A dark-haired actor with an amiable, average appeal that made him instantly familiar to audiences, Skipp Sudduth moved from small town Virginia to Chicago in the mid-1980s in pursuit of a stage acting career. He joined the famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1988, working alongside such actors as John C Reilly and company founder Gary Sinise. When Steppenwolf's production of "The Grapes of Wrath" made it to Broadway, Sudduth relocated to Manhattan, where he was subsequently featured in the short-lived Broadway adaptation of "On the Waterfront" (1995). With TV credits including the movie presentations "Lethal Innocence" (PBS, 1991) "The Secret" (CBS, 1992) and "Daybreak" (HBO, 1993), Sudduth made his feature debut in "Clockers", playing a narcotics officer in Spike Lee's gripping 1995 offering. That same year she was featured in the action thriller "Money Train", and guested in episodes of the New York-lensed TV series "Law & Order" (NBC) and "New York News" (CBS). He could next be seen performing in the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle "Eraser" as well as episodes of the action-packed TV-series "Swift Justice" (UPN) and "Kindred: The Embraced" (Fox). A role in the TNT biopic miniseries "George Wallace" alongside Gary Sinise followed in 1997.
In 1998, Sudduth returned to the stage, playing Fabian in the Broadway revival of "Twelfth Night". That same year he gave a good performance in the disappointing "54", playing the demanding father of Ryan Phillippe's starstruck club employee Shane O'Shea. He was better suited for a turn opposite Robert De Niro in John Frankenheimer's action thriller "Ronin" (also 1998). Here he played Larry, the adept getaway driver member of a group of espionage experts. He returned to the stage in the 1999 revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh", playing Chuck Morello, a bartender planning to marry a prostitute. That same year was featured in "Flawless" with Robert De Niro, playing the security guard pal of the veteran actor's unhappy invalid Walt.
1999 marked the beginning of Sudduth's first television regular role. He starred on the popular NBC series "Third Watch" as John 'Sully' Sullivan, a police officer working the 3 pm to midnight shift. Work-obsessed to a fault and not above stretching the truth, Sully wasn't a perfect police officer, but Sudduth's nuanced portrayal made for a truly human character and some uniquely good television. The actor put his average guy-next-door appeal to good use in "Third Watch", convincingly looking the part of a veteran beat cop and giving the eye candy-heavy series a dose of reality.
A musician as well as an actor, Sudduth is a founding member, lead guitarist and vocalist of the NYC-based rock band Minus Ted, which more recently drafted Kohl Sudduth, his younger brother and a fellow actor, on bass.