Eric was born in Staten Island, New York, May 24th. His father is an orthopedic surgeon and his mother is an artist. Eric is the eldest of three brothers. His family moved to Indiana, then to Michigan and finally settled in San Diego when Eric was eight years old. He graduated with a B.A. in communications from the University of Southern California in 1989. He married Keri in 1995 and has two daughters, Katie and Ella. Eric and his family love philanthropy and traveling the world. Eric is a sportsman, preferring outdoor sports such as rock climbing, snow skiing, tennis, golf, sailing, surfing, scuba diving and fly-fishing. He also enjoys reading historical fiction. He was interested in acting and film making from a very early age, and had some stage experience in school, but didn't decide to go for an acting career until after college. His first role was in a theater production "Rat Songs" in L.A. and was offered a part in the Edward James Olmos directed film American Me (1992) and "Safe House" directed by Elena Mannes for AFI. After doing those two films he returned to theater with "Thanksgiving Cries." He had many guest appearances on TV shows, and then started landing lead roles in shows such as "Dark Skies" (1996), "The Magnificent Seven" (1998), and "Now and Again" (1999), the CBS hit "Without a Trace" (2002) and most recently "Chaos" (2011) In 2015, Close also played the role of DEA Agent Snead in Clint Eastwood's war film "American Sniper." Eric joined the DGA as a director in 2007.

Close is best known for his role on CBS drama Without a Trace as FBI agent Martin Fitzgerald. The show ran for seven seasons from 2002 to 2009. He later had recurring role on Suits, and was series regular on another CBS show Chaos. In 2012, Close began co-starring with Connie Britton in the ABC drama Nashville as Teddy Conrad, initially the husband of Britton’s character Rayna Jaymes and later the mayor of Nashville.

Actors, Entertainment Industry, Entertainers, Celebrity Tennessee, Nashville, TN, Television Actor, Acting,