'80s crime classics 'found' actor

William Petersen says 'To Live and Die in L.A.' and 'Manhunter' came at seminal time.

- MARK OLSEN

“IT WAS ALMOST like a documentary. It was like we were really doing it,” says William Petersen, left, of 1985’s “To Live and Die in L.A.” with John Pankow.

(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images)

Two of the most stylish crime thrillers of the 1980s, William Friedkin's “To Live and Die in L.A.” and Michael Mann's “Manhunter,” screened over the weekend as part of Beyond Fest and are available to rent or buy on streaming platforms and free on Kanopy.

Actor William Petersen starred in both projects in his first major film roles.

In 1985's “To Live and Die in L.A.,” Petersen plays Richard Chance, a Secret Service agent assigned to investigate a counterfeiting ring in Los Angeles. He finds himself in pursuit of Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), an amoral artist who has turned his talents to forging money. With evocative cinematography by Robby Müller and music by Wang Chung, the film is a propulsive portrait of Los Angeles in the '80s, featuring a thrilling foot chase through LAX and a now-iconic car chase going the wrong way on the Terminal Island Freeway around Long Beach.

For 1986's "Manhunter," Petersen is Will Graham, a former FBI criminal profiler with an uncommon ability to understand the mindset of serial killers. Though retired, Graham is drawn back in by a perplexing new case.

An unsettling, meditative adaption of Thomas Harris' 1981 novel "Red Dragon," the film features Brian Cox in the role of Hannibal Lecktor (enigmatically spelled differently here) a full five years before Anthony Hopkins immortalized Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs." Petersen, 72, got on the phone last week to talk about the experience of making these two movies within the span of one year, launching him into a career that would include a long run on the popular series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

[The following interview contains spoilers.]