Bill Bolender is an American character actor and artist, mainly known for small appearances in RoboCop 2, JFK, Reality Bites, The Shawshank Redemption, Nixon and Dante's Peak.
His guest starring appearances include roles in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.; Walker, Texas Ranger; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (as an Albino alien in the episode "Blood Oath"); NYPD Blue; Alias; Deadwood; and in the Desperate Housewives episode "No One Is Alone". He also had a recurring role as Captain Ross in JAG.
Bolender played a small but important role in The Shawshank Redemption as Elmo Blatch, the violent convict who Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) discovers may actually be to blame for the murders of which he was convicted.[1]
Bolender has continued to work as an actor over the past few decades, appearing in the 2018 Nicolas Cage thriller Looking Glass, and in the recurring role of Dean in the Prime Video crime series Bosch (sharing credits with Shawshank co-star Mark Rolston). He appeared in a 2015 episode of the MTV series Faking It and was also a guest-star on an episode of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender as Sha-Mo.[1][2]
Bolender is also a visual artist, having trained at both the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco School of Fine Arts.[3] Samples of his work can be seen on his website, and on his Instagram.[1]