Chris Coulson's earliest recollection of an acting image from his childhood is Steve McQueen throwing a baseball against his prison cell wall. Growing up in a small 2-bedroom apartment, Coulson's imagination was sparked early on, and he began watching movies and movie actors to find ways to make his life more exciting. With his father having passed away, actors like McQueen and Paul Newman served as role models and mentors for him. Film moments became his life moments, and the concentration camp in "The Great Escape" was reminiscent of his own childhood experiences in a red brick apartment complex in Kansas City behind the Holiday Inn.
After working a variety of jobs, including as a golf caddy, bartender, hospital orderly, morgue attendant, obituary writer, newspaper reporter, newspaper editor, managing editor, and columnist for an art magazine, Coulson decided he still wanted to pursue a career in the movies. He started on the set of Robert Altman's "Kansas City," playing a small role as a 1930s drifter. Following the wrap of the film, Coulson packed up and left Kansas City, following the same highway west as the Altman production trucks. In Los Angeles, he studied acting under Sal Romeo, Judith Weston, Beth Ruscio, and Candy Trabucco.
Coulson has acted in numerous independent films, television shows, and theater productions, including the hit play "The Split" by Preston Sturges Jr. Three years after his first acting role for Robert Altman, Coulson found himself acting in Holly Springs, Mississippi, for the director again in "Cookie's Fortune." He played the role of small-town southern deputy Clyde Docko, who never turns off his police cruiser's "blues" because "it kills the engine."
Most recently, Coulson stars as Dr. Peter Cochran in the lead role of "In The Land of Milk and Money," written and directed by Susan Emshwiller. The film, a wild and weird social satire, is currently making its way through the film festival circuit worldwide.
