Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the Major League film trilogy, President David Palmer on the American television series 24, Sergeant Major Jonas Blane in The Unit and series of commercials for Allstate insurance.
Haysbert was born in San Mateo, California, the son of Gladys (née Minor), a homemaker, and Charles Haysbert, Sr., a deputy sheriff. He is the eighth of nine children, having two sisters and six brothers. After high school, measuring 6 feet 4.5 inches (1.94 m) tall, Haysbert was offered various athletic scholarships, but instead chose to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Haysbert is a divorced father of two. He will be one of the first hundred owners of a Tesla Roadster.
Haysbert has been acting in film and television since 1979, starting with a guest role in The White Shadow. His television guest starring roles include Lou Grant, Laverne & Shirley, The A-Team, Dallas, Magnum, P.I., Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Duckman.
On film, Haysbert has appeared in Absolute Power, Random Hearts and Far From Heaven among others. In 1989, Haysbert portrayed Pedro Cerrano, a voodoo-practicing Cuban refugee baseball player in the movie Major League, in which he uttered the memorable line: "Is very bad to steal Jobu's rum; is very bad". In 1992, Haysbert co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field, a film about a series of events occurring contemporaneously with the assassination and funeral of President John F. Kennedy. In 1999, Haysbert starred with Eric Close in Now and Again, which was cancelled after its first season.
In 2001, Haysbert became better known when he was cast in 24 playing U.S. Senator David Palmer, who served as America's first Black President (in the context of the show) during the second and third seasons. He also returned as a guest star in the last six episodes of season 4 and the first episode of season 5. He stated in an interview for the show that the three men he admired most -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Colin Powell -- would collectively embody his idea of what a President should be.
In addition to television and film acting, Haysbert has also done voice work for various video games, most notably as Irving Lambert in Pandora Tomorrow the second installment of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series and narrator of Call of Duty: Finest Hour.
Haysbert is the official spokesman for the Allstate Insurance Company. His commercials typically end with one of two the Allstate Corporation's official slogans, either Are you in good hands? or That's Allstate's stand. More recently however his commercials have combined the two with "That's Allstate's stand. Are you in good hands?". Haysbert also voices the Military Channel's commercials with their official slogan: "The Military Channel -- Go Behind the Lines." He also is the lead character in the CBS action-drama The Unit, portraying Jonas Blane.
On March 4, 2006, Haysbert guest starred on the Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Natalie Portman as the host of a live action/animated TV Funhouse cartoon called Belated Black History Moment where he shows clips of short-lived Saturday morning cartoons from the 1990s featuring African-American characters. He is billed as playing Nelson Mandela in Goodbye Bafana (2007).
14 year old Haysbert had an uncredited & unconfirmed brief sequence in the movie Medium Cool(1969). He is possibly the youth wearing striped shirt who confronts reporter Robert Forster in the house.
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