What Ever Happened To Skeet Ulrich?

Skeet Ulrich made a name for himself in 1996's Scream, and over the next few years, he starred in a handful of movies that seemed poised to make him an A-list name. After hitting the big screen in As Good as It Gets and The Newton Boys, his rise to fame seemed to take a detour into more obscure roles. What happened, and where is he now?

In 2006, Ulrich signed on to take the lead role in the CBS apocalypse drama Jericho and when he did, he told TV Guide he should have known better. "My work on Miracles should have told me to steer clear of doing another show," he said. "Doing one is so intense, it typically becomes a 70-hour week." For Ulrich, the promise of being near his then-kindergarten-age twins Jakob and Naiia was enough to tip the scales back toward television.

Those 70-hour weeks were worth it, though, and Jericho became something of an immediate cult hit with a dedicated following. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep the show from getting the axe not once, but twice. After it was cancelled the first season, fans took one of Ulrich's lines — "Nuts." — and ran with it, sending millions and millions of nuts to CBS executives in a plea to have their show given another chance. Even that dedication couldn't save it in the end, though, and it was cancelled for good in 2008. According to ScreenRant, though, there's been some rumors about the possibility of the show being revived, and Netflix was in talks to bring it back in 2013. Nothing came of it, but the story briefly continued in graphic novel form. That, too, gradually stopped.

Ulrich hasn't said whether or not he'd be on board with a revival, but he did tell TV Guide there had been something about the story that had pulled him back to television. "I really loved the premise. Who do we become when someone takes everything away? Who decides what is law and order in a new world?"

For an entire generation of fans whose horror movie experiences started with Scream's reenvisioning of the stalker film, Skeet Ulrich is always going to be an ultimate bad guy. He's always going to be associated with that creepy mask, and if there's anything else horror fans love, it's conventions. Ulrich made his convention debut at the 2015 Texas Frightmare Weekend, and he took the opportunity to answer some fan questions, including one from Movie Pilot. Asked what his own favorite scary movie was, he quipped, "The Princess Bride. No, really, it is!" Moving on to a more serious answer, he said, "The Exorcist is my favorite. There's something about religious horror and the fact that it's a true story that just terrified me when I saw it. It's hard to watch."

Ulrich's appearance wasn't just a one-time deal, either, and he was also on the roster for the 2016 Texas Frightmare Weekend, alongside names like Robert Englund and Mitch Pileggi. He was participating in a Wes Craven Memorial Panel, delighting genre fans by embracing that role that made him famous.

When Collider spoke with Ulrich about his 2010 foray into one of television's longest-running franchises, they asked him if getting involved with a longterm mainstay like Law & Order was a conscious departure from some of the perceived risks he had taken with Miracles and Jericho in the years leading up to his stint as Detective Rex Winters.

"No, to me, it's a character I haven't had the chance to delve into," he told them. "I tend towards characters for a modicum of reasons. This is a walk of life I hadn't stepped into and I'm fascinated by it."

That's not to say that he hadn't been on cop dramas before, though, and he had done a bit on CSI: NY playing, again, a serial killer — for the first time since Scream. Ulrich took his research for his Law & Order role incredibly seriously, too, shadowing LA's real-life Homicide Division in preparation. He also told Collider it was an up close and personal look at just how tough the job of a cop on the street really was, and recounted a run-in with four women who had approached the police blockade to find out how long they were going to be there. When they responded that the street was going to be closed off by police presence for the whole night, the women were relieved they would finally be able to sleep through the night.

"Suddenly, it hit me so hard what these guys do," Ulrich said. "There is a palpable gratefulness to those who are not crime committers, if you will, for this force." Unfortunately, Ulrich's dedication wasn't enough to break his curse. Losing almost 50 percent of viewers in the first three weeks, the show was cancelled after a single season and his character was killed off (via TV Series Finale).

Ulrich didn't actually appear on-screen, of course, but he did lend his voice to Robot Chicken for a series of episodes that spanned 2007 to 2014. While he played a number of random characters that included Brainy Smurf from the 2014 episode "Batman Forever," he was also featured at least semi-regularly playing Duke of the GI Joe fame.

Off the screen, Ulrich has never really had it easy, either. When he talked to LA Mag in 2010, they touched on his childhood. "I didn't really have a dad," he said, referring to his parents' split when he was six. Not only did they split, but his father kidnapped both him and his brother and took them on a three-year road trip, trying to stay ahead of the law. Eventually, he was reunited with his mother, and his father was never heard from again. "I had a lot boiling inside of me. As [playwright David] Mamet said, 'If you didn't want to be an actor, you should have had a good childhood.'"

