Thomas Reese was born on September 2, 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri. He broke into films in the early 1960's, getting parts like security guards, cops on the beat, and body guard-types. His large frame and serious face made him a natural for such roles, but kept his options narrow and his celebrity low key. In 1967, he won a number of roles that earned him praise including the original Lonesome Gun and the television adaptation of Dick Tracy. However, his roles as small-time guest star on TV shows — mostly westerns — dominated his resume. He played seven different characters on 8 different episodes of TV's Gunsmoke as well as multiple appearances on The High Chaparral, Laredo, The Virginian and The Untouchables.

While the character of Sergeant Velie as the good Inspector's "right-hand man" is a necessary device, he makes it much more than that. He rarely smiles, gives us very few glimpses into the home-life of Velie, but yet still manages to make us feel he's part of our family (sort of the stern big brother type.) The main trait he conveys is that you know you can count on Velie. If the Inspector gives him a task, he'll be there to do it.

His relationship with Ellery is a different matter. He never says so directly, but it's quite obvious he's fond of him and even looks up to him. He refers to Ellery as "Maestro," showing he sees him as a leader in his milleu. And you get the feeling that while Velie plays the obedient son to Richard Queen, it's Ellery he'd prefer to be off sleuthing with. No episode showed his willingness to "play the game" better than in Mad Tea Party. Ellery needed to trick a murderer into confessing (thereby telling where he'd buried the body). What better way to do that than to make the killer think the body wasn't buried at all? To accomplish this, Velie dons a Mad Hatter costume and plays "dead," pretending to be the victim (killed while wearing the same sort of costume.) Now, that's dedication.

There is indeed one time when we get a small look into the Velie off-duty personna. That's in the episode, The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne (the New Year 1947 party where the initial murder takes place). Attending the party is non other than Mrs. Velie, played by veteran actress, Peggy Rea (most recently "Jean Kelley" in Grace Under Fire). There are those that have said that this was our insight into why Velie spends so much dedicated time to work, but I think you can see the bond between the Velies.