By 1996, Close was starring in the NBC series "Dark Skies" as the male half of a couple on the run from aliens who pass through the events of the 60s.
Close had been acting on stage in amateur productions since he was in elementary school, then performed on stage in Los Angeles after leaving USC. In 1991, he made his TV debut in an episode of "McGyver" (ABC) and his TV-movie debut playing Suzanne Somers' brother in "Keeping Secrets" (ABC), the story of her alcohol-soaked, dysfunctional family. The next year, Close appeared on two episodes of "Major Dad" while also playing the regular role on "Santa Barbara". In 1995, he appeared in several episodes of "Sisters" (NBC), as a male friend who inspires the daughter of one of the sisters to become a cop. Close has played leads in a couple of TV-movies: he was Jennie Garth's sympathetic brother in "Without Concept" (ABC, 1994) and a serial rapist in "The Stranger Beside Me" (ABC, 1995).
After "Dark Skies" Close was routinely tapped to carry fledgling primetime series, including a 1998 TV version of "The Magnificent Seven" and the quirky, criticaly admired "Now and Again" (CBS, 1999), in which he played a genetically gifted body housing the brain of an every day man (intially played by John Goodman) who finds himself serving as a secret agent. Close hit TV paydirt when he was cast as Martin Fitzgerald on the popular missing persons investigation series "Without a Trace" (CBS, 2002 - ) and scored as the alien visitor John in the SciFi Channel's hit alien abduction miniseries "Taken" (2002).
Close was slower in becoming established in features. He played a small role as a juvenile hall tough in "American Me" (1992), and also appeared in "Safe House", a 1992 American Film Institute production. He'd later appear in the comedy "The Sky Is Falling" (2000) opposite Deedee Pfiefer and the romance "Liberty, Maine" (2001).