Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. He is known for portraying villains and authority figures, most notably in his breakthrough role as the liquid-metal, shape-shifting T-1000 in James Cameron's blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Patrick was born in Marietta, Georgia, the eldest of five children. He was raised there and in Boston, Dayton, Detroit, and Cleveland. He attended the Bowling Green State University in Ohio, but dropped out after he took a drama course and became interested in acting. After leaving college, he took a job as a house painter and continued as such until a boating accident in Lake Erie in 1984. He swam for three hours in order to save the others still stranded on the accident site, while he nearly drowned in his attempt. After the accident, he moved from Ohio to Los Ang...