As for his own family life, it's been pretty turbulent. He married actress Georgina Cates and moved to a 500-acre home in Virginia, but the pair split in 2002. Even though they shared custody of their two children, he made headlines of the unflattering sort in 2013 when Radar Online claimed to have gotten a hold of some documents that claimed he owed more than $280,000 in child support payments.

With the end of that relationship, Ulrich married actress Amelia Jackson-Gray. Unfortunately for him, that marriage ended in divorce as well, in 2015 (via MSN).

Between 2001 and 2014, Ulrich was only in two movies that had theatrical releases, and it was after that dry spell that he hopped in the saddle for 2014's 50 to 1. The film told the story of the 2009 Kentucky Derby, and the completely unexpected victory of longshot Mine that Bird. According to what Ulrich told the Charlotte Observer, there were some unexpected difficulties in filming.

"Thoroughbreds bite," he told reporters. "I'd been around quarter horses, and we got along fine, but thoroughbreds are temperamental."

Somewhat ironically, Ulrich was playing the Derby winner's trainer, Chip Woolley. While the movie might have slipped under the radar for many people, Ulrich says there was just something about the story he knew he wanted to be a part of. "I'm not offered the movies I once was, and it's hard to find one creatively that's appealing," he said honestly. "50 to 1 was one I fought for and was fortunate enough to get."

While he says both mediums have their benefits — movies give more prep time, while television story arcs can be longer and more complicated — he also says he was drawn to the film because the real-life Woolley was someone he could completely respect. "He likes to party; he'd have drinks with us, and we'd stumble out of a bar at 1 — but he'd have to be up at 4:30 to take care of his animals. That preparation and work ethic, whether you're a golfer or a trainer or an actor, is everything."

In 2014, Ulrich released a short film that was not only his directorial debut, but also a family project. The Girl on the Roof starred his daughter, Naiia Ulrich, and was written by his then-wife, Amelia Jackson-Gray. Broadway World took a look at the impressive list of awards the film accumulated, including honors like Best Short at the Catalina Film Festival and at ITVFest, as well as gaining honors for Jackson-Gray, who also played the film's nanny.

Other reviews of the project were favorable, too, with Nerdgeist wondering why he didn't take more opportunities to direct, as he appeared to be a natural. The story is the tale of an introverted young girl who wanders through a shady, shady world — and it's one that also stars Lennie James. Ulrich's success in the director's chair remains to be seen, but if popular opinion holds any weight, it seems to be something people definitely want to see more of.

In October 2016, E! News broke the story that both he and fellow 90s heartthrob Luke Perry were going to be guest starring in the CW drama Riverdale. At the time, it wasn't entirely clear just what their relationship was going to be to the beloved characters of the Archie comics, but they did know he was going to be the head of a criminal gang called the Southside Serpents, that he was going to show up in the fourth episode, and that he was going to hold a special sort of grudge against Perry. They also pointed out how similar he looks to Cole Sprouse, who's playing Jughead... and they were right.

Hollywood Life talked to Sprouse about Ulrich's appearance on the show, and his casting as Jughead's father. "He and I are two peas in a pod," Sprouse said. "It's insane casting. They really nailed it!"

The Hollywood Reporter chatted a bit with the show's creators, and they said casting former teen stars for the adult roles was exactly what they had been going for. Ulrich and Perry are joined by Molly Ringwald and Robin Givens, and it's all in the hopes of reaching a second audience. While they're playing to the CW's usual audience with their teen stars, they're also reaching out to those who have connected with the older generation of actors when they were young.

"I pushed for anyone who had ever played a teenager on film or television to come in," said showrunner Sarah Schechter. The dynamic was also designed to allow them to focus on adult issues as much as teen ones, and given Ulrich's tendency to gravitate toward deep characters, it's safe to say that there's going to be more to him than a one-dimensional background character.

Ulrich got his start in horror, and in spite of the fact that he actually doesn't really play a serial killer all that often, that's what many see him as — for better or worse. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter revealed he was going back to his horror roots and hopefully back to the big screen with a film called Escape Room.

With real escape rooms — locked rooms where players have to solve puzzles to find their way out — only increasing in popularity, it was a logical choice for the basis of a horror movie. Ulrich stars as the owner of an escape room, but there's a catch: inside the room is a demon.

While the story suggested the movie, then in post-production, was being shopped with the goal of bringing it to theaters complete with social media and mobile game tie-ins, more word on what's going on with the movie has been scarce. The news is frustrating, another delay in the up-and-down career of this '90s heartthrob who helped make horror was it is today.