Biography

Robert Kariakin is known for General Hospital (1963), Behind the Mask (2003) and Osama Bin Laden: Behind the Madness (2002).

His first professional acting job led to the arrest of one of the FBI's most wanted men. Rob portrayed the young Thomas Walker, a man convicted for murdering gay men as an adolescent and again as an adult, and who had escaped from prison by faking his own suicide. The FBI thought him so dangerous that, for the first time in the show's history, an entire episode of "America's Most Wanted" was dedicated to catching one man. The move paid off. A man watching in New Mexico recognized Walker from a drug treatment program he had left days before in Las Vegas, and phoned the show. Thanks to the different time zones, it was an hour later in Las Vegas when Walker and his fellow patients sat down to watch the show themselves. Seeing himself on the screen, Walker raced for the only unlocked exit, the roof, and leapt off, crashing into the bushes below just as police cars screeched to a halt in front of him. In the ensuing hours, Walker admitted to reporters that it was a good thing he had been caught, as he almost certainly would have killed again.

Has been directed by five-time Emmy winner James Burrows and three-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan.