Biography

Gerry Griffin was born on December 25, 1934 in Athens, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for Contact (1997), Apollo 18 (2011) and Deep Impact (1998). He is married to Sandy. They have two children.

He formerly worked for NASA, where he was a Flight Director on Apollo 12. Both his film appearances so far (1999) have been as spaceflight groundcrew personnel. He was also lead on Apollo 15 and 17, and served as an FD in Apollo 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 & 16. After Apollo he became Director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

He and his wife, Sandy, reside in Hunt, Texas and have two grown children, Kirk and Gwen.

He was lead flight director in Mission Control for three lunar landings during the Apollo program, and was an integral part of the team that helped the astronauts of Apollo 13 safely return to Earth after their oxygen tank exploded on their journey to the moon. His real-life experience during this near disaster caught the attention of Hollywood, and he was hired as technical advisor on Universal Pictures' blockbuster Apollo 13 (1995).

He has an identical twin brother who was a General in the U.S. Air Force. While service as a Colonel, he was the Wing Commander for the 2nd Space Wing during the 1980s.