Brendan Sexton III

''"You can make this easy or you can get the shit knocked out of you!" ''

- Brendan Sexton III (Tom Nissen) to Hilary Swank (Brandon Teena) in Boys Don't Cry.

Brendan Eugene Sexton III (born February 21, 1980) is an American actor known for his portrayal of Tom Nissen in Boys Don't Cry.

Early Life
Not much is known about Sexton III's early life, except that he was born in Staten Island, New York, on February 21, 1980.

Boys Don't Cry
In 1999, Brendan Sexton III was cast in Kimberly Pierce's biographical romantic drama film Boys Don't Cry, based on the true story of Brandon Teena, a trans man who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska on December 31, 1993. The perpetrators, John Lotter and Tom Nissen, are currently serving time in Tecumseh State Correctional Institution and the Lincoln Correctional Center. Sexton III was cast as Nissen, in a 1999 interview with Index Magazine, he had this to say about Tom's character: "Tom in particular was always thinking about the next steps. He's plotting the whole time. Being a friend of John, he gets a certain social status. Brandon comes into town and John accepts Brandon as a friend. That removes Tom's social status, so he has it out for Brandon in some respects. And then also he feels that Brandon betrays him. So he seeks revenge, but he knows he's not going to get away scott-clean." Unlike Peter Sarsgaard's performance of John Lotter in the film, Sexton III's peformance of Nissen has been described as gritty and unpredictable.