John Diehl (born May 1, 1950 ) is an American character actor, particularly known for his roles as Charles Kawalsky in the 1994 film Stargate, Det. Larry Zito on the 1980s cop show Miami Vice, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy on The Shield, and as "the Cruiser" in Stripes. He played Pvt. Bucklin, the spokesman of the 2nd Maine mutineers in Gettysburg and Cooper in Jurassic Park III (2001). Diehl portrayed G. Gordon Liddy in the Oliver Stone movie Nixon. Appeared as Keith, a credit card company supervisor in Mo Money.

Talented and dependable character actor whose career has spanned over 25 years. Particularly called upon to play various delinquents, wackos and psychos in his earlier years, he has matured into a fine screen character actor. His career began in the early 80s with a number of bit parts in movies such as Escape from New York (1981) with Kurt Russell (I) and Stripes (1981) with Bill Murray (I) amongst others before landing a co-starring role in the pilot for Miami Vice 1984 playing Hawiian shirt clad Detective Larry Zito. He continued his role in "Miami Vice" (1984) for three series before quitting to pursue other roles. He continued his film career and has since appeared in over 70 movies and has made over 40 guest appearances on TV. Notable film credits include _Motorama_ (1991), _Mo' Money_ (1991, Falling Down (1993), two John Grisham film adaptations Client, The (1994) and Time to Kill, A (1996), _Stargate_ (1994), Nixon (1995) and more recently _Pearl Harbor_ (2001) and a small role as dinosaur chow in _Jurassic Park III_ (2001). He is still working in movies and lives in Ojai, California with his singer wife Julie Christensen (I) and son Jackson, b. 1993.