Don Swayze was born on August 10, 1958 in Houston, Texas as Donald Carl Swayze. He is the son of Patsy Swayze (née Yvonne Helen Karnes; 1927-2013), a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze (1925-1982), an engineering draftsman. He had two brothers, Patrick Swayze (1952-2009) and Sean Swayze (b. 1962), and two sisters, Vickie Lynn (1949-1994) and Bambi Swayze. He began his acting career in the 1980s in TV shows and TV movies. Unlike his more famous older brother, Don often played violent and unsavory characters. Early roles in Street Hawk (1985), The Fall Guy (1981), L.A. Law (1986), and in Matlock (1986) (as a mentally handicapped murder suspect) led to his first film role in Andrey Konchalovskiy's Shy People (1987) as Mark. During the 1990s, he guest-starred for example in Columbo (1971), Renegade (1992), Murder, She Wrote (1984), NYPD Blue (1993), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993) as Jesse James, Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), and Profiler (1996). He also worked as a stunt man. In Letters from a Killer (1998), he was a stunt player. In Movie Stars (1999), he played a fictional version of himself. During the 2000s, he guest-starred in The X Files (1993), The Division (2001), NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service (2003), CSI: Miami (2002), and Without a Trace (2002). He also had recurring roles in HBO's Carnivàle (2003) as Tattooed Man, in True Blood (2008) as Gus, a werewolf, and in The Bridge (2013) as Tampa Tim. He also played a serial killer, Charles Hankel in two episodes of Criminal Minds (2005). In 2012, he starred in two westerns, Heathens and Thieves (2012) and Dark Canyon (2012). He also appeared in horror movies, in Lizzie (2012) as Daniel Allen and in The Appearing (2014) as Sheriff Hendricks. He appeared on stage in 2001 as Pedro in "Man of La Mancha", and in 2005 as Roy in the comedy "Lone Star". He was married to Marcia Swayze (1985-1993), with whom he has a daughter, Danielle. Since 2014, he has been married to Charlene Swayze.