One of the most important characters in the Terminator franchise is John Connor's time-traveling father Kyle Reese, and here's who's played him. Kyle's most famous line, which has since been appropriated by other characters, is of course "Come with me if you want to live." He says that to Sarah Connor in director James Cameron's original 1984 Terminator film, and to his credit, Kyle keeps his word, although he has to sacrifice his own life along the way. Such are the ways of a true hero.
In the most well-known time paradox present in the Terminator franchise - which has a timeline that threatens to collapse in on itself at points - Kyle ends up being John's biological father, after falling for and sleeping with Sarah during his trip back through time. That's despite the fact that John is the one who sends him back through time to protect Sarah, and it seems clear John knew Kyle was his father, existing in a sort of stable time loop. That's easy enough to understand, but the sequels have muddied the waters around that a bit.
Through the course of the storied Terminator franchise, Kyle Reese has been played by no less than six actors in three movies and one TV show. Here's everyone who's played Kyle so far.
Michael Biehn (The Terminator)
Michael Biehn originated the role of Kyle Reese in the first Terminator movie, and he's still the definitive actor to play the part. Despite Kyle's death at the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger's evil T-800 near the end of the film, Biehn returned to film a brief scene with Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, appearing in a dream sequence that inspires Sarah Connor to keep fighting and not give up. However, this scene was deleted from the theatrical cut of T2, and only appears in the extended special edition version.
Jonathan Jackson & Skyler Gisondo (The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
On FOX's well-reviewed but sadly short-lived TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, actor Jonathan Jackson played the adult version of Kyle Reese. Jackson is best known for playing Lucky Spencer on the soap opera General Hospital, and Avery Barkley on the long-running country music drama Nashville. He appears in four episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. In the season 1 finale, an 8-year-old Kyle is also briefly seen, played by Skyler Gisondo, later a regular on Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet.
Anton Yelchin (Terminator Salvation)
The late Anton Yelchin played a teenage version of Kyle Reese in 2009's Terminator Salvation. Yelchin would of course go on to be best known for playing Chekov in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies, before his tragic death at the age of 27 in 2016. Oddly, Salvation shows that Skynet knows Kyle is destined to be John Connor's father, which makes one wonder why they don't just kill him when he's taken captive partway through the film.
Jai Courtney & Bryant Prince (Terminator Genisys)
Australian actor Jai Courtney plays Kyle Reese as an adult in 2015's Terminator Gensiys, which sought to reboot the franchise by crafting an alternate timeline and retconning the last two Terminator films. Courtney went on to play Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad, and had previously played John McClane's son in A Good Day to Die Hard. Bryant Prince also briefly played Kyle at 12-years-old.