed Gil Grissom on the hit CBS television series CSI. Petersen was a part of the cast since the premiere of the show and left the show after nine years.Variety: 24.3 Million See Grissom's CSI Goodbye (January 16, 2009)

For nine seasons, Peterson was Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the CBS series CSI. The show constantly raked in high ratings and over 24 million viewers watched Grissom's departure from the series on January 15, 2009.Variety: 24.3 Million See Grissom's CSI Goodbye (January 16, 2009) It was shown in two parts and concluded with the forensic scientist surprising his fiance, Sara Sidle, with the news of his retirement. To date, Petersen's role in CSI has been his most well-known film credits.

Petersen's other acting credits including Young Guns II, Manhunter, Fear, The Rat Pack, The Skulls, The Contender and Without a Trace. Petersen's producing credits include CSI, Keep the Change and Hard Promises.

1. "I'm not even sure that Grissom realized that he was saying it or that at the moment, he didn't realize that everybody was hearing it. It was a revelation on his part. And again more importantly that's really what has come to pass on this season is the realization on Grissom's part that...he loves someone." — William Petersen on Grissom and Sara's relationship
2. "The best way to put this is that, you know, i'm not a huge fan of cliffhangers endings. However I think because of what we've done with the whole minituare killer story line that in a way we've earned this ending, you know? It's not something that you can just wrap up quickly and walk away from it." — William Petersen on the season seven finale
3. "She's sort of the-the quintessential anthropological study for Grissom. You know she's-she's just so fascinating to him because she's so...out there." — William Petersen on Lady Heather
4. "Two years from now, there'll be another one in Philadelphia and one in Toledo. If it works, they're going to use it until it doesn't work anymore. You can't tell them the golden egg is going to get broken." — William Petersen on CSI spin-offs

• Fan Site: William Petersen Appreciation Page

• Fan Site: William Petersen Biography

• Wikipedia: William Petersen Biography

• Yahoo! Movies: William Petersen Biography

• TV.com: William Petersen Biography

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• February 21, 1953: Born in Evanston, Illinois

• 1981: Thief

• 1985: To Live and Die in LA

• 1986: Manhunter

• 1996: Fear

• 2000: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation