Why Paul From Clarice Looks So Familiar

As is common in the acting game, Michael Cudlitz spent years claiming supporting roles on television before getting a legitimate break. Still, many of the actor's early roles came on notable programs like 21 Jump Street, Growing Pains, Beverly Hills 90210, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That "big break" came when Cudlitz was tapped by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to appear in their ten-episode World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, which premiered on HBO in the fall of 2001 to universal acclaim.

True to that "universal acclaim" tag,  Band of Brothers became the small-screen event of 2001, and even a decade later is regarded by many as the greatest WWII narrative ever committed to film. That's largely because it's a true story of one battalion's harrowing wartime journey, as the series is indeed based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose's beloved book of the same name, which was itself culled from first-hand accounts of the surviving members of Easy Company spanning their days of basic training to the sack of Hitler's famed Eagle's Nest hideaway in the mountains of Germany.

Cudlitz portrays Easy Company's cigar-loving Staff Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman, and even took the spotlight in the fourth episode of Band of Brothers, which was centered around his character's daring escape from a German-occupied village. If you do recognize Cudlitz from his steadfast work as "Bull" on Band of Brothers, you know it made him one of the strongest links in a series that simply doesn't feature a weak one.