William Sadler (actor)  William Thomas Sadler (born April 13, 1950) is an American film and television actor. His television and motion picture roles have included Chesty Puller in "The Pacific", in "", Sheriff Jim Valenti in "Roswell", convict Heywood in "The Shawshank Redemption", Senator Vernon Trent in "Hard to Kill", and the Grim Reaper in "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey", "Tales from the Crypt" and "Bill & Ted Face the Music", a role for which he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, and his role as Colonel Stuart opposite Bruce Willis in "Die Hard 2". He played the character of President of the United States, Matthew Ellis, in "Iron Man 3", "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and "WHIH Newsfront", all set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also recurs as Steve McGarrett's murdered father, John McGarrett, in the 2010 remake of the 1968 television series, "Hawaii Five-O" and the Boston boxing promoter and suspected drug dealer Gino Fish in the Jesse Stone made for TV movie series opposite Tom Selleck as a small town police chief. Sadler was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Jane and William Sadler. He is of mostly Scottish descent, with smaller amounts of English and German ancestry. From an early age, he took to performing in front of an audience. Playing a variety of stringed instruments, Sadler found hometown success during his high-school years at Orchard Park High School. He took on the persona of Banjo Bill Sadler, a banjo-playing singer who cracked jokes while playing. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in SUNY Geneseo. Following that, he spent two years at Cornell University where he earned his master's degree in Acting with a minor in Speech Communications. He is a certified speech teacher and practiced in accents. Sadler took his first post-school role in Florida and soon relocated to Boston, moving in with his sister while scrubbing the floors of a lobster boat by day and performing his acting roles at night. A chance meeting with an old schoolmate on a trip into the city resulted in Sadler's casting in an off-off-Broadway production of Chekhov's "Ivanov". After a brief turn at the Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, Sadler moved back to New York and rented an apartment in the East Village, beginning twelve years in which he appeared in over 75 productions, including originating the role of "Sgt. Toomey" in the Broadway run of Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues", opposite Matthew Broderick in 1985.